Volume 51, Number 6 March 2007 I S S N 1 0 9 4 - 9 9 0 9 VermiliFonlycatcher Tucson Audubon Society www.tucsonaudubon.org Leaders in Conservation & Education since 1949 Inside this issue Introducing the New Executive 6 Audubon Afield Director! by Susan Randolph, Board President 12 Audubon Shops News 3 Bashas’:Thanks a Million! If the Tucson Audubon Society Search 13 Binocular FAQs Committee had gone into Aboriginal 12 Book Reviews Dreamtime, the “time before time,” 4 Calendar of Events & More they could not have dreamt a better fit 9 Carpooling for Tucson Audubon than Paul Green. 10 Conservation Update Paul was chosen from a field of highly qualified and attractive candidates and 2 Director’s Perch we are pleased to make a formal 17 Education News announcement that he will start as our 8 Fieldtrips! new Executive Director on March 12, 5 Green Valley Member Mtg 2007. 7 Habitat Restoration Paul’s résumé contains a large network New Executive Director Paul Green 18 Important Bird Areas of interrelating parts that have 14 Institute of Desert Ecology prepared him over the years to take the helm at Tucson Audubon, to continue our mission 16 Mason Center News of preserving the environment through recreation, conservation, and education. Educated 23 Membership Form in England and Scotland, his academic career started with undergraduate degrees in psychology and biology. As you might expect, the birds won out, and he got his PhD in 12 Product Review zoology (in bird behavior/ecology), with a specialty in the feeding behavior of Rooks, and 17 Riparian Family Institute then four years post-doc working on Jackdaws. 23 Seeking Your Silly Photos 22 Thanks Paul’s next stop took him to Malaysia where he taught and did field research on Blue- throated Bee-eaters. At the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Paul started developing 20 Travel Opportunities skills that would prepare him for active conservation work—the work that would clearly 23 Tribute to Harvey Lance become a passion for him. Later, during a long stint at the British Trust for Ornithology, he 4 Tucson Area Birding honed his skills in membership recruitment, marketing, and communications as well as 24 Tucson Member Meeting fundraising and business partnering. 19 Urban Birds Luckily for us, Paul turned his attention westward toward America. A new job in Colorado 3 Volunteer Opportunities with the American Birding Association was bringing him closer to Tucson, Arizona. There, 21 Welcome New Members he spent a number of years working as Director of Conservation and Education, and later 22 Wishes President of ABA Sales, and President and Chief Executive Officer. At ABA, Paul continued to work on building membership, strategic planning, sales, management of staff and, of The Vermilion Flycatcher is published monthly course, education and conservation. except for combined May-June, July-August, and December-January issues. For address changes or Most recently, Paul has worked at the National Audubon Society as the Director of Citizen subscription problems call 629-0757, or write to Science, and during his first year also as the Interim Director of Audubon at Home. Paul Membership Coordinator, Tucson Audubon, 300 E. University Blvd., #120, Tucson, AZ 85705. has worked with well-known backyard conservation issues, conservation of species, Submissions for the April issue are due Mar. 1. fundraising, grantwriting, and growing the Citizen Science programs. Please send submissions as Microsoft Word or RTF documents, or plain text files, to Matt Griffiths at [email protected]. Besides having a remarkable repertoire of experience, Paul is modest, a good listener and, of Coordinator, Matt Griffiths 206-9900 course, he brings his charming British accent with him. Paul wants to be back in the Proofreaders, Jane & Warren Tisdale 749-2139 Southwest, and he wants to be where he can see that he is making a difference in Layout Editor, Julie St. John continued page 2 Tucson Audubon Society is dedicated to improving the quality of the environment by providing education, conservation, and recreation programs, Landscapes, habitats, and ecology: how do and the man who environmental leadership, and information. those rocks, soils, climate, weather, plants suggested the name Tucson Audubon is a non-profit volunteer and animals interact to produce the living ‘United States of organization of people with a common system that becomes this eternal America’ for a then interest in birding and natural history. classroom? This puzzle produces a new country. Tucson Audubon maintains offices, a library response that is at once spiritual and Following a and nature shops in Tucson, the proceeds of rational: an indescribable feeling of wonder meeting with which benefit all of its programs. coupled with a desire to understand how Benjamin Franklin Tucson Audubon Society the parts work together. From the Sonoran in London, Paine 300 E. University Blvd. #120, Tucson, AZ 85705 Desert in the Americas to the Dipterocarp left Thetford and 629-0510 (voice) or 623-3476 (fax) forests of Malaysia, the range of survival sailed for the New All phone numbers use the 520 area code strategies one encounters is, to me, a most World in 1774. I www.tucsonaudubon.org wondrous thing. followed 222 years Board Officers & Committees later and made my home in Colorado. Messages 622-5622 I grew up on the edge of the fens of East President Susan Randolph Anglia, in the city of Cambridge, England. I remember well my first encounter with Vice President Chris McVie The landscapes that were familiar to me the landscape of the Sonoran Desert in Secretary Julia Gordon were flat, at or below sea level, and the 1997, how traveling companions and I Treasurer Barbara Heineman habitats agricultural. Much of East Anglia tumbled out of a car and stood for several Conservation Chris McVie Education Doris Evans is a giant fenland basin, 2500 square miles minutes in awe-struck silence. It was the Development Susan Randolph in size, a former wetland drained by a beginning of a new lifelong quest to learn Nominating Robert Merideth Dutch engineer in the 1600s, with the peat more about the Sonoran Desert and its Finance Barbara Heineman shrinking up to 20 feet as it dried and varied communities. While birds have been Additional Directors at Large: Clark Blake, Mich Coker, degraded. One tiny island of the original the focus, an awareness of the complex Don Eagle, Sandy Elers, Kathleen Escalada, Julia Gordon, Lisa Harris, Craig Marken, Robert fen survives as Wicken Fen, one of Britain’s processes that support them has always Mesta, Bill Roe, Herb Trossman, Bob Wenrick oldest nature reserves, and a wonderful been paramount. It’s the habitat that is place of childhood exploration. Maintained important. Programs & Activities by clay-lined “lodes” or watercourses, the Field Trips Darlene Smyth 297-2315 fen stands 8 feet above the drained land Jacob Needleman, reflecting on the wisdom Library David West/Peggy Smith 629-0510 of the founding fathers, suggests that the Membership Meetings Vivian MacKinnon 629-0757 around it, and is the landscape of Hen freedoms enshrined in the constitution Rare Bird Alert Keith Kamper 798-1005 Harriers and Bearded Tits in winter, and Report Rare Birds 798-1005 Sedge Warblers and Grasshopper Warblers come with a responsibility to something in summer. Happy years in Scotland and bigger than the day-to-day materialism of Staff modern life. Caring for our fragile Executive Director Paul Green 622-5622 Malaysia followed my fenland childhood. environment must surely be part of that Operations Manager Michael Monyak 629-0757 Then, in the 1990s, I found myself back in Bookkeeper Jeff Burrows 629-0757 the fen-edge sandy heaths of the brecks, equation, starting with the simple choices Education Program Manager Carrie Dean 622-2230 with their Stone Curlews, Nightjars, and we make daily. Tucson stands on a Membership Coordinator Vivian MacKinnon 629-0757 threshold: it could go the way of many fast- Administrative Assistant Mandy Katz 622-5622 Woodlarks. On my daily morning cycle growing cities or be a model of ecologically IBA Conservation Biologist Scott Wilbor 628-1730 ride from the train station to the British Restoration Program Mgr. Kendall Kroesen 206-9900 Trust for Ornithology offices (housed in a sensitive urban development, driven by Field Supervisor Rodd Lancaster 256-6909 former twelfth century Nunnery in integrated community-based conservation Restoration Specialist Matthew Griffiths 206-9900 action beginning with the individual. Mason Outreach Assistant Lia Sansom 971-6238 Thetford), I passed the bronze statue of Tucson Audubon can make a difference Environmental Educ. Specialist Matt Brooks 622-2230 Thomas Paine, corset-maker’s son, radical University Shop Manager Sara Pike 622-2230 revolutionary, author of Common Sense, and I’m honored to be part of it. Assistant Shop Manager Heather Hatch 622-2230 VF Agua Caliente Shop Mgr. Becky Aparicio 760-7881 Nature Shops Audubon Nature Shop 300 E. University Blvd. #120 629-0510 Our new Executive Director Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10a.m.–4p.m. from page 1 (10a.m.–5p.m. Monday & Thursday); closed Sunday 623-3476 fax / 622-.2230 Shop Manager conservation. The beautiful Sonoran Desert and Tucson Audubon should be a Tucson Audubon at Agua Caliente perfect home for him. Paul: On behalf of the Tucson Audubon Society, I extend a Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Park 12325 E. Roger Rd. 760-7881 warm welcome to you and your wife Eng-Li. We are very happy to have you here, Hours: Tuesday, Thursday–Saturday, 9:30a.m.–3:30p.m. and we all look forward to a long and mutually fruitful partnership with you. 1st & 2nd Sundays, 10a.m.–3p.m. VF 2 Tucson Audubon Society Vermilion Flycatcher b MARCH 2007 Phone System Update Huge Library Overstock Book Sale Some of you may already be aware that our phone system has been lacking voice mail and the Rare Bird Alert for some time now.