I just heard a commotion in front of my office window – sounded like a small boy angrily kicking leaves around – and when I opened the shades to peek, it was a energetic bird with an incongruously long bill literally thrashing his bill about in the leaves. Looked like this:
I think this is the bird who hunts for lizards and subsequently spears them on the spikes of the yuccas to save them for later. So if you ever see a limp lizard body speared on a plant spike, don’t think The Hills Have Eyes (the 1977 version directed by Wes Craven was filmed in Joshua Tree), think curve-billed thrasher.