Dec 22, 2022 - Mar 17, 2023
Once again, winter has come and gone in the valley that has adopted us in SE Arizona. Desert blooms are beginning to turn the hills yellow, orange, and purple. Before we get too wrapped up in spring, here are images from winter...
A Wet Thrushy Winter
We were told that La Niña would hang around for an unprecedented third winter. If true, that would have meant a third dry winter in a row, a threat to the Sonoran Desert ecosystem. The Sonoran Desert is characterized by having two rainy seasons: winter rains and monsoon rains in the summer. Instead of the feared parched winter, we had a moderately wet one to conclude a rather mild nine months since the start of monsoon season back in the middle of June. A cautionary tale about using reductionist reasoning to try and reduce our chaotic world down to simple cause and effect.
Throughout my many years of wildlife observance I have continually tried to fit nature into simple causes and effects. I tell myself stories to try to figure out why individuals act the way they do and then apply that story to the next one I meet, but rarely does it fit into the little box I created. I can safely say that I have learned more about humanity by living with wildlife and trying not to fit it into tidy boxes.
Nature continually busts out of these boxes. One of those boxes says that we do not have an abundance of thrushes in our valley. Yet, this winter, the rare pair of American robins I saw this past fall turned into flocks of hundreds throughout the river bosques feasting on mistletoe berries and then spreading out to feast on anything else that might be available. It was like being back in the Northwest. Walking through our bosque property sounded like a walk through Discovery Park in Seattle.
Bluebirds, while not unexpected, were quite numerous this year. Also attracted to the mistletoe berries and hawking from low perches for the few bugs that stick around during the winter, they brought some needed color during this season.
The mysterious thrushiness of the winter continued when I found myself encountering a bird on one of my river walks that I could not make into something that made sense. It was a mostly grey bird the size of a bluebird with a similar face, but colorings that kept making me think of a young mockingbird. My brain kept trying to fit it into the bluebird box or the mockingbird box with no success and I started to feel a bit dizzy (probably due to me needing to get home and eat some breakfast). Finally, I looked up in my Sibley Guide the one thing that made sense even though I had never seen one in this valley before: Townsend's Solitaire.
I felt much better once I read the description:
Plain gray color and long tail may recall Northern Mockingbird; Note white eyering, uniform gray body, and bold buffy wingstripe. Told from female Mountain Bluebird by longer tail with white sides, bold wingstripe, lack of blue.Ok, so I haven't completely lost it yet. Phew!
Probably the most memorable event this winter was finally seeing and spending some time with one of the secretive inhabitants of the valley: a long-eared owl. It has been about seven or eight years since I last saw one. Unfortunately, there was a lot of drama around that event and because of that I won't be sharing the location of these precious residents since there are fewer and fewer places for them to hide.
A close second to the owl sighting was walking down the river towards a horse carcass that I knew about. The trees near the well-ripening carcass were covered in turkey vultures. I didn't have time to count (maybe 30 to 50) because my eyes were drawn to the very middle of the trees where something that was not a vulture was roosting. My binoculars revealed the second-only crested caracara I've ever seen. It was an immature bird, but was still a wonder to see. They are carrion eaters, so it shouldn't have been a surprise, but they are pretty rare in the valley these days. My persistent visits to the carcass were in hopes of seeing something out of the ordinary, and they definitely paid off.
Spring starts in early March when the song of the vermilion flycatchers become prevalent throughout the valley, not just in the few places that they have recently been overwintering. I suppose that will continue to change in the future as they adapt to inevitable overall changes going forward.
Until then it is one of the first anticipated signs of spring as February winds down.
Helping the ValleyFor a number of decades people who recognized the unique character of the Lower San Pedro Valley have fought to maintain its integrity. Primarily, this has been done through volunteering numerous hours tracking all the ways that modern civilization fails to value what is here and putting up road blocks for those bent on exploitation. It doesn't always work and the scarring from those that have succeeded to exploit it is hard to accept.
In the latest fight that I have written about previously, volunteering no longer is sufficient and the advice of the chairman of the Arizona Line Siting Committee has been taken: "Get legal representation." It was a challenge because most environmental law firms have been compromised by those we oppose or are afraid of them. Luckily, a notable firm To read a more human account of what is being fought for, this article in the Arizona Republic is a useful summary: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2023/03/29/san-pedro-river-utility-corridor-project-would-threaten-riparian-area-some-say/69940705007/ While it is not my wish to impose my will or way of life on others, I do oppose those that believe it is their duty to continue to impose their will on the remainder of our wildlands and reverse the work of those who seek to live in balance with them. If you wish to join me in opposing that as well, volunteers have worked extremely hard on a GoFundMe page that further explains what we are fighting for as well as give you a place to contribute financially if you feel so moved: https://www.gofundme.com/f/xrb8y-protect-the-san-pedro-river-valley Thank you for caring. Correction: The original law firm listed was incorrect due to a clerical error by the Arizona Corporation Commission. This has been corrected. |
A last minute find: Check out this 24-year-old lecture that illustrates the issues with the mindset that tries to justify such projects as SunZia: "Dana (Donella) Meadows Lecture: Sustainable Systems".
It is an empathetic analysis of systems and the positive feedback loops that make them unsustainable. It illustrates how projects like the SunZia power line project, as well as others, attempt to be technological answers that ultimately perpetuate the mindsets that have led to the problems they claim to be solving. SunZia has fallen into the fallacy of sunk costs and is unable to see its role in those positive feedback loops and therefore cannot be trusted to make decisions for the benefit of the system as a whole.
Correction: Fixed link to lecture