My World is a World of Wonder

Gambel's Quail 2-16-09 Corona de Tucson by Kathiesbirds

My World is a world of wonder. A world where birds greet me with merry chirps in the morning and sweet twitterings drift through my open window letting me know that I am alive and life is good. I smile to see the quail at the seed block, jockeying for position in their own version of King of the Mountain.

My World is a world of color where red Cardinals...

...and yellow Lesser Goldfinches come to the feeders,

...and where pink apple blossoms open with the promise of spring.

In My World of Wonder a Red-tailed hawk soars over the Santa Rita Mountains scooping my spirit up in its wings and carrying it high into the steel blue sky.

In My World of Wonder the amazing thing is when wonder creeps up on you unexpectedly, like it did on Saturday in Rio Rico where Gus and I scoured the countryside counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. On the slopes of the San Cayentano Mountains, at a place we call Hawk Hill, the only birds we counted were two ravens and a Red-tailed Hawk. Every time we come here it seems there is one sitting on the utility pole, which is why I call this place Hawk Hill. It is late in the day as we arrive and we watch as the shadows deepen and fall across the valley only to swallow the hillside in darkness around us. We drive into town for a restroom break, and then, we return to watch the city lights from the mountainside as darkness descends.

As we drive up the dirt road in twilight our headlights illuminate the gravel road before us. I am still looking out the windows for birds when I see a thick shape at the top of a utility pole. I tell Gus to stop the car, because I think there is a Great Horned Owl up there, but at first he doesn’t believe me. He thinks it is the hawk. He stops the car so I can look through the binoculars at the large mass of feathers perched above us. Its thick head and neck with ear tufts reveals it to be just what I thought it was, a Great-horned Owl. I pass the binoculars to Gus so he can have a look, and as we are both watching through the windshield of the car the owl raises her hind end as if to vent when suddenly like a ghost another owl appears out of the dusk. Its wings form a massive canopy over the female as he lands on top of her fluttering. I think he is trying to get a foothold on the same pole as her before it dawns on me that I am witnessing the mating of two Great Horned owls! It is all over in less than 20 seconds and he is gone like the wind in the night. The female lowers her rump to the pole and assumes her upright perched position again. Gus and I sit there in wonder as we realize what we have just seen.

Though we try to get a photo of the owl on the pole, by now the darkness has deepened and she is too high up for even the flash to register her shape. We put the car in gear and continue up the mountainside to our favorite lookout spot. High on the side of the mountain the Rio Rico valley sparkles below us. We can see the lights all the way to Nogales and I must say the city lights have never twinkled so brightly. No wonder those owls had romance on their minds!

On Sunday I count birds in Corona de Tucson. I count birds at the schoolyard where I find a flock of Lark sparrows and one sweet-faced bird hops up for a look. Across the street I hear Killdeer call and then watch in awe as four white-bellied birds fly overhead, but it is the memory of the owls that lingers in my mind. So, I drive up the road to a steep dirt bank where I find another Great Horned Owl in a little cave.

Last year she nested here and raised a brood of 4 little owlets. Can she be sitting on eggs again already? What a Wonder that would be! I will check back on her again in a week or two, but as I drive away I am recalling the events of the night before and the wonder I felt as the phantom of the night flew in on silent wings to woo his mate.

GBBC Update: All of today's photos we taken during the GBBC and were birds that I counted and submitted on checklists. I missed counting most of Friday due to Doctor's appointments and other errands, but I counted Birds all day long on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. In the end I submitted 1 checklist for Tucson, 1 for Sahuarita, 8 for Rio Rico and 18 for Corona de Tucson. Last I checked I had submitted the only count of a Fox Sparrow in the whole state which I found scratching in the leaves under a tree near the Rio Rico ponds. I didn't get a photo because Gus had the camera and was photographing the ducks in the pond. It was a red variety and the first Fox sparrow I have seen in Arizona so it went on my Arizona Life list!