HUACHUCA AUDUBON SOCIETY
P.O. BOX 63
SIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA 85636
Trogon News
Ramsey Canyon Christmas Bird Count
Calendar Highlights December 27
• Jan 3 Audubon Re-
search Ranch CBC The 2008 Ramsey Canyon
Christmas Bird Count
• Jan 14-16 Wings (RCCBC) will be held on
over Willcox Saturday, December 27,
2008. We’ll start with a 6:30
• Jan 20 HAS pro-
am breakfast at the Lone Star
gram: Rick Thomp-
Cafe located at the intersec-
son/video bird ID
tion of Highway 92 and
• Jan 30 NAS Mem- Hereford Road*. During
bers Meeting (in breakfast, participants will
Tempe) receive checklists, maps, and
other information.
• Feb 17 HAS pro-
Breakfast costs a flat $3 per
gram: Rick Romea/
person with Huachuca Audu-
easy key to Hua-
bon Society picking up the
chuca trees & rest of the tab. We need a
shrubs rough idea of how many
folks will be joining us, so
• Feb 28 Audubon
please contact us by phone
Conservation
Workshop (in Tuc- *Lonestar Café map link at http://www.huachuca-audubon.org/CBC/RCCBC.php
son)
• Mar 17 HAS pro-
gram: Hank & December 6 Party at the Research Ranch
Priscilla Brodkin/
Peru butterflies Our Holiday Party Potluck
on Saturday December 6 will
• Apr 21 HAS pro-
be our fourth consecutive at
gram the Audubon Research
• May 19 HAS pro- Ranch thanks to the hospital-
gram (Alaska) ity of Linda Kennedy, Direc-
tor. Each year we attract a
few newcomers and add a
few more prizes for the free
drawing. This year’s treasures
December 2008
or e-mail address listed below
if you plan to dine with us.
The compilation dinner
starts at 5:30 pm at the
Country House on the E side
of Highway 92 at Choctaw
(4373 S. Highway 92). Entrée
choices are: Baked Lasagna
($8.65), Cajun Grilled Cat-
fish ($9.95), Grilled or BBQ
Pork Chops ($10.95), and
Sizzling Fajitas ($11.95). Just
pay that evening after the
meal. Please let us know if
you plan to join us for din-
ner and who will be joining
you. Contact Ted via email at
tedmouras@mindspring.com
(phone: 803-0221) or Robert
include wood carvings (two
are holiday ornaments),
books, plus a CD, calendar,
note pad, canvas shopping
bag, and a surprise item.
Linda is challenging us to a
“Grasslands Quiz” contain-
ing “ID’s,” ecology, and
“critters,” with a prize for the
winner. Top this off with our
Volume XXX Number 4
via email at weissler@aves.org
(phone: 803-0794) with the
list of names for your party.
We will reserve a spot in the
banquet room for the first 30
who respond. Others may
dine in the neighboring res-
taurant room and join us
after dinner for the compila-
tion in the banquet room.
We look forward to a terrific
dinner to cap a satisfying day
of counting birds in the field
or at home!
usual great potluck food and
be prepared for a fun after-
noon. Carpools leave from
the Sierra Vista City Hall
parking lot at 11:00 am.
Aim to arrive by noon, and
we’ll eat circa 1:00 pm.
Questions? Recipe advice?
Call Mike or Heather Guest,
378-0667.
 Trogon News Volume XXX Number 4
Page 2
Q u a r t e r l y P r o g r a m L i n e u p ( 3 r d Tu e s d ay a t 7 p m )
Cochise College Room 313 except January 20

January 20, 2009 Rick Thompson

January 20 meeting will be held
in the Cochise College Horace
Steele Conference Room
Capturing Bird Calls and Behavior with a Video Camera
Motivated by a video presen-
tation of a pelagic trip at a
Yuma Audubon Society
meeting in January 2007, I
decided to document our
birding experiences with a
hand-held video camera. I
will show successes (and limi-
tations) from SE Arizona,
Missouri, Minnesota, and
Colorado.
BIOSKETCH: As a child in
northern Minnesota I read
books about birds in far off
places. I grew up in a hunt-
ing family so was exposed
early on to game birds. The
first day trip I remember tak-
ing to actually look for birds
was in about 1970 while a
graduate student in Wiscon-
sin. We went to the Horicon
Wildlife Refuge in the fall to
see millions of geese .
Through the years my wife
Ricki and I have fed birds
and recorded species seen in
the yard. We moved to Sierra
Vista in 2005 for the climate
and adopted birding as a
hobby-pastime-business. We’re
climbing a steep learning
curve by birding several times
a week. Although we have
been photographing wildlife
and scenic places since the
late 60s, using a video camera
has been a new and highly
rewarding experience.

February 17, 2009 Rick Romea

A Key to the Trees and Large Shrubs of the Huachucas
I will present my non-
technical photographic key
to the trees and large shrubs
of the Huachuca Mountains
and surrounding foothills.
Plants included come from a
checklist of the plants of the
Huachucas first published in
the 1970s and a recent list
from Fort Huachuca. This is
not your mother’s rigorous
dichotomous key. I minimize
use of botany “buzz-words,”
assume the user has some
(but not much) knowledge of
common trees, use only fea-
tures available without col-
lecting, and ignore intro-
duced/ornamental trees.
You’ll see photos of many of
our local species. The key
will be available to anyone
who wants to use it (and sug-
gest improvements).
BIOSKETCH: I am an avid
birder and retired applied
physicist who arrived here 5
years ago. Since then, I have
hiked the trails in the Hua-
chuca Mountains looking for
birds and trying to make
sense of the incredible diver-
sity of plants. I have no back-
ground in botany and am
totally unqualified to develop
a checklist of this type, but I
tried anyway!

March 17, 2009 Priscilla and Hank Brodkin

Peru's Rivers of Butterflies
This presentation documents
a five week trip to the Tam-
bopata and Manu reserves of
southeastern Peru to study
and photograph the butter-
flies of that amazingly biodi-
verse area. We’ll show these
butterflies plus many of
other insects, birds, mam-
mals, reptiles, and plants.
Join the Brodkins on a trip
of a lifetime!
BIOSKETCH: Hank and
Priscilla, long-time birders,
have taken dozens of trips to
tropical areas. Some 15 years
ago a friend introduced them
to the fascinating world of
butterflies. That interest has
led to their co-authoring two
books on the butterflies of
Arizona and their photos
appearing in several oth-
ers. They had visited south-
eastern Arizona to bird many
times from their home in Los
Angeles, so when the time
came to retire in 1997, this
part of the country seemed
the ideal place to settle
down. They now live in
beautiful Carr Canyon.
Trogon News
Appleton-Whittell
Christmas Bird Count
The 3rd annual Appleton-
Whittell Christmas Bird
Count (AWCBC) centered
southeast of Elgin will be
held on Saturday January 3,
2009, so please mark your
calendars. Complete details
are available on the Hua-
chuca Audubon web site*.
Robert Weissler
(weissler@aves.org) is the
primary point of contact for
*http://www.huachuca-audubon.org/CBC/AWCBC.php.
Birds In Flight: The Art and Science of How
Birds Fly a book review by Robert Weissler
In his new book, Carrol
Henderson has applied his
background as a young Air
Force officer, as a naturalist,
as a biologist, and as a pho-
tographer to sharing both the
beauty and the science of
avian flight. He uses lan-
guage that works for the cas-
ual observer as well as the
experienced birder.
The first half of the book is a
photo gallery depicting life-
styles of birds as defined by
their adaptations for flight.
Graceful, elegant swans and
egrets are contrasted with
acrobatic falcons, plunging
terns, and gyrating humming-
birds. Photos range from
crisp portraits of raptors to
blurred images capturing
dynamic aspects of flight.
The initial section introduces
the remainder of the book
which covers principles of
flight, anatomical adapta-
tions for special flight charac-
this CBC and is organizing
groups covering the Audubon
Research Ranch, Elgin, the
Babacomari Ranch, West
Canelo, and other areas in
the Sonoita Valley and on
Fort Huachuca.
—Robert Weissler
teristics, and how these com-
bine to define how birds take
off, soar, and land. Many ref-
erence books treat avian anat-
omy and aerodynamics (for
example The Sibley Guide to
Bird Life and Behavior and The
Audubon Society Encyclopedia of
North American Birds), and
this subject usually lands in
introductions, glossaries, or
treatments of bird families,
usually with a drier, technical
style. Birds in Flight on the
other hand is aimed at a
Volume XXX Number 4
Page 3
President’s Message
Hello. I hope you like the new format of our newslet-
ter that came with our new editor, Brooke Gebow,
manager of the Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon
Preserve, plus a few other titles. We thank Robert
Weissler for stepping in and keeping both the Trogon
News and our web site running so well. Now if only we
could find a Conservation Chair; surely some reader is
willing to come forward and make HAS more active in
conservation affairs?
Our winter season is off to a good start with reason-
able attendances at both our field trips and the eve-
ning meetings at Cochise College; our thanks to the
presenters.
Please consider making a donation towards our Audu-
bon Adventures project for local, and some not so local,
schools. This year due to changes in staffing and class-
rooms we’re supporting 19 classrooms, each at a cost
of $46. Also in our education outreach programs,
Ginny Bealer, Catherine Newell, and Jane Chambers
made a successful school visit with items from our
Bird / Mammal trunk, and have enquiries from two
different classes. Thank you ladies.
Other projects: with the aid of a grant from National
Audubon we will be working with The Nature Conser-
vancy and Friends of the San Pedro to restart the long-
running Ramsey Canyon Kids Camp in 2009, after
Mark Pretti’s “retirement.” In cooperation with the
Friends of the San Pedro, we had a table at the Fall
Safety Day on Fort Huachuca.
Regards, Mike
wider audience and uses pho- book deserves a place on the
tography as much as words to coffee table as well as in the
describe this material. library of a serious birder. It
Passages from the poetry of should appeal to a broad audi-
Pablo Neruda are sprinkled ence whose appreciation for
birds in flight surely will be
throughout the book to re-
enhanced. If this review has
mind the reader of the mys-
piqued your interest, you can
tery and beauty of flight, lest
find further information at the
it be lost in the more techni-
cal chapters which manage to Voyageur Press web site:
avoid pedantry. http://www.voyageurpress.com/
Store/ProductDetails_40631
With its timely debut before
.ncm
the holidays, Henderson’s
 Trogon News Volume XXX Number 4
Page 4

Regular Events
Get Outdoors!
• Dec 9 HAS trip to WEEKLY Mondays at 8 am, Bird- MONTHLY
Whitewater Draw. Sundays at 8 am October watching Field Trips to the 2nd Wednesday at 8 am Oc-
Meet 8 am through March (7 am during San Pedro River. tober-March; 7 am April-
summer months). Bird Walk 2-3 hour birding field trips to September: Bird Walk at
• Dec 20 FSPR bird
at Sierra Vista Environ- Gordon Lewis' property on San Pedro House.
walk. Meet at San mental Operations Park. the San Pedro River. Meet at 4th Saturday at 8 am Octo-
Pedro House at 8 Limited to 20 participants the pulloff just west of the ber-March; 7 am April-
am. NOTE: this is a with two docents. bridge on the north side of September: Bird Walk at
rescheduled “4th Highway 92 (near Palominas, San Pedro House. (South off
Saturday” walk— gate numbered 10663). Hwy 90 just west of the San
replaces Dec 27 Pedro River)
• Dec 27 Ramsey
Canyon CBC (see
cover story) HAS Winter Field Trips
• Jan 3 Audubon Re-
December 9 and January 10: Whitewater Draw
search Ranch CBC
(see p. 3) Journey to the Sulphur Springs Valley to see thousands of Sandhill Cranes. Trips are free and
open to the public. Leaders TBA—watch the website: www.huachuca-audubon.org. Meet 8 am
• Dec 9 and Jan 10 at Sierra Vista City Hall to carpool.
HAS trips to
January 27: Grasslands & Del Valle Rd
Whitewater Draw.
Meet 8 am at Sierra Field trip through the Grasslands along Del Valle Road starting at 8am. From Sierra Vista, take
Vista City Hall Highway 90 east toward the San Pedro River. Before the river, turn right, pass through the
gate, and proceed to the parking area at San Pedro House. Trip is free and open to the public.
• Jan 14-16 Wings
Meet: at San Pedro House at 8 am.
over Willcox
Leaders: Erika Wilson (234-4359, terika88@cox.net) & Alan Blixt (515-9458 alan-
• Jan 27 HAS trip blixt@hotmail.com)
Grasslands / de
Valle Road. Meet at Note: Car pool passengers are expected to provide adequate compensation to their drivers,
San Pedro House 8 about 8 cents per mile. ¡Gracias!
am
• Feb 13-16 Great 15th Annual Wings Over Willcox (Arizona)
Backyard bird January 14-18, 2009
count 8 am
Be sure to catch the 15th • Raptors and winter spar- • Bats
Annual Wings Over rows • Reptiles
Willcox Sandhill Crane • Geology Attend free seminars, a trade
• Southwest history and fair, and a silent auction.
Check the web site Celebration January 14- archeology Noted ornithologist and
(http://www.huachuca- 18, 2009. • Mining, ranching, and crane scholar Dr. Paul Johns-
audubon.org) for the Tours and talks focus on: farming gard is the banquet speaker.
latest updates to the • Sandhill Cranes— • Beginning and advanced For more information, con-
schedule of events. thousands up close and birding tact 800-200-2272 or visit
personal • Wildlife photography, www.wingsoverwillcox.com.
• Astronomy
Trogon News Volume XXX Number 4
Page 5

Trip Report: San Rafael del Valle Road

Hi birders,
Ten HAS members walked
south along the Old San
Rafael del Valle Road from
San Pedro House this morn-
ing. It was cold and cloudy
when we started, but sunny
and mild by the time we re-
turned in the late morning.
We swung by Green King-
fisher Pond on our way back,
where we added a few water
birds. We tallied 38 species,
with the most unusual bird
being a female Western
Tanager in the mesquites
around San Pedro House.
Sparrows were by far the
most common birds; it looks
like we may have a good win-
ter for this group. We saw
Chipping, Brewer's, Vesper,
Lark, Savannah, Song, Lin-
coln's, and White-crowned
sparrows. [We did not work which it finally did. A Green
the area east of San Pedro Heron there was a nice addi-
House where a White- tion to the list, and two vocal
throated Sparrow was seen Marsh Wrens were tantaliz-
recently.] ingly close, but we never did
At Green Kingfisher Pond all see them in the thick rushes.
was quiet until we flushed a Cheers, Erika Wilson
Great Blue Heron carrying a
huge bullfrog in its bill. It
landed across the pond and
we watched it trying to get
the frog down it gullet,

Audubon Adventures Environmental Ed Volunteer

Opportunities
Audubon Adventures is a Audubon Adventures is chuca Audubon for this kit is
• HAS Conservation
nationally acclaimed environ- posted at: www.audubon.org tax deductible.
Chair
mental education program /educate/aa/. If you would like a particular
geared for grades 3 - 6. Class- Huachuca Audubon has a teacher in our area to receive • HAS Program Chair
room kits contain materials list of local teachers inter- a kit, please include the Contact Mike Guest if
for 32 students, at a cost of ested in bringing Audubon school name and mailing you’re interested:
$45. Subject matter and ac- Adventures into their class- address, teacher's full name
tivities in the kits are aligned rooms. and grade level. mwguest@juno.com
with national science and If you would like to under- Please address any other You are invited to help
language arts standards. Mil- write a kit or kits, please send questions regarding this edu- with monitoring the effects
lions of school children have your check to our treasurer, cation outreach project to of Coronado National For-
participated in this program Phil Tucker, HAS, P.O. Box Sally Rosen at azcat- est fuels treatments
since 1984. 63, Sierra Vista, AZ 85636- sally@aol.com.. (thinning, prescribed
More information about 0063. Your donation to Hua- burns, and other treat-
ments to reduce the risk of
catastrophic wildfire and
Attend the Annual Audubon Members improve forest health) on
cavity-nesting birds
Meeting in Tempe January 30 (especially Whiskered
Screech-Owl and Lucy's
It’s a business meeting, but if you have interest in the finances Members Meeting Warbler) and other
and board of the National Audubon Society, you might want Friday January 30, 2009 neotropical migrants and
to attend the annual members meeting. Biographies of nomi- 3:00 pm gamebirds. Huachuca
nees for the board of directors appear at www.audubon.org/ Fiesta Resort and Confer- Audubon is a partner in
nas/board/bios.html). The board meeting on Sunday Febru- ence Center – room TBD this upcoming project and
ary 1 is also open to members. It runs from 8:30 to 10:30 am, 2100 South Priest Drive plans to organize volunteers
but could slip into executive session at some point. Tempe, AZ 85282 to monitor breeding birds
in the study area. Stay
It is helpful to know in advance who will be attending either 480.967.1441
tuned for more informa-
meeting, in order to assure that adequate seating is available. www.fiestainnresort.com
tion in the coming
For that reason, anyone planning to attend the annual meet- To get a special $139 room months...!
ing is asked to contact Lynn Tennefoss in the Chapter Ser- rate, call Sue Mackey at Robert Weissler,
vices Office at ltennefoss@audubon.org or 800-542-2748. The National Audubon Society weissler@aves.org.
Chapter Services Office will also be happy to answer any ques- 212.979.3152 or email at
tions about the meeting. smackey@audubon.org.
 Trogon News Volume XXX Number 4
Page 6

Shop at our
Marketplace for the
Holidays! Raise
money for Huachuca
Audubon!
Support your Huachuca
Audubon Society by
shopping at our online
Marketplace. Just click on
the shopping bag banner
on the left side of the
Huachuca Audubon Soci-
ety home page
(www.huachuca-
audubon.org) and raise
money for us! Please
remember that ONLY
purchases made online at
participating merchants
(accessed by clicking on
our website Marketplace)
banner first will raise
money for us. Otherwise,
the merchants will not be
able to return a portion
of the purchase cost to
Huachuca Audubon.
Get involved! Be part of Audubon’s Arizona
Conservation Workshop February 28
If you are interested in be-
coming an effective Audu-
bon conservationist in Ari-
zona, come and join others
who share that interest dur-
ing a day-long workshop at
the Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum in Tucson on Satur-
day February 28, 2009.
Among the goals of our
Audubon Conservation
Workshop are to determine
what we consider to be the
most important wildlife con-
servation threats in our state
in 2009 and to determine
the scope of their impor-
tance. Which threats span
our local region, the state,
and the nation? How do we
in Audubon effectively ad-
dress these threats, and how
do we ensure that we work
most effectively within the
context of other conservation
groups in the state, and in
the context of other chapters,
our state office, and National
Audubon?
Inevitably, many of the issues
upon which we work will fall
within broader priorities for
Audubon at the national
level, for example, question-
ing details of land use and
planning decisions may be
part of broader concerns
related to climate change and
water.
Our day will be a mix of pres-
entations, discussions, and
smaller workgroups, and will
include representatives from
other organizations, our state
office, each chapter in our
state (and perhaps from
other states also), and from
National Audubon. We an-
ticipate setting up work-
groups to work on issues
following our summit, and
there will be homework to
do in advance. Please let us
know today if you want to be
involved. Please send your
contact details to jbarch-
man@tucsonaudubon.org or
call Jean on 520 622 5622.
You’ll be able to access
homework materials online
at www.tucsonaudubon.org/
conservation. In addition, we
shall endeavor to find local
Audubon members who will
provide accommodations for
those traveling from outside
the Tucson area.
from Paul Green, Tucson Audu-
bon, on behalf of the Arizona
Audubon Council.

Speak Up to Help the San Pedro River

In addition to reducing your
personal water consumption
as much as possible, there's
now another action you can
take to help keep water in
the San Pedro River. Current
Arizona law does not con-
sider the health of rivers or
the impact on private wells
when deciding if there is an
adequate supply of water for
a proposed subdivision.
We the people have the
power in our hands and pens
(or mouses - mice?) to change
that. Dash off a quick note
to the address on the right
requesting consideration of
these impacts in the subdivi-
sion approval process. Ask
for a modification of the
standards for defining physi-
cal availability under SB1575
in the Upper San Pedro
River Basin to include:
• Protection of the San Thank you!
Pedro River
• Protection of the Ba- Tricia Gerrodette
bocómari River
• Protection of Fort Hua- Send your letters to:
chuca
AZ Department of Water
• Protection of existing
Resources
private wells
Attention: Doug Dunham
• Any other ideas you have
3550 North Central Avenue
for aquifer protection
Phoenix, AZ 85012
If you have any questions,
please contact me at 378-
4937 or triciag2@cox.net).
Trogon News
A r ev i e w o f B i rd wa t c h e r - t h e L i f e o f R o g e r To r y P e t e r s o n
b y E l i z a b e t h J R o s e n t h a l / p u b l i s h e r T h e Lyo n s P r e s s
Birdwatcher is not for every
reader. It won’t make one a
better birder, illustrator, or
presenter; it will give you an
exhaustive, even exhausting,
extremely well documented
story of the life and times of
Roger Tory Peterson. With
encouragement from a
school teacher and the assets
of the Junior Audubon Club
he commenced birding at
the age of eleven, a hobby,
pastime, vocation, and pro-
fession he honed and devel-
oped daily, until his death at
88.
Present-day birders have a
host of great field guides
begging for our attention,
and a new one is published
every month or so, but this
was not always the case. To
Peterson goes the credit for
producing the first true field
guide, one with meaningful
descriptions and well exe-
cuted illustrations portraying
individual birds, complete
with arrows pointing to their
distinguishing features. As
Birdwatcher explains this was
a revolutionary development
which allowed anyone with a
copy of his book, A Field
Guide to the Birds, to go into
the field and, for the first
time, be able to identify
their sightings. The book
Volume XXX Number 4
Page 7
was sold by the tens of thou- his ambitions and achieve-
sands and birdwatching ments.
soared in popularity. A great
Birdwatcher concludes with
achievement for a 25 year
an impressive list of those
old. It has also served as the
interviewed by the author
basis for almost every other
and 22 pages of chapter
field guide since produced.
notes, all of which tell us
Birdwatcher gives the reader how thoroughly the subject
many interesting vignettes was researched.
particularly in Peterson’s
Mike Guest
early life; and later the story
of his near-drowning boating
accident at age eighty two is
easily the most dramatic and
memorable. But will the
average reader really need to
know of each and every
board and committee, and
its members, attended by
Peterson.
We are, however, also in-
formed of his developing
egotistic nature, and of Mil-
dred, Barbara, and Ginny,
his respective wives and how
hard they worked, mainly in
the background, to further
HUACHUCA AUDUBON SOCIETY
P.O. BOX 63
SIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA 85636

Directors Huachuca Audubon Society Directory (520 area code)

Ginny Bealer 378-6341 President Mike Guest mwguest@juno.com 378-0667

Tricia Gerrodette 378-4937 Vice President Robert Weissler weissler@aves.org 803-0794
Dave Cunningham 378-2201 Secretary Anne Graf batfalcon2@yahoo.com
Sherry Cunningham 378-2201 Treasurer Phil Tucker wbunlimited1013 803-8440
@qwestoffice.net
Alan Blixt 515-9458

Arizona Audubon Council Representative Committee Chairs

Tricia Gerrodette Field Trips Robert Weissler weissler@aves.org 803-0794
Alan Blixt alanblixt@hotmail.com 515-9458
Education Ginny Bealer v.bealer@cox.net 378-6341
Membership Ginny Bealer v.bealer@cox.net 378-6341
Visit the website for current information:
www.huachuca-audubon.org Conservation vacant
Webmaster, Robert Weissler Programs vacant
Submit Trogon News items to:
has_admin@huachuca-audubon.org
“Print” Trogon News Editor, Brooke Gebow