Over the years, we have had several remarkable bird sightings at our Jay’s Bird Barn store location. One memorable event was watching a peregrine falcon eating a pigeon while perched on top of the Bank of America Building! Despite being in a very urban setting, we see a good variety of birds.

Interestingly, our store is sandwiched between two cemeteries. Directly behind the store is the Arizona Pioneers Home Cemetery. Across the street from us on the east side of the store is Mountain View Cemetery. As strange as it may sound, cemeteries are good places to see birds!

You may be asking why a cemetery might be a good place for bird watching. The simple answer is habitat. Most cemeteries are in densely populated areas and are surrounded by a sea of businesses and homes. To a bird, cemeteries resemble a little forest. I marvel how wild birds can not only live—but thrive—in urban environments where there is enough native habitat present to provide for their food needs.

While growing up in Tucson, I frequently birded at the Evergreen Cemetery on Oracle Road. This cemetery was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. It was covered with mostly coniferous trees, which, of course, would not occur naturally in Tucson, so it created a welcoming environment to bird species that preferred that habitat, particularly in winter.

With cemeteries situated in front of and behind our store, we see all kinds of birds throughout the year, from great horned owls to American kestrel, western bluebirds, Cassin’s and western kingbirds, spotted towhees, Say’s phoebes, rock wrens, American pipits, zone-tailed hawks, and Swainson’s hawks.

And then there are fly-overs. The parking lot is huge, and on many occasions, I’ve been in the parking lot when an Anna’s or a broad-tailed hummingbird has flown over. I’ve also seen yellow-rumped warblers and lesser goldfinches fly over.

About fifteen years ago, when our son Jay was still living in Prescott and working at the store, he spotted a Bald Eagle as he was driving down Willow Creek Road. He called me on his cell phone and told me to run out the front door of the store and look towards Yavapai Regional Medical Center. I did exactly that and was able to see the Bald Eagle flying in the distance.

On Monday of this week, I was pushing a cartload of bird seed out to a customer’s car when I happened to look up into the sky. Lo and behold, there was a Bald Eagle flying over our parking lot! I ran into the store and excitedly urged an employee and a binocular customer to quickly come outside!

They came outside—Swarovski binoculars in hand—and were able to watch the eagle as it soared in broad lazy circles over the parking lot. The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, was that the customer bought the binoculars!

Ironically, we had a similar experience at the Bird Barn two Saturdays ago. A couple was on the outside porch of the store, checking out Swarovski binoculars, when some ravens started attacking a red-tailed hawk as it flew across the parking lot and directly over our heads. And yes, they purchased the binoculars!

Boy, those birds could be some of my best sales associates if I could just train them to come by each time we’re out front showing binoculars to a customer!

Until next week, Happy Birding!

Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, Arizona Field Optics, and Hallmark in
Prescott, Arizona. 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.

‍