What a magical time of year to be outdoors. If you feel too tied to your computer or your armchair, read on and discover all kinds of wonderful and worthwhile things to do outdoors with people of a like mind!

First, don't forget to take a stroll to your local voting station next Tuesday to cast your vote. Remember to make a point of voting NO on Prop 122. That would give Arizona the power to declare federal laws (like the Endangered Species Act) unconstitutional and then make it illegal for the state, counties, cities, and towns to use resources to enforce federal laws, or even "cooperate" with federal officials! More below.

You'll find details of Tucson Audubon's upcoming free birding trips below, together with a link to a full listing of all upcoming trips. Learn from our knowledgeable leaders as you bird.

Tucson Audubon's Mason Center, a sustainability demonstration site, has a tremendous need for volunteers. And you'll find a growing list of other volunteer opportunities for you below also.

Take a drive in November to the first Bisbee Film Festival with a string of FREE films about wildlife and environment. I'll be speaking for a few minutes following the showing of Emptying the Skies. While the tickets are free, you do need to book seats online since seating is limited.

There is some updated information regarding some of this year's Christmas Bird Counts: you'll find a link to them all below.

And isn't southeast Arizona the premier birding location in the nation? Then vote for our area in a national poll. 

Finally, please join around 200 or more of our members at our Seventh Annual Gala with Brad Lancaster on the evening of February 10, 2015. Please Save the Date!

Thank you Jo for sharing your love of birds, birding, and the places they live through Tucson Audubon.

Prop 122 is a dangerous proposal, placed on the Arizona ballot by the State Legislature, that would jeopardize the health of our air, water, and vulnerable species, not to mention waste taxpayer money!

Prop 122 would give Arizona the power to declare federal laws (like the Endangered Species Act) unconstitutional and then make it illegal for the state, counties, cities, and towns to use resources to enforce federal laws, or even "cooperate" with federal officials!

Don't let the Legislature squander our public dollars on future lawsuits: Vote NO on November 4th.

View the ballot measure here.

View the No on 122 website.

View a short video on why to vote NO on Prop 122.

View the Coalition’s argument against Prop 122.

Tucson Weekly also urges voters to vote NO on Prop 122.

Read this opinion piece against Prop 122 in the Arizona Daily Star.

A Little History To Start Off the Month

Saving the Great American West: The Story of George Bird Grinnell
with Hugh Grinnell, Arizona Humanities Speakers Bureau
Living With Nature Lecture in Green Valley
Saturday, Nov. 1 | 10:00am
The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes. Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.” Grinnell founded the first Audubon Society, co-founded the Boone and Crockett Club with Teddy Roosevelt, and led the effort to establish Glacier National Park. Audiences will travel back in time to the 19th century, listening to Grinnell’s own words as taken from his field journals, memoirs, personal correspondence, and newspaper editorials. $5 suggested donation.
Photo by Stuart Edwards.

LOCATION: Green Valley Recreation Desert Hills Social Center on 2980 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley, AZ.

Easy parking! See map

IN TUCSON:

Monday, November 10 | 7:00 PM

Same as above.

Monday, December 8 | 6:00 PM

Holiday Potluck and Farewell Party!
St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, Murphey Gallery East Room
Each year the holiday potluck celebrates you and other members, and all you do for Tucson Audubon. It is a great time to meet new nature enthusiasts and catch up with old friends. Birder and botanist extraordinaire Rich Hoyer will present Why Botanists Make Better Birders. Also celebrate Paul and Eng-Li Green as they conclude their tenure at Tucson Audubon. See details

Brush Up On Your Flight and Feathers

Have you taken Moving to Mastery? This course is a perfect follow up.
Advanced Topics: Flight and Feathers with Homer Hansen: November 13 & 15, 2014. NOTE new dates!
Limit 10 participants.

Deadline for registration is November 3rd.

For more details and to register online, click here. For questions, contact Bete Jones.

Image by Tim Lindenbaum

Based on a magazine essay written by noted best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker and widely republished around the world, ‘Emptying the Skies’ chronicles the rampant poaching of migratory songbirds in southern Europe.

GUEST SPEAKER: DR. PAUL GREEN |Thursday, November 6 at 7:00 PM

Reserve FREE tickets at bzbfilmfest.com

 

Nominate Someone For a Tucson Audubon Award

Tucson Audubon has three awards to honor people and institutions in southern Arizona for outstanding work in conservation, education, and recreation.

Each of those awards was named for someone who had contributed to that area. The first award in each category was awarded to the named individual.

These awards are .

• The Wally and Marion Paton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Birding
• The Kenn Kaufman Award for Excellence in Education Relating to the Natural World
• The David Yetman Award for Exhibiting or Promoting Conservation in Southern Arizona
• The President's Award which is given by the president of Tucson Audubon for practices in keeping with our mission.
  

Please nominate a deserving individual or business for one of Tucson Audubon's awards today!

Cooler Weather Means Volunteer Time

Mason Center Has Opportunities For You!

DAYS OF CARING—On October 22 we had volunteers from IBM, AAA Arizona and La Paloma Academy helping out at the Center. On October 25 a group of 18 students came from the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management. We'd like to give them all a big THANK YOU! Read the Blog post about it!

We are preparing Tucson Audubon’s Mason Center for the fall and winter season when many people visit and many events occur. As we enter the busy season a variety of regular tasks need to be done to augment the staff presence there. Please check the list of needs HERE.

Tucson Audubon's Mason Center is a wonderful place to spend time. Located on the Northwest Side, it is a 20-acre preserve of ironwood-saguaro habitat with a classroom, offices and a straw bale, solar-powered composting toilet building. The buildings and the grounds around them are a demonstration of sustainable living in our region. We make more electricity than we use, we harvest rainwater, compost and have demonstration native plant and food gardens. It’s a great opportunity to help us out and at the same time learn more about what we do there.

Gala Silent Auction Team Members
Help raise thousands of dollars for our work on birds. Are you good at reaching out to businesses and individuals to donate items for our Gala Silent Auction? We need two or more Procurement Coordinator volunteers to join the team responsible for all aspects of Tucson Audubon’s 2015 Gala Silent Auction. There is an immediate need to assist the Procurement Coordinator in identifying items of interest for the Gala and reaching out to organizations during business hours, evenings or weekends (as appropriate) by phone, letters and in-person to donate items. Bring a positive attitude and a smile. The Procurement team is involved in four roles; procurement, descriptions/bid-sheets, staging, and check-out. Position to start: Immediate. Contact Bete Jones.

Habitat Restoration Volunteers
Atturbury Wash Workdays are back with opportunities November 8 and February 14. Celebrate our cool fall weather by getting out on the land, getting dirty, and making a difference! This is a chance to wield your outdoor strengths with a team of fellow volunteers at our urban ecosystem restoration site. At the events, which run from 8am-noon, you'll learn about restoring desert ecosystems through planting native plants and installing natural channel design structures. For more information and to sign up to volunteer, contact: Andy Bennett, Ecosystem Restoration Specialist, 520.262.1314 More info about the overall project

Find the details of these positions and more here.

Upcoming Birding Field Trips—More Added!

SIGN UP for these trips at tucsonaudubon.org/fieldtrips

See the full updated list of current trips

Conservation News

If for some reason you can’t get your early ballot in the mail by Halloween, you can hold onto it and take it to any polling place on Election Day, along with your voter registration card and valid picture identification. Visit the Arizona Secretary of State’s non-partisan website to learn about the offices to be elected, who the candidates are, ballot measures, important dates and voter registration deadlines.

Voting is one of the easiest and most important ways that you can act as a citizen on behalf of Nature. Do you know how you are planning to vote yet? Our elected leaders will be making critical decisions in the coming years. These decisions directly affect our own quality of life, as well as the prospects of survival for countless, voiceless creatures of Nature—like birds! It is crucial that we educate ourselves about the candidates on our ballot, to ensure we vote to elect leaders that share our values for a healthy environment. Reputable organizations such as The League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter provide useful voting guides, scorecards on past environmental votes, and give their endorsements to conservation-minded leaders. Tucson Audubon does not endorse political candidates. However, we encourage our membership to be informed voters, and to vote for the environment by electing leaders with solid environmental voting track records and platforms.

Thinking of scary things lurking around the corner this time of year? Here’s a really scary one:Proposition 122 would give the Arizona legislature the ability to declare federal laws unconstitutional! Why would we spend precious taxpayer funds to unsuccessfully fight the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution? Be sure to Vote No on Proposition 122! More information at the beginning of this email.

Environmental Issues Gain Greater Visibility in Political Advertisements
Environmental issues have gained greater visibility this election year. The New York Times recently reported that, “Ads mentioning energy, climate change and the environment — over 125,000 spots and climbing on the Senate side — have surged to record levels during the 2014 midterm election cycle, reflecting the priorities of some of the nation’s wealthiest donors . . . In Senate races in the general election, the analysis found, energy and the environment are the third-most mentioned issue in political advertisements, behind health care and jobs.”

Study: Bird Deaths from Car Crashes May Number in Hundreds of Millions
A USA Today article reports, “A new study shows that crashes with cars and trucks kill as many as 340 million birds on U.S. roads every year — a much higher toll than bird deaths from many other human activities. Hunters bagged a mere 19 million U.S. ducks and geese in 2012, according to federal statistics, and a quarter-million to a half-million birds a year die after hitting wind turbines. Among well-studied causes of death tied to humans, only cats and collisions with buildings lead to more bird deaths than traffic does, the study says.” The study by Loss et al., published in theThe Journal of Wildlife Management, indicates that bird mortality from vehicle collisions may be significantly higher than was previously thought. Earlier research had estimated bird deaths from vehicles at 60 million to 80 million per year.

A recent New York Times article also reported on the Journal of Wildlife Management study, and discusses more broadly the toll to wildlife and society caused by wildlife-vehicle collisions, “FALL is the season of apples, frost, turning leaves and roadkill. A 2008 congressional study found that one in 20 reported motor vehicle collisions is animal-related, and the numbers peak in autumn. Annually, these incidents result in about 26,000 injuries and 200 human deaths. Across the country, collisions with deer — the most common type of animal-related incident — cost more than $8.3 billion per year, including vehicle repair, medical services, towing, law enforcement time and carcass disposal. The damages increase when larger animals like moose or elk are hit. Spring and autumn, when animals are migrating, searching for mates or evading hunters, are the riskiest periods. Many animals, including deer, are active at dusk and dawn, when twilight reduces their visibility to predators — and to drivers, resulting in more collisions.”

Tohono O’odham Reports Successful Use of New Wildlife-dedicated Underpass on State Route 86
Exciting news: Tohono O’odham Nation wildlife biologist Karen Howe released a photo of a mountain lion using one of two new wildlife dedicated underpass located on State Route 86. The remotely captured photo shows a mountain lion slinking into one of the underpasses in the early morning. In an e-mail to supporters of the project, Howe stated, “We’re very excited about this and so thanks to you all for your support and hard work to get these underpasses constructed!”  Howe also reported that fox, skunk and deer have been documented using the structures.

Construction of the two wildlife-friendly highway crossing structures began in November of 2013 and was completed in 2014 as a component of a highway widening project. Wildlife-proof fencing has been installed that not only promotes motorist and wildlife safety, but also importantly funnels wildlife to the crossing structures. The total cost of both underpass constructions is estimated at $746,280.

SR 86 lies within a critical corridor for wildlife movement. The two underpasses were funded by the Regional Transportation Authority. In 2006, Pima County voters adopted a 20-year transportation plan and financing tax that included $45 million to fund wildlife crossing infrastructure, related research and monitoring. In a statewide wildlife linkage study produced by state, federal, county governments and non-profit conservation organizations, the linkage traversed by SR 86 was dubbed the “Kitt Peak Wildlife Linkage”, and was identified as one of 28 “highest priority” linkages in the state, due to its importance facilitating connectivity for mule deer, javelina, bighorn sheep, and the desert tortoise. The Tohono O’odham Nation is also seeking federal funds to construct a wildlife overpass between the two underpasses that will be designed to facilitate bighorn sheep movement. Tucson Audubon strongly supports such forward-thinking highway projects, as they are an integral part of the solution to the growing threat to our wildlife posed by highway-induced roadkill and habitat fragmentation.

Despite County Opposition, Land Near Tumamoc Hill May be Bladed by WAPA for Transmission Pole Upgrade
The Arizona Daily Star reports, “A federal electric power agency plans to start clearing vegetation and re-grading an old maintenance road next to Tumamoc Hill as early as Monday, despite objection from Pima County officials. County taxpayers bought part of the land in 2009 for conservation, largely because Tumamoc is the longtime site of environmental research and was considered an “endangered historic place.” The new conflict between the county and the Western Area Power Administration stems from a one-mile stretch of road that cuts through the county-owned land west of Tumamoc Hill, just west of downtown Tucson. The dirt road was originally cleared in 1950 for construction of a power line, but trees and other foliage have reclaimed the path. “We believe reconstruction of the access road at this time is unnecessary and will certainly be destructive of natural, cultural and historic resources on Tumamoc Hill,” County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry wrote in a memo late Friday. County documents suggest the right of way for the power agency was set more than 60 years ago. The improvements near Tumamoc Hill are part of a larger project to replace 149 sets of power poles along an 80-mile transmission line that runs from Tucson to Cochise. Passable access roads are the first step before any maintenance on the poles begins. But the county argues that another pending, larger power project called the Southline Transmission line, if approved, could render the Tumamoc road irrelevant.”

Tucson Audubon supports Pima County’s position, and encourages decision makers to avoid any unnecessary disturbance to Tumamoc Hill and surrounding lands, so as to protect its irreplaceable ecological, scientific and historic values.

Dates For Your Calendar

Members' Annual Holiday Potluck. December 8 | 6:00 PM St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church
Rich Hoyer presents Why Botanists Make Better Birders. Also celebrate Paul and Eng-Li Green as they conclude their tenure at Tucson Audubon. See tucsonaudubon.org/calendar for full info.

Arizona Christmas Bird Counts
Schedule and details up now on our website. New counts added this week and updated!

Wednesdays Sweetwater Wetlands Bird Walk. Join Bryon Lichtenhan for an easy walk through the wetlands to see waterfowl, regular and visiting warblers, and several exciting species hiding in the reeds. Birders of all experience levels welcome! Contact leader for start time and to sign up.

Every Thursday! Wake Up With the Birds at Agua Caliente Park. Explore the ponds and Molino Basin occasionally. FREE. Call 615-7855 for meeting time or see tucsonaudubon.org/fieldtrips.html.

February 10, 2015 Tucson Audubon's Seventh Annual Gala. An Evening for the Birds: Bringing Nature Home. Featuring Brad Lancaster. Oasis Tucson:Transforming Mirage into Reality. Sponsorship details from Paul Green

Sincerely,

Dr. Paul Green
Executive Director | Tucson Audubon