Tuesday Bird Walk – Anza Trail--Tubac - 6-May-25; Journal – Let’s Escape for a Bit
 

We had 10 birders on our unofficial bird walk today. We walked the loop trail behind the center. It was a cloudy day with temps starting in the mid-50s.  Luckily the winds of recent days have calmed.  It was one of the better birding days in recent years.  Highlights included a Tropical Kingbird, a lone White-faced Ibis, Western Flycatcher, lingering Lazuli Bunting, an Olive-sided Flycatcher, and many more.  The walks will continue next week. Caroline declared the Blue Grosbeak as the bird of the day.
 

We had a total of 63 species today. The Trip Report is here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/363046
 

JimTUBAC NATURE CENTER JOURNAL - LET’S ESCAPE FOR A BIT
 

Periodically we meet with three other couples for an evening socializing and talking about any topic that arises. At our most recent gathering politics came up, and by the end of the discussion there was dead, depressed silence. You may share our concern about constitutional guardrails, political chaos and loss of environmental protection, or not, but either way let’s escape if only for a few moments. If you have been reading the Journal for a while you might remember that I spent some time discussing a book by Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer entitled, Braiding Sweetgrass. She has a new book out entitled, The Serviceberry. Kimmerer teaches biology at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, and is a member of the Potawatomi Nation, a people of the Great Lakes region.
 

Kimmerer notes that a central feature of our modern economy is scarcity. Goods and services are treated like commodities that in order to acquire and satisfy our needs we use money to purchase in the marketplace. In this system some of us get obscenely rich, some of us do fine, and others are living hand to mouth or worse. She suggests that we could adopt a “gift economy.” In a gift economy wealth is understood as having enough to share. Status is determined NOT by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. The currency is not money but relationships, which is expressed as gratitude, interdependence, and ongoing cycles of reciprocity. For example, a person who had an abundance of serviceberries* would give their excess to neighbors, and would expect out of gratitude reciprocal gifts from their neighbors from their abundance, whatever form that might take.
 

Sound wacky, or at least impossible? Maybe not! What happens when a natural disaster occurs? Over and over we hear about the generosity of spirit from neighbors, and from strangers who travel from afar to lend a hand free -no money is paid. The payment is gratitude, and though you read much less about this, I expect reciprocity in some measure from the “helped” to the “helper” when tragedy or need strikes the latter. According to Adam Smith his “economic man” is characterized as a greedy, isolated individual acting purely in self-interest to maximize return on investment. Does Smith’s definition explain the helper? Or you on many occasions? Though a National gift economy may be a pipe dream at this stage of our evolution, is it so far fetched on a smaller, a local scale? If begun on a small scale, could it mature into something larger? I am not sure where I am going with this, but stay tuned for the breathtaking answer in next week’s Journal.
 

*Serviceberry - often called shadbush or Amelanchier has edible berries, also provides white flowers in Spring that were used in funeral services, hence serviceberries.
 

Jim Karp
Tubac Nature Center
May 6, 2025

Anza Trail--Tubac - 6-May-25 - 08:03 AM - 2.115 mile(s) - 4 hour(s), 17 minute(s) – Caroline
 

4 Mexican Duck
2 Wild Turkey – Large dark birds. They were on the loop trail.
14 White-winged Dove
8 Mourning Dove
3 Anna's Hummingbird
7 Broad-billed Hummingbird
1 White-faced Ibis
28 Turkey Vulture
1 Gray Hawk – Saw one and heard the calls
12 Gila Woodpecker
6 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher
1 Western Wood-Pewee
1 Hammond's Flycatcher
1 Dusky Flycatcher
1 Western Flycatcher
1 Black Phoebe
2 Say's Phoebe
4 Vermilion Flycatcher
5 Dusky-capped Flycatcher
1 Ash-throated Flycatcher
7 Brown-crested Flycatcher
2 Cassin's Kingbird
1 Western Kingbird
5 Bell's Vireo (Arizona)
2 Common Raven
2 Bridled Titmouse
3 Verdin
5 Violet-green Swallow
1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
5 White-breasted Nuthatch (Interior West)
3 Brown Creeper – We heard the song and had good views of 2 as they were climbing up trees. We heard one farther on the trail.
2 Northern House Wren
3 Bewick's Wren
2 European Starling
2 Northern Mockingbird
2 Swainson's Thrush
1 American Robin
30 Phainopepla – Many in the hackberry trees along Bridge Road.
4 House Finch
15 Lesser Goldfinch – Conservative estimate. We saw a few but many more singing
1 Rufous-winged Sparrow
13 Chipping Sparrow – Rusty caps, dark eye - line, unstreaked whitish below, gray rumps.
1 Brewer's Sparrow
8 Lark Sparrow
10 Song Sparrow (fallax Group)
5 Abert's Towhee
1 Green-tailed Towhee
3 Yellow-breasted Chat
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Great-tailed Grackle
4 Lucy's Warbler
2 MacGillivray's Warbler
3 Common Yellowthroat
8 Yellow Warbler
1 Black-throated Gray Warbler
2 Townsend's Warbler
14 Wilson's Warbler
10 Summer Tanager
4 Western Tanager
8 Northern Cardinal
4 Black-headed Grosbeak
1 Blue Grosbeak – Adult male. My bird of the day.
 

Number of Taxa: 63  Membership in the Tubac Nature Center is on a calendar year basis.
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