We're blushing!

Joe and Karen's Arizona Adventure:
February 20
February 21

Halloween memories

I promised to post a few photos from this year's Halloween celebration in Bisbee, and here they are.

It was quite a party. Brewery Gulch was the place to be, with a street dance benefit for a local charity in front of the Copper Queen Hotel, raucous festivities at St. Elmo's and the Stock Exchange Bar, and bizarre apparitions crowding the sidewalks.

Tom's costume got a few puzzled reactions, but most of the locals caught on right away ("Look at the horny toad!"). There were lots of compliments, particularly on his hand-crafted mask, but the best reaction of the night was from a woman who had done research on Flat-tailed Horned Lizards in California.The immobility of a mask is a challenge to character development, so I spiced things up with crouching posture, slinking walk, exaggerated head and hand movements, and eerie silence calculated to weird people out. The reactions were an interesting mix. Men seemed particularly uncomfortable with not knowing the gender of the person inside the costume, but a couple of women were thoroughly charmed by the froggie (a tipsy nerd girl even planted a smooch on my big green snout). The most disturbing comment was from a twenty-something guy who shouted, "Hey! What are you? I've never seen you in no movie!" I just gave my head a quizzical twist and gestured cryptically with my long red sleeves before slinking on up the street.

Late in the evening we ran into friends Liz and Jim. Liz made a great "Thriller" zombie, so it was a pity that the only Michael Jackson the street dance DJ played was "Billie Jean." Jim always manages to come up with a really creepy concept; this year his all-black ensemble with long coat. bowler hat, and face-concealing veil accented with a bone-pale sinuous walking stick brought to mind both Rene Magritte and the shadowy back streets of New Orleans.


The flip side of Jim's persona, hidden beneath a white lace-trimmed shroud, was leading the drum circle at Goar Park; Tom joined in on pickle bucket.


Next year, time and finances permitting, I promise that we'll do new costumes, maybe back to birds. Suggestions, anyone?

Happy Halloween!

Woo hoo! It's Bisbee's favorite holiday, when it's hard to tell who's in costume and who's just wearing their street clothes.

We missed celebrating Halloween last year because I was in Cape May, but we're going out tonight in a couple of our favorite costumes (right): The Horned Lizard King and Ambassador Krkktt. This photo is from these characters' inaugural year, 2001; I'll try to get a back photo of Tom's costume tonight to post as an addendum, because it rocks.

We each made our own mask in a workshop put on by a local art gallery. First we formed the basic shape in earthen clay then covered the form with plastic wrap and applied layer upon layer of cotton batting soaked in watered-down glue. After several days of drying, we painted them and added additional touches (dimensional fabric paint works great).

It's been several years since we've been that inspired, but on past Halloweens Tom's been the World's Largest Montezuma Quail (left), a Great Gray Owl, a Javelina, a gorilla tourist in Bermuda shorts and bucket hat, a musical spider (he played The Ballad of Spider John by Willis Allan Ramsey at the now defunct Quarter Moon Coffeehouse), and Tim the Enchanter (he won a costume contest with that one).

I've been a Druid priestess, green elf, and Mother Earth, but the last few years I've been bouncing back and forth between the frog alien pictured above and a Dia de los Muertos catrina, with skull makeup and a big black hat wreathed in red roses (very Dead). One year, a guy came up to me in the Stock Exchange Bar and said, "Your makeup's really realistic and I should know...I've seen a lot of skulls." (Uh, thank you kind sir?) In keeping with my costume, I abandoned my usual karaoke alter ego, Roberta Shrub, for "Güera Calavera" (roughly, "Blondie Skull").

So we're recycling costumes again this year, but maybe the spectacle of our Bisbee neighbors all decked out in their wonderfully creative finery will get us charged up for next Halloween.

Higher Moth

Bisbee has become famous (notorious?) for its counterculture New Year's celebrations (think Buffalo Bill's Wild West meets Burning Man), and 2008 was one of the best yet as pyrotechnic performance troupe Flam Chen wowed the crowds with some advanced moth-matics.

For Tom and me, the festivities began at the home of friends Aaron and Megan about 40 miles away in Sierra Vista, where time slipped away so fast that we didn't make it to Old Bisbee until just before midnight. The historic district was jammed with revelers, but we lucked out to find a recently vacated parking space a few blocks from the celebration. As we dashed up stairs and down alleys, we could see a cluster of huge white orbs rising over City Park and hear the joyful noise of the crowd backed by a primitive pulsing beat.

We arrived just after the stroke of midnight to a phantasmagorical vision: Floating above the park was a performer in a Luna Moth costume, bouyed into the night sky by helium-filled balloons. From her mask two brilliant blue eyes glowed, and tiny matching lights flickered along the curve of her wings. On the stage below, stilt walkers also dressed as moths (with ostrich-feather antennae) waved flare-tipped staffs and twirled flaming pots on chains, drawing ecstatic shrieks from the crowd. Words don't do justice to this other-worldly spectacle, but you can get a taste of the experience from this video shot and edited by Tom and posted to YouTube for your enjoyment:


What we didn't know until reading this morning's paper is that this was a pro bono performance. Flam Chen's fee for a slightly more elaborate "typical" show would have been $20,000, but they performed free of charge because troupe leaders Nadia (who portrayed the moth) and Paul Weir have enjoyed past New Year's celebrations in Bisbee. Costs were defrayed by a grant acquired by the Bisbee Arts Commission that financed the finale balloons and the helium that floated them.

So thanks, Flam Chen, for helping our little town ring in 2008 in wildly psychedelic style. We'll be counting the 365 days until Bisbee welcomes you back!

Approval for Disapproving Rabbits

Our blogger buddy BirdChick's disapproving rabbits were touted in the "Weird Web" section of the latest Earthlink eLink newsletter! Maybe a few nonbirders that come for the bunnies will stay for the birdies.

Here, in honor of this new level of acclaim, is a disapproving lagomorph we encountered at a private home in southwestern Colombia, where we were teaching the field portion of a hummingbird banding workshop.

Kids say the darndest things

There were quite a few young 'uns at yesterday's hummingbird banding session, especially for a Friday. Two boys, the younger barely chest-high to the table and the older not much bigger, were peppering scribe Phyllis and me with questions. As I pulled a female Black-chinned out of a bag, I told them in a kind but firm way that we needed to concentrate on this bird now so that we would get her on her way back to her nest, and so we couldn't answer any questions for a little while. There was a moment of thoughtful silence from that corner of the table, followed by that classic query of the extremely young, "Why?" Phyllis and I kept right on working. A couple more "whys" from both boys, also ignored. Then, just to show that these were not just random "whys," the older one asked, "Why can't you answer any questions?" It was beginning to sound like a Bush administration press conference. --SW

Back to blogging

It has been a month since my last blog, but as you can see, my editor has been ruthless. This is not as easy as I had hoped and it just reinforces my admiration for Julie Zickefoose, Bill of the Birds , BirdChick and Wildbird on the Fly and their daily updates. I used to think that indecision was my biggest problem, but now I just don't know. Maybe lack of discipline. It has been a busy month with lots of cool sightings so I'm back to cyberspace again.

Weekends find us in the Sulphur Springs Valley on "Hawk Stalks" and valley tours. Rural Arizona is a trip in itself.I grew up in west Texas and out there first you meet the goat, then you pet the goat.........
Oh yeah... birds. The sandhill cranes have been spectacular in the valley this year. With over 20,000 cranes at Whitewater Draw, 30 minutes from Bisbee, I feel like I need to be there as often as possible to soak it all in. They will be leaving in about a month and I miss them when they leave. The valley seems unnaturally quiet without their bugling. Some of our winter cranes have been tracked by radio transmitter from Whitewater Draw all the way to nesting grounds in Siberia.

We've had a couple of really nice groups lately, which always make the trip more enjoyable. The first was a group from Liberty Wildlife in Phoenix, a wonderful wildlife rehabilitation facility. These folks spend hundreds of hours volunteering their time to help injured birds of prey and it is really gratifying for us to show them wild, free, healthy raptors doing their jobs. We had Bald Eagles harassing the cranes both days and on Sunday watched two Golden Eagles lock talons and spiral towards the ground in a territorial dispute. Even the common birds can be exciting - we had Red-tailed Hawks of almost every imaginable color morph including a stunning dark morph that drew gasps of appreciation from the group. A couple of the Liberty folks are avid photographers with bazooka-sized lenses so I may be able to share some even better photos of the trip in a later post. We found owls all over the valley, over a dozen birds of three different species by the end of the day. A great weekend with a great bunch of folks.

The next weekend brought another full bus including a returnee from an earlier trip this year. We particularly enjoy birding with Tony because he's a fun guy and about as far from the stereotypical "little old lady in tennis shoes" birder as you can get. As "Tony Pointless", he is lead singer for an anarchist punk rock band (Rambo) that tours the world. He birds all along the way and points out birds to his bandmates. He's even listed as resident "ornithologist" on his band's website. He brought his father this week and we all had a great trip. That's Tony with the dreadlocks standing next to Sheri as they watch 3 Golden Eagles play on the wind. We broke our all-time owl record with 16 even though we didn't visit all our regulars. Many of the owls were paired off, sitting side by side, including a pair of Long-eared Owls at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area. Love is in the air. --TW

Scott Weidensaul does it again

We're pretty stoked because Scott Weidensaul, one of North America's finest nature writers and a heckuva nice guy, included us in his latest book, Return to Wild America (North Point Press 2005). Here's Scott during the visit to Arizona that he described in Chapter 9, admiring a freshly banded Violet-crowned Hummingbird prior to its release.

ANWR, Solstice party, We call them "chickadees"...

Well, it was a false start with the blogging interface on Earthlink, so we're trying Blogger. I've moved our few original posts to this new page and kept them linked to an archived version of the original blog page.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2005

The closest call yet for the Arctic Refuge
Four senators. That was the slim margin this week between preservation and destruction for a global treasure. Pro-drilling Republicans crammed a provision to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into the much-needed defense spending bill, which also includes assistance for both Katrina's victims and poor families burdened by rising energy costs. The forces of exploitation got only 56 votes of the 60 necessary to block a filibuster by the provision's Democratic opponents, and the bill was expected to be withdrawn for revision.

This issue has special importance for us because Tom and I supported the legislation that created the refuge in 1980, with no expectation that we would ever see it. But see it we did, 16 years later on a birding trip down the Canning River with Clay and Pat Sutton and Pete and Linda Dunne, led by Bob Dittrick and Lisa Moorehead of Wilderness Birding Adventures. We can tell you from personal experience that the refuge is everything its supporters claim and more. How many drilling supporters have actually been there to see what's at stake?

The Big Oil-backed proponents of drilling try to reassure the American people by claiming that only a tiny portion of the refuge will be impacted by oil exploration and production. Don't you believe it. A USGS map of the 1002 Area, the area that would be open to drilling, shows that it includes virtually the entire coastal plain - the most biologically rich and sensitive part of the refuge. Drilling pads would be scattered over as much of that area as deemed necessary by the oil companies to get at the gooey black stuff lying under the fragile tundra. Drilling proponents' estimates of the total affected area are based on the combined area of the drilling pads, which is indeed relatively little acreage, but it doesn't take into account the ripple effect of disturbance from each of those pads to the flora, fauna, and hydrology of the area.

Both of Arizona's Republican senators voted to block the filibuster and proceed with the vote, which would have passed the bill. Kyl is no surprise - he's an anti-environmental party hack who has voted for drilling almost every time it's come up - but we were really disappointed in McCain, who had opposed drilling in previous underhanded, backdoor attempts by Congress to circumvent the will of the American people. Since I can't thank either of my own senators this time - even the one with a conscience - I'll have to thank Republican senators DeWine of Ohio, Chafee of Rhode Island, and (I'm choking as I write this) Frist of Tennessee as well as all of the Democratic senators except Akaka and Inouye of Hawaii, Nelson of Nebraska, and Landrieu of Louisiana.

The exploiters won't give up - there's too much money and power at stake - so bookmark your representatives' contact forms and put their office numbers on speed dial. Let them know that a sane, responsible energy policy emphasizes innovation and conservation for long-term security, not exploitation and devastation for a few months or years of oil company profits. Keep fighting for this magnificent wilderness - for the fauna, for the flora, and for the future. --SW

Fri, December 23, 2005 | link

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2005

Solstice party
Tonight was a Solstice party and anniversary celebration for our community radio station in Bisbee, KBRP. I do a regular Wed. night music show on the station and have been involved pretty much since it went on the air.(You can listen on-line at kbrpradio.com) Tonight was slightly bittersweet for me - I enjoyed the party and always get a kick out of the Bisbee folks that turn out for a blowout like this, but originally the plan was for my band, The Guild (my old high school rock and roll band that reformed for our 30th reunion and still play occassional gigs) to play for the dance. In the end, the logistics of getting my group here from three different states, finding practice time and space and doing it all around the holidays proved to be an insurmountable obstacle. Our non-profit is foundering and, as I search for a regular paycheck, I finally decided that getting the group together here was one more bit of pressure I didn't need. But it would have been fun. And the guys would have gotten a kick out of the Bisbee crazies. We love our little town and hope we can stick it out here. --TW

Wed, December 21, 2005 | link

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2005

We call them "chickadees"
Here's a tale of Christmas Party Past inspired by Bill of the Birds:

At the annual holiday bash thrown by some well-to-do acquaintances of ours, I found myself chatting with a lovely expat who had just returned to the States after living most of her adult life in the UK. She quickly discovered that I was into birds and began quizzing me on the differences between American birds and the ones in her English garden. The names were really confusing her. Why, she asked, were our blackbirds so different from European Blackbirds and our robins so huge compared to their British counterparts? I explained that the American Robin is a close relative of the European Blackbird, while neither American blackbirds nor European Robins have precise counterparts on each other's continents. "And you haven't any tits!" she exclaimed, to which I replied, "Oh, we do, but we call them 'chickadees'." Tom chanced to walk up at that very moment but immediately turned around and walked away without saying a word. As the party wound down, we thanked our hosts, said our goodbyes, and headed for the car. Only after we were safely inside did Tom burst out laughing and say, "You should have slapped that woman when she said you didn't have any tits!"

To all, Happy Holidays - whichever ones you celebrate. --SW

Tue, December 20, 2005 | link

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2005

TW tries it out
All right, here we go. I encouraged Sheri to explore the world of blogging for us after enjoying Bill of the Birds and Birdchick's blogs. The danger here is that our lives may seem mundane by comparison, but perhaps this can serve to encourage me (and Sheri) to write more, which would be a good thing. After a couple of weeks where both my computer and our washer died horrible slow deaths, it's a risk to try anything technological but I'm also experimenting with the capabilities of the site.



Sheri and I both have soft spots in our hearts for quail after living with a couple of orphaned rehab Bobwhite in Texas years ago. I make sure that our local quail in Bisbee have food and water at our place. A shallow pan provides a nice watering hole and cheap birdseed is the preferred menu item. Recntly, as you can see they've also been enjoying the pyracantha berries. Mostly we see Gambel's Quail in our yard (we're at the edge of desert habitat) although Scaled Quail used to come as well before the recent drought. We'd love to have them again. We are probably a little too low and far from the oaks for Montezuma Quail. --TW

Sun, December 18, 2005 | link

The Sulphur Springs Valley...
...one of our favorite winter birding locations (at least on this side of the border). At Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, Tom photographed this handsome Barn Owl. The big draw at Whitewater Draw is Sandhill Cranes, but it's also a great place for owls and other raptors. We've seen Great Horned, Long-eared, Short-eared, Burrowing, and Western Screech there in addition to Barn. --SW

Sun, December 18, 2005 | link

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2005

A raptor-iffic day in the Sulphur Springs Valley

Tom and I spent today in the Sulphur Springs Valley leading the second Hawk Stalk of the winter season. The overall raptor tally was pretty low (only 65 individuals of 10 species), Ferruginous Hawk numbers are still very low, and we missed Bald Eagle and Sharp-shinned Hawk, but mere numbers never tell the whole story. Highlights included four Prairie Falcons (including two engaging in an aerial ballet), a subadult Golden Eagle obligingly perched on a fence post, a Taiga (Boreal) Merlin taking a siesta in the shade, the usual rainbow of Red-tails, three Great Horned Owls, and an outstanding crane show. Lovely weather didn't hurt - in fact, it got downright warm by midafternoon. Participants Willis and Pat from PA were a couple of very happy birders when we rolled back into Bisbee this afternoon. --SW

Sat, December 3, 2005 | link

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005

In Praise of Sparrows
Or "How I Overcame 'Sparrow-phobia' and Learned to Love the LBJs"

LBJs - the classic birders' bane. A double whammy of cryptic and skulky. But those who spend time studying sparrows find that they have a way of growing on you. It typically starts with the gaudier ones: White-crowned, White-throated, Fox, Lark, and Black-throated. As you're admiring the bold contrasts, subtle colors and patterns begin to seep into your subconscious. The vibrant juxtaposition of rust, ivory, and slate in the plumage of a Red Fox Sparrow. Winter-sky grays on the breasts of the Zonotrichias. The way the charcoal nape of a Black-throated shifts to olive on the mantle. Velvety black wing linings on Lark Buntings in winter plumage. Pretty soon you're finding treasure in "the drabs": Kaleidoscopic patterns of maroon, umber, caramel, pewter, and white on Lincoln's, and the pencil-thin white eyering and chestnut epaulet of Vesper. Banders have the ultimate opportunity to appreciate the finer points of sparrow plumage, and it was with birds in hand that I became well and truly hooked on their subtle splendor (I bet "splendor" is a word you never thought you'd see sharing a sentence with "sparrow").

Patient scrutiny is rewarded with insights into their personalities. White-crowneds are the aristocratic artists; their stately songs brighten sunny winter days. Lincoln's are positively savage, lunging at feeder rivals with open bills. Black-throateds and Larks are usually seen in groups and seem to have strong family values. Sage Sparrows seem more rodent than bird as they scurry from shrub to shrub like little chipmunks, their tails cocked skyward.

The West has been in the grip of drought for a decade, and sparrow populations have suffered. Lark Buntings and Brewer's Sparrows seemed particularly hard hit. In the Sulphur Springs Valley, one of our favorite winter birding areas, we had grown accustomed to seeing flocks numbering in the hundreds to thousands. Quiet dirt roads would be blanketed in buntings that would lift off from the near edge first until the whole flock rolled across the landscape like a gigantic feathered tumbleweed. Then the populations crashed, and we were afraid that we would never see such abundance again.

But wild creatures are resilient. Decent rains in 2004 gave the populations a boost, and this year is looking even better. Good-sized flocks of many species have already arrived in the Sulphur Springs Valley, and the feeding station and water feature in our yard have already lured many sparrows of diverse species: both "Mountain" and "Gambel's" White-crowneds, Lincoln's, Brewer's, Chipping, and even the occasional stray Lark Bunting. Green-tailed Towhees, usually one of the most conspicuous members of the family, are back in fair numbers, with at least two visiting our yard. This afternoon, a resident Black-throated scratched around in the driveway gravel less than 15 feet from where Tom and I were sifting soil into a garden bed.

I'm scheduled to teach a two-day sparrow workshop in mid-January. The last couple of years it's been cancelled due to lack of interest, but maybe the rebounding sparrow numbers will inspire a few birders to sign up. Even if it doesn't "go," I'll plan on spending a day getting reacquainted with these vastly underrated birds. -- SW

Fri, December 2, 2005 | link

Sticking a tentative toe into the cold, wet ocean of the blogosphere...
I guess you could call it "blog envy." A lot of our birding friends, acquaintances, and colleagues have blogs, and while Tom and I are not the sort of people inclined to bare our souls to the world, we do love to share the important things in our lives with others who'll appreciate them. Though we spend a good part of work life sharing birds and other natural wonders with the general public, there are also times when we see something spectacular or learn something new and don't have anyone but each other to share it with. There are also things that fall outside our job descriptions that we'd still like to share - music, art, humor, opinions, and worthy causes. This will be our outlet for those shareable moments. We hope you enjoy it. --SW

Fri, December 2, 2005 | link