A Satruday Birding Mystery

Then sun has changed its angle over the past month and it is finally slanting under our northeast facing covered patio. It’s warm enough to eat breakfast outside for the first time in two months. The last time I can remember eating out here was the morning after Thanksgiving. Now we sit once again in the light caress of sunshine with hummingbirds buzzing the nectar and finches, mourning doves, and Gila woodpeckers visiting feeders and suet. As long as we don’t move fast the birds don’t mind our presence.


We decide to try the Tucson Botanical Garden for a visit today, so we set out around noontime. It proved to be a bad choice as the good weather has brought out all manner of tourist and residents. The garden is very busy and we see few birds, except for this beautiful broad-billed hummingbird that Gus was able to get a shot of before more people came walking by and scared it off.

We decided to try Reid Park instead. Gus has never been there and I am hoping he will get to see and photograph the Lewis’s woodpecker. We decide to make a picnic of it and stop on the way to pick up subs and drinks. The park is more crowded than the last time I was here. Under one of the pavilions someone has a birthday party set up complete with one of those inflatable jumping contraptions in the shape of a princess’s castle. The abundance of people and pets has affected the birding. I don’t see many birds at all at first, other than the long-tailed grackles that whistle and call from the trees. I’m especially surprised the house sparrows aren’t around, as they came and started begging as soon as I sat down at a picnic table last time I was here. After awhile the female Vermilion flycatcher shows up, and soon after her we see the male.

As we are finishing our lunch I hear a strange call and see a dark shape like a flying cape dart into the trees to the west of us.
We walk over cautiously looking up. I swear they will have to bury me with my neck folded backwards for if I keep this up it will have a permanent kink! I scan the pines for bird life but the trees are strangely empty. Last time these trees were full of warblers and ruby-crowned kinglets. Now, silence. Is this caused by the presence of so many people and dogs? I do finally spot a few juncos and house finches farther away on a little knoll, and then we see the phantom clinging to the north side of one of the palm trees. He stays in the shadows but Gus is able to get closer than I did and capture these amazing pictures.

I spot some movement in the upper branches of one of the pines. This would not be so unusual, but this bird is moving like a nuthatch.

It is! And a red-breasted one at that! While I would see them all the time in the woods of Maine, it is much rarer to see them here. I so enjoy these busy little birds with their habit of walking upside down on the tree trunk.

We start the walk back to our car. We’ve been here almost 2 hours. I am still gazing upward into the tree branches when I see this particular fluffy projection on a branch. A quick view with my binocs reveals a Cooper’s hawk perched in the upper reaches of the tree. Now that it's been discovered, it takes wing. Now I know why I haven’t seen any warblers or sparrows. They’ve all fled for their lives! Mystery solved.