Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, with two locations in northern Arizona — Prescott and Flagstaff. Eric has been an avid birder for over 50 years. If you have questions about wild birds that you would like discussed in future articles, email him at eric@jaysbirdbarn.com.
Bird observations can be a sign of the changing seasons. Depending on what bird species you are seeing in your yard, you can know not only what time of year it is, but potentially even what month it is.
Several months ago, I had numerous conversations with customers about hummingbirds. Back in April, May, and June, one customer after another was lamenting that they didn’t have as many hummingbirds this year as they did last year.
I’ve received several reports of lazuli buntings at seed feeders this week. Lazuli buntings are seen more frequently in the spring as they make their way north during migration.
I was down in Sierra Vista for five days last week attending the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival. Each day, before and after the vendor booth hours, my store manager, Ryan, and I were out birdwatching.
I am in Sierra Vista right now, attending the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival. While attending festivals is a lot of work, it is also kind of a working vacation.
As mentioned in my column last week, this week is the 9th Annual Hummingbird Festival at the Performing Arts Center in Sedona, at the Sedona Red Rock High School. We will be attending as a vendor with a wide assortment of hummingbird products.
Last week I led a store-sponsored bird walk to the Cottonwood Peninsula on the west side of Willow Lake. We had a wonderful bird walk and saw a good variety of birds including a great horned owl, swallows, Bullock’s oriole, summer tanager, and more
As a follow up to last week’s column, we had a wonderful road trip. We spent time in Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado, before returning to Prescott, driving over 3,200 miles.
In 2010, my wife and I drove with our two youngest children to South Dakota so our adoptive daughter could visit her biological mother. As you might imagine, I did quite a bit of birding on that trip.
I have noticed a variety of baby birds in my yard this past week, including white-breasted nuthatch, mountain chickadee, American robin and Gambel’s quail. Based on the size of the babies, I believe we have three distinct quail families visiting our yard.
