The Cactus Wren•dition VOLUME LXXIII NO. 2 SUMMER – 2020 Elegant Trogon by Samantha Starr THE CACTUS WREN•DITION SUMMER 2020 1 Contents 2 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE President’s Message 3 It is Spring in the Sonoran Desert—days are warming, fl owers are Letter from the Editor blooming, birds are returning from the tropics, and the Governor of Arizona has announced a Stay-at-Home Order due to the 4 COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Patience, Conservation Update forbearance, taking precautions, self-quarantines, imposed 5 isolation, lack of social activity, cancellations, handwashing, social Announcements distancing—these are some of the terms of the day. And here are Poem by David Chorlton just a few of the results: • All Spring Maricopa Audubon Society fi eld trips—cancelled. 6 Mark W. Larson • Th e April Maricopa Audubon Society meeting of the The Most Elegant Bird in North membership—cancelled. America by Richard Cachor Taylor • Th e 2020 Maricopa Audubon Society Annual Election of Offi cers—postponed. 8 • Th e 2020 Maricopa Audubon Society Annual Banquet—cancelled. The Turning Year / A Year in • A fi rst-of-its-kind cooperative meeting of Arizona and New Mexico Audubon Paradise by Jackie Lewis Chapters—cancelled. • Health eff ects on Audubon members—not yet known. 10 • Long-term impact on the Maricopa Audubon Society—not yet known. Rescue and Rehab 11 Across this country people are getting sick and people are dying from this insidious From Costa Rica disease. At this point, no one can predict how long this scourge will last or what damage it will do, either to our health or to our economy, but what I can assure you is that the 12-13 Maricopa Audubon Society will endure. We will endure because our mission is too Photograph by Peter Bartsch important, too critical, and too vital for future generations. 14 Looking through this ‘fog of war’ we can see other challenges ahead. We are cooperating Adventures in Costa Rica by Mark W. Larson with the Center for Biological Diversity on a lawsuit to prevent the loss of one of Arizona’s great environmental treasures: the San Pedro River. We’ve known for some years 16 that growth in the San Pedro Valley is drawing down the water table jeopardizing the Birding Panama by Gail Walton priceless riparian gallery forest along the river. Th at forest supports endangered species of plants, provides essential habitat for resident species of birds and other wildlife, and is a 17 critical migration corridor for millions of Neotropical birds. Wren*dition Revisited 18 Th is is just one example of the work of your Maricopa Audubon Society. Help us keep In the Arts: Alexandra Bowers going, no matter how long the virus rages and no matter its eff ects. @ 20 Mark W. Larson The Green Scene by Vicki Hire President 23 Photograph by Peter Bartsch On the cover Elegant Trogon by Samantha Starr Taken with a Nikon D500 with the Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens. 2 Committees/Support LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Arizona Audubon Council Rep Position Open Th e doors to the outside world may be closed but our windows Bookstore are open. While we can’t enjoy fi eld trips, we can still keep Sochetra Ly track of our backyard birds where we are lucky enough to have 503 860-0370 them to watch. We had a brief visit from a Hooded Oriole to indicate the changing season, and White-winged Doves are Poet Laureate showing up as the White-crowned Sparrows move along. I had David Chorlton intended to make this a colorful issue, featuring Arizona’s fl ash of 480 705-3227 brilliance, the Elegant Trogon, and as our situation became clear I hoped to lighten the collective mood with a bright selection of Maricopa Audubon Website http://www.maricopaaudubon.org David Chorlton photographs, from Arizona and Costa Rica. The Earth has received the embrace of Elegant Trogons come to us from the tropics, and that region is familiar to our President, the sun and we shall see the results of Mark Larson, who writes here about some of his experiences in Costa Rica. Roberta and that love. I also loved being in Costa Rica and at Rara Avis some years ago we met a couple from Germany who became good friends. Peter Bartsch is an expert on frogs and conveys his knowledge to school classes in Bochum. We met up again in 2013 at Selva Verde Lodge, Sitting Bull where Peter took photographs shown here. An Investment in Closer to home, Richard Cachor Taylor wrote a book that is a fi ne reference for the Elegant Trogon and some pages here give an introduction. Many of you will be familiar the Future with the bird’s unique call heard along certain trails in Madera Canyon or the Chiricahuas, Bequests are an important source of a sound we look forward to following again. A trip to the Chiricahuas might include a support for the Maricopa Audubon visit to the George Walker House in Paradise, once and briefl y a lively mining town and Society. Your chapter has dedicated now is more tranquil. Th e miners are long gone, but birds abound. itself to the protection of the natural world through public education We have more advice on what to do should you fi nd a bird in need of help from Fallen and advocacy for the wiser use and Feathers, and art by Alexandra Bowers. Whatever avenues are closed to us, we have our preservation of our land, water, air and memories and imaginations, those close allies of art. other irreplaceable natural resources. We shall return to our favorite trails. Field trips will happen again. Our monthly meetings You can invest in the future of our natural will give us chance to be in the company of other MAS members, and the business of world by making a bequest in your will conservation and studying birds and other wildlife continues. You will fi nd information to the Maricopa Audubon Society. Talk on membership inside the back cover. Show a friend the Wren*dition and encourage more to your attorney for more information on participation once we open our doors again and put on our hiking boots. Meanwhile, stay how this can be accomplished. safe, and don’t let the little fl ame of imagination be extinguished. @ David Chorlton Editor Sign up for the e-newsletter! To receive updates and supplements to The Cactus Wren•dition, sign up for the monthly (September to May) e-newsletter. Maricopa Audubon Society is now No membership required. It includes registered on Amazon as a charitable meeting and fi eld trip reminders, special organization. Go to the MAS Facebook events, and citizen science projects. page for details or use the follow- To subscribe, email: [email protected] ing AmazonSmile link for Maricopa Audubon Society: https://smile.amazon. Note: We do not use the email list for com/ch/86-6040458 anything other than the described purpose. Log onto your Amazon account and a percentage of your purchase will go to MAS! 3 Arizona Sister, Adelpha eulalia CONSERVATION UPDATE THE LATEST ON ISSUES AFFECTING OUR ECOSYSTEMS by Mark Horlings EPA Suspends Enforcement On March 31, 2020, the Administration San Pedro River Lawsuit Acting on the truism that every crisis cancelled the Obama standards and On March 18, three environmental contains an opportunity, Andrew announced its own. Th e goal to cut emis- groups, including MAS, sued under Wheeler, head of the Environmental sions dropped from 5% per year to 1.5%. the ESA, seeking to preserve the fl ow Protection Agency, announced on March Th e new standards would allow about of the San Pedro. Litigation seeking to 27, 2020 that EPA would suspend civil 1.5 billion more tons of pollutants in the reduce the Fort’s water use and ground- enforcement of environmental laws atmosphere during the life of the cars pro- water pumping in Sierra Vista has gone and regulations for the duration of the duced under the new standard. on since the 1990s. Courts have repeat- Coronavirus crisis. EPA normally enforces Last year the Administration revoked edly found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking California’s authority to set its own air and Biological Opinions fl awed. Th e latest suit Water Act, the Resource Conservation emissions standards. California’s tougher alleges that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Oil standards, and its huge market, drove 2014 Biological Opinion was inadequate Pollution Act and Superfund. Perhaps improvements in air quality throughout because it relied on water savings from most important at a time when Covid-19 the country since carmakers wanted to recharge projects that have not worked, threatens people’s ability to breathe, EPA off er all their models in California. Taken credited Fort Huachuca for water savings also enforces the Clean Air Act. Th e EPA together, these changes suggest the fed- realized years earlier, failed to consider cli- cited industry’s lack of staff and inability eral government, not the states, will mate change, and failed to look far enough to get results from laboratories as reasons dictate air pollution policy, and that this into the future. for the suspension. Criminal enforcement Administration will favor the auto makers will continue although, with reporting over the public. requirements suspended, it is not clear how criminal violations would become Endangered Species Studies Be Social! known. EPA did not announce when the Conducted on Private Land to be enforcement suspension would end.