Birds, birds, birds. They are all about now. I know it’s fall when I open the back door and birds scatter from the ground across the yard, and when Lesser Goldfinches sway back and forth on tall sunflower stalks, gathering their seeds.
I got John Coons, international bird expert and former fellow NAU graduate student, to walk my neighborhood the other day and he pointed out some resident birds, as well as migrants that happened to be visiting our pine forests while on their way to points south. Local birds included Pygmy Nuthatches, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Acorn Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, Pine Siskins, Dark-eyed Juncos, Western Bluebirds, White-breasted Nuthatches, Steller’s Jays, Brown Creepers, and the Northern Flicker.
Migrants or possible migrants included Yellow-rumped Warblers, which Coons says hail the winding down of the migration season. Like many birds, they may migrate from as far north as the Arctic to deep into Mexico, and also be more localized short-range migrants where conditions permit. Other probable migrants on our walk included Chipping Sparrows and Hammond’s Flycatchers, with the latter probably having bred in Montana or Wyoming and heading south for the winter…sigh.
According to Coons, this has been a really good year for seeing migrating shorebirds, including Sanderling Snowy Plovers, Black-bellied Plovers, Red Phalaropes, Pectoral Sandpipers and Stilt Sandpipers. While they are regular migrants, Black-necked Stilts were incredibly abundant this year, with more than 700 counted at Ashurst Lake, according to Coons. Other good viewing sites include Mormon Lake and Walnut Canyon Road lakes. He and other local birders expect to be seeing migrants for a while yet.
In late summer, Daily Sun photographer Jake Bacon took in an injured young or female Western Tanager. There were a ton of Western Tanagers in my plum hedge, mopping up the final fruits from a not very good growing season. The females and juvenile tanagers are kind of a flat yellow green, with bars on their wings, much more low-key than the colorful breeding males. The adorable little Lesser Goldfinches and Pine Siskins are going to town on a sack of nyger thistle seed in the back yard. Pine Siskins, geeky young robins, Western Bluebirds, Lesser Goldfinches, a few Juncos…the odd Steller’s Jay…whereby everyone scatters. Jockeying for position, up and down the stack. They’re kind of like hummingbirds…seemingly wasting time on conflict rather than getting on with things. Hmm, what other species….
And then there is the crowd at the bird bath, lined up to take their tiny little sips of water and then jump in and clean up a bit. You can see them take a sip of water, beak tilted up as it slowly trickles down their parched throats. You can feel that it is fabulous. A robin is sitting across from a Lesser Goldfinch, they don’t care. Those waiting sit on nearby oak and pine branches. What is it about birds taking a bath that is so touching? I suppose it’s partly the trust thing, making their bathing moment both safe and nice. But it’s also just endearing and fascinating to watch animals doing their thing.
And I discovered a culprit: I had assumed a little ground squirrel was responsible for a lot of digging in the garden and yard. But no, I busted a Northern Flicker digging lots of holes in my little garden! I knew they were diggers, with that beak and all; I know that they dig for ants. These guys were digging for other subterranean insects. Actually, it turns out that the ground squirrel and the flicker are both digging up the garden, just taking turns, a bird and a mammal working the same terrain in the yard.
Even hummingbirds are here, and fighting over territory. I guess they are being territorial over the water, as there aren’t many flowers left in this dry summer. For laughs, I set out part of an organic watermelon, wondering if they would all bolt for that…nighttime visitors took care of it. It must be incredibly stressful for all the plants and animals now.
Someone asked me about snakes in the area, saying that she’s been seeing more of them over the last few years -- more gopher snakes and more garter snakes. I can say the same. A few years ago I saw a big gopher snake along Fatman’s Loop in March!
But these days, I am seeing more garter snakes, with some appearing quite large, in the woods around my house and at Buffalo Park. Somebody wrote that she had seen a garter snake up near the top of Humphreys the other day! A friend sent me a picture of a really unusual skink-like Madrean alligator lizard she saw south of Williams, a species of the Mogollon Rim.
Grasses are pretty happy. There is a fair amount of blue grama grass blooming now. The monsoon-dependent dayflower had a small showing this year, despite little rain. It’s kind of even more poignant when they come up above ground with the promise of rain, and then bam! Not much. Surely this has happened here and there over millions of years.
Up near Grand Canyon, Colorado pinyon managed to produce a big cone crop this year. It’s kind of amazing, considering how many are dying. Their little cones were covered with the stickiest resin. Their cones were open, mostly still on the tree, bracts opening and pinyon nuts lying in each, in little grooves. This is their offering to an array of birds, including jays and Clark’s Nutcrackers, that are really good at harvesting their big fat seeds and dispersing them! I harvested a few and they were great. The dark-shelled nuts were delicious, while light-colored shells were empty, as seeds had been aborted.
Navajos were harvesting pinyon nuts on the roadside along the Canyon’s south rim, on the road to Desert View, where the pinyons are particularly abundant and healthy. I talked with a collector who brought her young daughter along to collect for the first time.
The tarantulas were out today. Looking back through former columns, tarantulas are always on the move in the fall, with males breaking their solitude and getting out there in search of females. I guess the males die shortly after mating, either by being devoured by the females or just plain old age. There are 30 species of tarantulas in Arizona, with females often living more than 20 years.
Heading into a dry winter, and a momentous time for this country, here’s hoping for lots of water and peace.
Gwendolyn Waring is a writer, ecologist, artist and mother based in Flagstaff AZ. Her book on the natural history of the San Francisco Peaks is available locally at Bright Side Books, Aspen Sports, Babbitt’s Outfitters, Zani’s, MNA and Jay’s Bird Barn. For out-of-towners, visit SanFranciscoPeaksNaturalHistory.com.
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