Welcome to the Huachuca Audubon Society

The Huachuca Audubon Society (HAS) offers monthly meetings in the form of lectures or slide shows on birding and natural history subjects. Meetings take place in Sierra Vista, usually on the third Tuesday of the month, September through May. Frequent birding trips to a variety of birding hotspots are offered year round. Whether in the area for a few days or newly relocated here, you are invited to join us in any activity offered.

Join our Trogon News e-mail list for chapter announcements: email our webmaster.

Breaking News!

New tours to Belize and Panama offerred by Mark Pretti Nature Tours support Huachuca Audubon! See details below.

Join us May 25 in Tucson for Protecting Our Rivers Workshop with Audubon's Western Rivers Action Network! See details below.
Be a volunteer advocate for Audubon's Western Rivers Action Network (WRAN)!
Email riosalado@audubon.org or Sarah Porter at sporter@audubon.org to find out how to join. Learn more...

Interested in the Southwest Wings Festival? Consider joining the Board!
If you would like more information, please contact Gordon Lewis via email to ranchogulag@gmail.com

Trying to find reports of rare birds in Arizona? Subscribe to AZ/NM Birds!

Want to hear about rare birds elsewhere in the ABA area? Read the ABA Rare Bird Alert on Facebook!

Schedule of Events for May 2013 [E-mail us about coming events & corrections]

Local Programs and Events

May 4th, Saturday, all day. FSPR hosts the Spring Festival/Int'l Migratory Bird Day at San Pedro House.
May 11th, Saturday, 5pm. Potluck/Presentation at A-W Research Ranch on Field Guides of the National Parks in Arizona by Steve Buckley, Botanist, National Park Service.

May 21st, Tuesday, 7pm. HAS Monthly Program: Dwight and Chris Long on Voyage to South Georgia. Hide details...

Voyage to South Georgia

The regular monthly Huachuca Audubon meeting will be on Tuesday evening, May 21. Check out the flyer.

Dwight and Chris Long will present a slide show of their fourteen day voyage aboard the expedition ship Ushuaia to South Georgia Island. They spent eight days at South Georgia, with a full day at St. Andrew’s Bay and another full day at Salisbury Plain. These two locations comprise South Georgia’s largest and second largest king penguin colonies with estimates that St. Andrew’s Bay contains 150,000 nesting king penguin pairs. The Longs visited South Georgia in October of 2012, in what is considered early spring, before the beaches became clogged with aggressive elephant seals and earlier than the summer snow melt. While concentrating on king penguins, the program includes images of other South Georgia wildlife, scenic landscapes, and the abandoned whaling stations at Stromness Bay and Grytviken, where Shackleton was buried.

The Huachuca Audubon Society monthly program will be held on Tuesday, May 21st, 7:00 pm at Cochise College in Room 702 in Bulding 700, Community Outreach at Cochise College, 901 North Colombo Avenue in Sierra Vista. See the street map for the location of the campus in Sierra Vista and the campus map for the location of the room.

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May 25th, Saturday, 8:30am - 3:30pm. Join us for Protecting Our Rivers Workshop with Audubon's WRAN

It takes place in Tucson at the Karsten Turfgrass Research Facility – Conference Center – U of A, 2101 E. Roger Rd.
Please join Audubon Arizona, Tucson Audubon and U of A's Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) at a workshop to discuss Audubon's new multi-state effort to save western rivers including the San Pedro River, namely the Western Rivers Action Network (WRAN).
See the flyer for more info. Sign up by sending e-mail to LLSARAH@MSN.COM.

Field Trips

May 8th, Wednesday, 7am. 2nd Wednesday FSPR Bird Walk. Meet at San Pedro House (SPH).
May 25th, Saturday, 7am. FSPR Bird Walk. Meet at San Pedro House (SPH).

Note: due to the particularly high price of gas, car pool passengers are expected to provide adequate compensation to their drivers, about 8 cents per mile.

Weekly Events

Every Sunday at 7am Apr-Sep (then 8am Oct-Mar), Bird Walk at Sierra Vista EOP. Learn more...

Every Sunday at 7am Apr-Sep (then 8am Oct-Mar), Bird Walk at Sierra Vista EOP. Hide details...

The Sunday bird walks at the Sierra Vista EOP (Environmental Operations Park) sponsored by Huachuca Audubon Society, Friends of the San Pedro River, and the Southeast Arizona Birding Observatory start at 7 AM. Please come early as tours are limited to 20 participants with two docents.

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Concluded for the season: Monday Bird walks on the San Pedro River.

Looking Ahead

June 1, Saturday. Annual Elegant Trogon Survey, coordinated by the USFS and Rick Taylor.
   June 2--Chiricahuas, June 8--Santa Ritas, June 9--Patagonia & Atascosa Mountains.
June 8, Saturday. Science on the Sonoita Plain at A-W Research Ranch.
June 13, Thursday, 1:30-4:30pm. Classroom session for Yellow-billed Cuckoo Survey Training at Red Rock Ranger Station near Sedona. Please contact Matt Johnson at matthew.johnson@nau.edu.
June 14, Friday, 6-10am. Field session for Yellow-billed Cuckoo Survey Training at Red Rock Ranger Station near Sedona. Please contact Matt Johnson at matthew.johnson@nau.edu.

June. Birding expedition to inventory birds of the Sierra San Luis of Northern Mexico.
Join Sky Island Alliance, the Arizona Coordinated Bird Monitoring Program, and Tucson Audubon Society for an adventure on Rancho Pan Duro southeast of Douglas/Agua Prieta.

Jul 12-15. Audubon Convention 2013 at Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA. Learn more...

For additional nearby field trips and programs, check out the Friends of San Pedro River and Friends of Sonoita Creek.
Interested in butterflies? Check out the Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association.

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International Bird Tours

Mark Pretti Nature Tours

Belize: Jewel of the Caribbean, February 1 - 11, 2014

With its largely undisturbed tropical forests, abundance of rivers, tremendous diversity of flora and fauna, outstanding birding, and rich human history, Belize is one of the world’s finest natural destinations. Within the borders of this sparsely populated Central American country lie a great variety of habitats, including mangroves, beaches, rivers, lagoons, savanna, and broadleaf tropical forest. From some of Belize's finest accommodations – Birds Eye View, Lamanai, Pook’s Hill, and Hidden Valley Inn, - we'll visit Mayan ruins, see spectacular waterfalls, enjoy a night safari boat ride and a sunset lagoon trip, and marvel at the wildlife just outside our doors. While seeing and learning about some of Belize's 570+ species of birds – including toucans, woodcreepers, tanagers, antbirds, hummingbirds, raptors, waders, and more – we’ll likely encounter howler monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles, dazzling butterflies, and other tropical treats. The cost will be about $3300 per person, double occupancy, all inclusive from Belize City, and including a $100 donation to the Huachuca Audubon Society.

Panama: The Land Between the Seas, February 21 - March 3, 2014

In addition to being a physical and ecological link between North and South America, Panama is biogeographically rich, with cool cloud forest, tropical deciduous forest, lowland rainforest, extensive coastline, and many rivers and streams, all of which contribute to a tremendous diversity of flora and fauna. From our excellent accommodations – Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and the Canopy Lodge, – we’ll explore some of these habitats and their rich wildlife. We visit Metropolitan Nature Park and the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks where we'll have a short tour of the canal and watch the locks in action. We spend four nights at Gamboa from where we visit the nearby Panama Rainforest Discovery Center and it's 100-foot tall canopy tower. In addition to spending time in two of the most well-known birding areas, Pipeline Rd. and Old Gamboa Road, we'll also enjoy a night drive and a boat trip along the canal and the Chagres River. We also spend four nights at the Canopy Lodge in El Valle de Anton with its higher and cooler habitats. In addition to birds, we'll also explore the general ecology of these areas as we learn about towering wild cashews and figs, many species of palms, colorful heliconias, many butterflies and other insects, and several mammals and reptiles. On past trips we've encountered white-nosed coatis, four species of monkeys (mantled howler, white-throated capuchin, lemurine night monkey, and Geoffrey's tamarin), Central American agouti, capybara, three species of squirrel (variegated, red-tailed, and Central American dwarf), and both two and three-toed sloths. Spectacled caiman, American crocodile, green iguana, common and striped basilisk lizards, geckos, and many anole lizards are also frequently seen. The cost will be about $3400 per person, double occupancy, all inclusive from Panama City, and including a $100 donation to the Huachuca Audubon Society.

For more information, please contact Mark Pretti at mpnaturetours@earthlink.net or 520-803-6889.

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Birding Festivals

Apr 25 - 28. Annual Verde Valley Birding Festival at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ. Learn more...
   The Verde Valley is the best kept secret in Arizona for exciting birding. Come see for yourself!
Jul 31 - Aug 3. 22nd Annual Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival. Learn more....

In order to locate upcoming festivals, please consult the American Birding Association Birding and Nature Festivals Directory or the Cornell Upcoming Bird Festivals and Events page.

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Mission Statement

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The goal of Huachuca Audubon Society members is to conserve and restore eco-systems so that birds and other wildlife can flourish and enrich the Earth's diversity. Members enjoy observing wildlife and seek its protection through efforts to advance public understanding of the relationships of all life forms and the consequences of interfering with these relationships.

Huachuca Audubon Society members are concerned conservationists who work to extend the public awareness of the value of conservation. They also seek to inform and influence lawmakers so that their work may reflect this value.

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More about Huachuca Audubon

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Questions regarding Huachuca Audubon should be directed to the web master.

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Last update: 17 May 2013 by REW.