Yucca elata is definitely a common semi-desert plant, so it would be more abundant above the low desert proper (Phoenix area). I think all the trunked yuccas in the US southwest generally keep their old leaves, but Y. elata is further distinguished by it's especially tall seed stalks and thin straight leaves edged by white peeling fibers. Other trunked yuccas have much thicker leaves and shorter flowering stalks. If you were wondering, Y. elata, also called soaptree yucca, is the state flower of New Mexico, and here is found mostly in semi-desert grasslands throughout the southern two thirds of the state. It is extremely cold hardy, having naturalized as far north as Denver. It also grows well from seed, and a large old specimen with multiple flowering stalks in bloom is a fantastic sight indeed!

These guys have a pretty extensive range, though perhaps they're more common in southern tier states (they're certainly abundant in SE AZ). Hopefully it will stick around for you; they're amazing songsters. -O- Here is a link that might be useful: cornell mockingbird page

Whitelacey.......this is so funny! I looked out my kitchen window, and on the ground under my suet feeder was a bird that looked just like what you described. Very black head and back with white stripes on the wings, and very white chest and abdomen. Of course, just as I turned to get my camera, it flew off. I should have stayed and observed more instead! As it flew off, it had pretty obvious white wing stripes. My first inclination was a juvenile male towhee.....since we have lots of towhees around. I saw no brown. I'll keep my eye out and my camera close-by........but I immediately thought of you and wondered if, now, I will be driven crazy too. hahaha What caught my eye as it was flying up to a tree was the white on it's wings, which made me think of a red-headed woodpecker. I looked up juvenile redheaded woodpecker and some of the pics looked like it, except mostly in the pics, their heads were grayish. Oh well.....hopefully I'll see it again!

Its a duck, a green wing teal I believe. Birds have a number of predators, small and medium mammals, other birds, reptiles. Could be a hawk or owl, or a cat or fox or raccoon. Squirrels even will raid nests I believe.