Winter Birds in Sycamore Canyon

Bewick's Wren climbs the block wall searching for insects 12-5-09

Ever since discovering Sycamore Canyon almost 3 years ago I have been counting birds. Even before we moved in I started my Sycamore Canyon Bird List, which you can see in the side bar. Since that time I have kept constant track of all the bird species seen in this area. In 2 1/2 years I have seen 90 species of birds right here in Sycamore Canyon. Many of them I have seen right from my own yard! Our yard was nothing but bare dirt in the back while small scrubby trees and bushes grew in the front. In less than a month after we moved in we bought and planted a native velvet mesquite tree in the backyard. By the following spring we added a Desert Museum Palo Verde and a patio with sitting walls. This year we added more plants and an irrigation system to the backyard. Meanwhile, the front yard trees have grown taller, the bushes have filled out, and the manmade wash beside my house has filled in with pioneering species like creosote bush and brittle bush. And, as mine and other neighbor's landscaping matures I have recently noticed an increase in the bird population in my yard!

A verdin at my window hummingbird feeder 12-5-09

Suddenly I am getting Bewick's Wrens and verdins. The verdins even come to my nectar feeders, something I have never observed before, but I have this sweet pair hanging out in my yard on an almost daily basis. While typically insect eaters, I guess these little gray birds know a sweet thing when they find it! I have no complaints. I love their merry chatter and cute little faces. Though hardly much bigger than the hummingbirds, they are quite gregarious. Still, the hummingbirds have no trouble taunting them or chasing them away. With cactus wrens and Gila woodpeckers all vying for nectar, it is all out war in my backyard right now!

Here is a list of MY 2009 December Yard Birds:

1. Gambel's Quail
2. Sharp-shinned hawk
3. Cooper's hawk
4. White-winged dove
5. Mourning dove
6. Greater Roadrunner
7. Anna's Hummingbird
8. Costa's Hummingbird
9. Gila woodpecker
10. Gilded Flicker
11. Say's Phoebe
12. Loggerhead shrike
13. Common raven
14. Verdin
15. Cactus Wren
16. Bewick's Wren
17. Rock Wren
18. Curve-billed thrasher
19. Canyon towhee
20. Black-throated sparrow
21. White-crowned sparrow
22. Northern Cardinal
23. Pyrrhuloxia
24. House finch
25. Lesser-goldfinch
26. House sparrow

Have a Very Birdy Christmas!

and that's...

MY Christmas World Tuesday

Winter Birds at Rio Rico Pond

Abert's Towhee at the Rio Rico Pond 12-12-09

After stopping at the flooded fields to count birds we drove the short distance over the train tracks to the Rio Rico Pond. Before I even got out of the car I could see ducks peppering the pond surface. As usual, as soon as I opened the car door they all paddled off to the south end of the pond but I could still see them and count them. And while I was standing on the outside of the barbed wire fence this Abert's towhee flew right over next to me and the tree I was trying to hide behind! The Abert's towhee is distinguished by that bit of a black mask around its eyes and bill. They are usually spotted in the vicinity of water. Though I have seen them numerous times in Sabino Canyon, I have never seen on in Sycamore Canyon where I live and this is my first time seeing one in Rio Rico or Santa Cruz County!

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret @ Rio Rico Pond 12-12-09

Location: Rio Rico Pond
Observation date: 12/12/09
Notes: Watched from behind the fence. Gus stayed in car.
Number of species: 15

*birds new to my Santa Cruz County Life List

Gadwall 16
American Wigeon 2
Mallard 20
Northern Pintail 4
Green-winged Teal 2
*Canvasback 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
American Coot 1
Killdeer 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
*Abert's Towhee 1
Song Sparrow 1
Eastern Meadowlark (Lilian's) 6

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Canvasbacks on Rio Rico Pond 12-12-09

Ocotillo Rhythms

Ocotillos live according to their own rhythms. The tiny leaves emerge and drop according to the rainfall instead of as a seasonal change in light. When I first arrived here in Tucson their branches were bare and cruel looking with inch long thorns radiating up their entire length. But then the spring rains came. What once looked dead burst forth in green, the ends topped in flaming candles of orange. The cruel thorns were now hidden beneath a lush growth of leaves. Across the desert giant ocotillo bouquets dotted the landscape. Then the rhythm changed.

Like the beating of a heart or a wave upon the shore the desert dances to ocotillo rhythms. The rains dry up and the heat intensifies. Caliche mud bakes in the scorching sunlight. Saguaros shrink in diameter as the plants use up water stored in their accordion pleated trunks. The mouse-ear leaves of the ocotillo fall to the earth exposing naked branches to the sky. As gray thorns claw skies of blue the desert moves into dry summer until the seasonal shift in wind that marks the beginning of monsoon.

Monsoon storms pound down in fury on the desert. Dry soil drinks the precious liquid up until it runs in streams and raging rivers down formally dry washes. With monsoon rains saguaros bloat, insects flourish, grasses sprout and ocotillos burst into verdant dress again.

Autumn has arrived in the desert. The grasses that greened up with the monsoon have now turned to a buffy brown. While the mesquite is still green, the ocotillos have turned golden. They drop their tiny leaves like golden coins upon the ground. Once again their stems rise bare and gray against the azure sky.

What will a winter ocotillo look like?
Will it scrape the sky with barren branches once again?
Will snow fall and soften their spiky silhouettes?
Will there be winter leaves on ocotillos?
I will have to wait to see
what ocotillo rhythms mean to me.