Scary Sparrows

Well, you’d be pretty intimidating, too, if you had yellow irides!

Friday afternoon’s trip to Pinery Canyon in the Chiricahuas was as quiet as it was scenic. A few Western Bluebirds drank from the snow puddles, and a lone White-breasted Nuthatch crept silent along the pine branches. Unseen Mexican Jays clanged overhead, and that was about it for birds: I’m always hoping for a goshawk or a flock of type-six crossbills, but wonderful as the winter Chiris are, they’re not always birdful.

One bird you can always count on, though, is Yellow-eyed Junco, that maniacal shuffler through the grass and leaf litter.

As usual, only the high-pitched, nearly inaudible contact calls gave the birds away; not for them the noisy panicked tail-flashing of their brown-eyed cousins! Instead, Yellow-eyed Juncos tend to creep up onto a low perch to watch their watcher, then slink back down into the grass and disappear.

I’ll miss ‘em in Vancouver!