Perspective

Saturday in late July, and the southeast Arizona hotspots are full of birders, a few locals, but mostly out-of-town, out-of-state, out-of-country visitors enjoying the avian wonders of this birding mecca.

After a failed vigil for the Garden Canyon Aztec Thrush, Darlene and I headed back west to Patagonia. After lunch at the famous picnic table, we wandered up and down the roadside rest area, hoping for a glimpse of the White-eyed Vireo that a fortunate few have seen there over the last three days. Three birders approach, and simultaneously we ask them whether they’ve heard the vireo, they ask us whether we’ve seen Thick-billed Kingbird. “No,” they answer, “that’s a backyard bird for us!” “Yes,” we answer, “there’s one right above the picnic table.”

It all depends on your point of view. I’m just plain spoiled, to be disappointed by Thick-billed Kingbird, a species rarer in the US by probably five orders of magnitude than White-eyed Vireo. Still, wish that vireo had showed up….