A Bevy of Birds, but Still No Grackle

Once again my wife and I were invited to attend the Jack and Denny Smith Bird Walk at Descanso Gardens and, on a recent Sunday morning, we went. The invitation came from Karen Johnson, first vice president of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society and indefatigable leader of the walk.

The Society’s publication, Phainopepla, graciously noted that the walk has been held for several years to honor me for my “unprecedented sighting of a common grackle at the Smith residence on Mt. Washington (the Smiths were the recipients of San Fernando Valley’s Special Award in 1993).”

Though I have never actively sought recognition for my sighting, which has been the object of much skepticism by ornithologists and common birders, it was gratifying to see my coup acknowledged by such a prestigious publication.

It was a beautiful day at Descanso Gardens. The bird walk started at 8 o’clock with about 30 of us in attendance. Johnson welcomed us and introduced my wife and me. For the first time, I went in a wheelchair, with my wife pushing.

As usual, the walk began with numerous sightings. Johnson noted a flock of yellow-rumped warblers. As often happens to me on bird walks, I didn’t see them. Someone also reported seeing a flock of acorn woodpeckers that also escaped my notice. “See them moving frantically from place to place,” Johnson called out. “They’re eating insects.”

I don’t know whether my eyesight is deteriorating or whether I just happened to be looking at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I missed several of the sightings that later turned up on our list. Perhaps I was distracted by looking for another grackle.

“There’s a hummingbird hovering at 12 o’clock,” Johnson said. But I didn’t know whether she meant 12 o’clock high or 12 o’clock low, and I missed it.

Later she identified a “flock of about 200 cedar waxwings.” It was cedar waxwings, my wife reminded me, that used to get drunk off the nectar of a cotoneaster bush near a corner of our house. They used to really get soused and flop around drunkenly. It was delightful. Somehow a drunken bird is not disgusting.

“Whatever happened to them?” I asked my wife.

“We cut down the cotoneaster when we remodeled. To build your office. Remember?”

All things considered, I don’t think the trade was worth it.

We soon came to the pond. For years this has been a refuge for many water birds, including the resident great blue heron. Sure enough Johnson cried out, “There he is! The great blue heron! He’s perching on that branch.”

I looked in vain for the great blue heron, which I had seen in previous years. But I did see a remarkable bird--a long-necked swanlike creature with a red beak. It sailed about majestically.

“That’s the Australian black swan,” Johnson said, and I felt better about having missed the great blue heron.

A moment later Johnson identified another remarkable bird--the green heron, not as big as the great blue heron but greener.

I identified a bird that I thought might be the great blue heron, but Johnson said “It’s not blue, it’s white. It’s a goose.”

Which is what I felt like.

The gardens were lush with greenery. Sycamores, live oaks, pines. A ginkgo spread an umbrella of yellow leaves and laid a carpet of them on the ground.

At one point the trail was rather steep, and I could tell my wife was winded. “Can I help?” said a male voice with a heavy British accent. He was a lean young man with a large walrus mustache. He took the wheelchair and pushed me up the hill. He said he was a Yorkshireman, name of Alan Dunn.

We came finally to the “counting bridge,” which is where we stop to list all the birds we have seen. The birders began calling out the names and Johnson checked them off on a list.

It was a remarkable count. Wood duck, mallard, ring-necked duck, American coot, California gull, mourning dove, white-throated swift, Anna’s hummingbird, Allen’s hummingbird, belted kingfisher, acorn woodpecker, Nutall’s woodpecker, northern flicker, black phoebe, scrub jay, American crow, common raven, plain titmouse, bushtit, Bewick’s wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, hermit thrush, American robin, wrentit, northern mockingbird, California thrasher, cedar waxwing.

I wonder why there were so many birds on the list that I didn’t see. As I said, maybe it was because I was concentrating so hard on the grackle. I wonder also whether I might hope that in time the bird would come to be known’s as Smith’s grackle. It makes as much sense as Anna’s hummingbird and Nutall’s woodpecker.

After all “common” grackle is much too common for a bird that scarce.