In the morning, December 19, when I got up it was already
past sunrise. I picked up breakfast to
go at about 9:00 am on my way to Old Walnut Canyon Road. Fortunately for me, Richard Fray posted to
Arizona Birds and gave more information about where his group had found Pinyon
Jays on Old Walnut Canyon Road. He found
eight Pinyon Jays about a mile southeast of the ponds. I found my way to Old Walnut Canyon Road
rather easily with Google Maps, and it was not very far from where I picked up
breakfast. The road was paved as it went
through a development and the ponds were not very far. The road turned to dirt/gravel after the
ponds, but at least the road had winter maintenance. There were houses and small ranches on the
right side (south) back off the road with a hill sloping down to the road with
ponderosa pines on the north side. I
stopped at the one mile point and birded for about 20 minutes without any
success. I did not find any Pinyon
Jays. There were no Pinyon Pines visible
to me in this area, and I surmised that the Pinyon Jays may have been fly-bys. I drove slowly about another mile down the
road until winter maintenance ended, turned around and parked. I started walking along the road looking for
birds. At first, I got excited by seeing
jays, but they were all Steller’s Jays.
Then I noticed a man exiting a gated driveway down the road, and he
appeared to be talking a walk. I
continued to walk in his direction, and when we met, he politely asked what I
was doing. I told him my story, which I
had repeated many time this past year. I
introduced myself, told him I was from Cincinnati, Ohio, had retired from
Procter and Gamble and was doing a Big Year trying to identify as many birds as
possible within this calendar year. Then
it got really interesting. He was
originally from southern Kentucky, his family lived in northern Kentucky across
the Ohio river from Cincinnati for a while before moving to Flagstaff,
Arizona. He knew areas of Cincinnati
that I mentioned. His name was J as in
the southern practice of naming boys J Robert, etc. He knew about Pinyon Jays and stated that
they were a bit of a nuisance. A large
flock came to their feeders early in the morning, scared all the other birds
away, gobbled up a lot if not all the food, and then did it again late
afternoon or evening. The Pinyon Jays
had already been to their feeders earlier that morning. He had taken a retirement package some years
back, started a paint supply business, but has retired from that to restoring Aston
Martin cars. His wife was the birder in
the family. As we were talking, I would
glance at a jay flying by and look at it through binoculars, but he would tell
me, “That’s not a Pinyon Jay. It’s
flying like a Steller’s Jay.” When I
asked him how he knew, he described the swooping flight with a lot of sailing
of the Steller’s Jay and the very direct flight of the Pinyon Jay. When I told him that this was the one bird I
was looking for today and would stay in the area, he suggested that we exchange
cell phone numbers, which we did. If the Pinyon Jays returned during the day,
which they might do, he would call me.
When I asked him if he knew where they went after they left the feeders,
he told me that they fly north across the road from his house up the hill and
apparently spend time on the mesa. He
gave me directions to the spot up the road toward the entry to get on the
trails for the mesa. If I did not see
Pinyon Jays during the day, I could come back and see them come to the feeders
in the late afternoon or early evening.
We parted ways. How lucky can I
get? This seemed like my best chance to
see Pinyon Jays, which can be difficult to find at times. They travel around in flocks in the winter
and do not necessarily stay in one place.
I drove back toward the entry of Old Walnut Canyon Road and
found the parking lot to the entrance to the trails for the Campbell Mesa on
the north side of the road. I found a
PDF version of a trail map on the internet and downloaded it to my Droid Razr
in order to have a trail map with me just in case I got lost. I bundled up and started hiking the west
loop. I found Pygmy Nuthatch, Northern
(Red-shafted) Flicker, Acorn Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco and Red-tailed Hawk but
no Pinyon Jays. I hiked for about an
hour, stopping to bird on the way. I
hiked almost a mile mostly on a thin layer of snow and slippery mud at
times. However, I noticed that there
were no Pinyon Pines and only a few juniper trees with no berries. Both of these trees provide food for Pinyon
Jay, particularly Pinyon Pines. It seemed
unlikely that I would find the Pinyon Jays here, and it was getting close to
noon. I decided to quit hiking the mesa,
returned to my car and took one last drive down the road again before heading
out to get some lunch. Not far from J’s
house, I was out of the car scanning and happened to look up and see an adult
Bald Eagle fly over. J had told me about
a Bald Eagle in the area, and Richard Fray had reported two near the ponds. There was also a continuing Red-tailed Hawk
in the area that I had seen earlier. Then,
I headed back toward Flagstaff to get some lunch. While I was picking up my grilled chicken salad for lunch, J called me. His wife was putting out more seed and water to attract the Pinyon Jays. I was welcome to come to their house and park in the driveway to watch for the Pinyon Jays. He would prop open the gate. I said I would be there in about a half hour.
I arrived at about 2:00 pm and pulled into the driveway to
park near where J’s wife had spread seed on the driveway and where I had a
clear view of the feeders. Steller’s Jays had already found the bounty as well as
Dark-eyed Juncos (Gray-headed and Oregon races). See photos.
 |
| Steller's Jay |
 |
| Steller's Jays white on forehead and above eye indicates southern Rockies race |
 |
| Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed) |
 |
| Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) |
At 3:45 to 4:00 pm, I saw a flock of jay-sized birds with very direct flight fly out of the woods to the south behind the house. It was the Pinyon Jays! A flock of 30 to 40 birds came in landing in the apple tree and on the driveway, scattering the Steller’s Jays and juncos. I started taking photos. See below.
 |
| Pinyon Jays Arrive with a flurry |
 |
| Pinyon Jays Taking over the feeders |
 |
| Pinyon Jays Dominating the spread seed |
The Pinyon Jay show did not last very long just as J had
told me. They were near the feeders for
at most twenty minutes. After my last
photo at about 4:20 pm, I walked over to J’s shop to thank him, tell him of my
success and see his autos. When J asked
me if I was successful, I showed him my photos, and his response was ‘Well, I guess
so!” I thanked him for his help. His son was there and also stated that the
Pinyon Jays were a nuisance. J showed me
his cars, which he restored as a hobby.
However, he had decided to sell a station wagon model with wood trim on
the outside to a man in Connecticut. Soon,
it was time to leave. I was planning to
drive to Albuquerque to try for rosy-finches in the morning. J cautioned me about snow headed to Flagstaff
and suggested that I might want to stop halfway for a motel if I got tired. I had noticed the cloud cover moving in after
a very clear morning and early afternoon and had checked the local weather. I
thanked him again for everything and was on my way toward NM, leaving the
Flagstaff area at about 4:50 pm, after buying gas, some food and hot chocolate. I easily outdistanced the approaching snow
and arrived in Albuquerque, NM before 10 pm.
I checked into a motel and got something to eat. Tomorrow, December 20, I will go to Sandia
Crest to try to see Black and Brown-capped Rosy-Finches. In addition, there have been large flocks of
Chestnut-collared Longspurs reported in some grassland about one hour south of
Albuquerque. I am hoping that I will have better luck finding
Chestnut-collared Longspurs further north than in southeast Arizona due to the
relatively mild winter conditions so far.
Pinyon Jay raises the total to 724 plus three provisional, White-cheeked
Pintail, Common Redstart and Eurasian Sparrowhawk as of December 19. (See the final total for the year, 733 + 2
provisionals, reported on January 3, 2014.) 
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