Subject: bootheel birds and Sally Spofford
Date: Jan 8 22:04:26 2003
From: newboldwildlife at netscape.net - newboldwildlife at netscape.net




Hi all,
My wife Delia and I are just back from the bootheel of New Mexico where we birded intermittently for 8 days. Except for one day in the San Simon valley east of Portal Arizona, we were in the Peloncillo (5 to 6000 ft where we were) range of New Mexico and confined to foot travel. This is Pinyon /oak/juniper habitat.
We missed the wintering male Elegant Trogon that was in the pyracantha in front of the birder-friendly Cave Creek Ranch in Portal AZ every morning, but our discovery of a Greater Yellowlegs, though sort of ho hum to us WA birders, added a new species to the Portal AZ count. (Portal recorded a record 141 species and the Peloncillo count a respectable 91). Our list of species seen (in order) contains nothing unusual, but I?m hoping people won?t mind a list with some non-Western WA birds:

1. White Crowned Sparrow
2. Chipping Sparrow
3. Pine Siskin
4. Spotted Towhee (one of the most successful species in the Peloncillos)
5. Mexican Jay
6. Phainopepla
7. House Finch
8. Mourning Dove
9. Dark Eyed Junco
10. Ruby Crowned Kinglet
11. White Breasted Nuthatch
12. Black Throated Sparrow
13. Black Chinned Sparrow
14. Gambel?s Quail
15. Pyrrhuloxia
16. Western Bluebird
17. Red Shafted Flicker
18. Cactus Wren
19. Bewick?s Wren
20. Lincoln?s Sparrow
21. Rufous Crowned Sparrow
22. Leser Goldfinch
23. Bushtit
24. Townsend?s Solitaire
25. Green Tailed Towhee
26. Sharp Shinned Hawk
27. Loggerhead Shrike
28. Crissal Thrasher
29. Curve Billed Thrasher
30. Am. Kestrel
31. Northern Raven (increasing through three drought years)
32. Road Runner
33. Sage Sparrow
34. Vesper Sparrow
35. Brewer?s Sparrow
36. Northern Harrier
37. Cooper?s Hawk
38. Brewer?s Blackbird
39. Black tailed Gnatcatcher
40. Verdin
41. Yellow Rumped Warbler
42. Greater Yellowlegs
43. Red Tailed Hawk
44. Sandhill Crane
45. Northern Cardinal
46. Magnificent Hummingbird
47. Acorn Woodpecker
48. Lesser Scaup
49. Ring Necked Duck
50. Common Snipe
51. (Mexican) Mallard
52. Scrub Jay
53. Canyon Towhee
54. Horned Lark
55. Sage Thrasher
56. Mountain Bluebird
57. Black Phoebee
58. Say?s Phoebee
59. Chestnut Collared Longspur
60. Western Meadowlark
61. Golden Eagle
62. American Robin
63. Green Winged Teal
64. Killdeer
65. Juniper Titmouse
66. Ladder backed Woodpecker
67. Stellar?s Jay
68. Fox Sparrow
69. Red Naped Sapsucker
70. Hermit Thrush
71. American Goldfinch


The rest of the news from Portal is more depressing. I refrained from posting last October when Sally Spofford died, but her obituary appeared in the NYTimes and I?m sure many on Tweeters have wonderful memories of her. She was a rare and special person, a quintessential naturalist and promoter of birdwatching and one of the nicest people anyone could know. The following text is unfortunately one I?m working on as a press release for national media:

Sally Spofford: The late beloved backyard birder?s land is for sale
A legacy denied?

Sally Spofford, until her death from a fall on October 26th, was without question the most famous backyard birder in the United States. A retired ornithologist, she was the subject of many a story in the birding press and regular media and of many a tale told by travelers from all over the world who encountered her generosity and the plentiful birds in her yard on their trips to SE Arizona. Now Spofford?s legacy is in doubt. Her homestead on 8 acres of land and another 160 acres of land that she and her late husband Walter Spofford acquired to save for conservation is going up for sale. The trouble is, most of her closest friends in the tightknit community of Portal, Arizona, are certain that Sally didn?t want this to happen. It was common knowledge there that Sally believed she had succeeded in saving her land for posterity.

At a meeting last March attended by Spofford, her lawyer (also the executor of her will), and four friends, a trust was agreed upon. The trust would have governed the homestead and the land, which was not to be sold or developed. It was to have been administered as a conservation area and feeding station where birders would continue to be welcomed as they had for all of the thirty years the land had been in the Spofford?s care.

Anyone who knew Sally, and I include myself here, can?t imagine that finalizing this trust would not have been a top priority for Spofford, who demonstrated her concern for conservation and her love of nature every day.

Indeed, if Sally had a fault in the world, it may have been that she was too trusting. Her personal lawyer, a family friend from her days in New York, now apparently claims that Sally did nothing to ensure a conservation legacy for her lands. At the March meeting, neighbors say this same lawyer waxed positively eloquent over the fact that the land would be protected forever. As executor of the will, he has sealed the house and is in control of all documents regarding the matter. The will that has been made public appears to be remarkably brief, making no specific mention of the land, house or grounds.
Born in 1914, Sally Spofford was a PhD ornithologist who, as administrative assistant, ran the famed Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology for the late Dr. Arthur Allen. She moved with her husband Walter Spofford, (also a famous ornithologist who died in 1995) to the hamlet of Portal Arizona in 1972, where she immediately began her program of bird feeding and opening their yard to the world of interested bird observers.

Ed Newbold Seattle newboldwildlife at netscape.net





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