THURSDAY BIRDERS GROUP PROVIDES COMPANIONABLE BIRDING

We stood captivated watching the Great Horned Owl scrutinize us from its perch in a niche in the red sandstone ruins at Quarai National Monument. Its silence matched the stark walls of the desolate church remains. The fall air had warmed slightly, and the sky was a deep azure blue. I felt blessed.

I was on my weekly outing with the Central New Mexico Audubon Society’s ‘Thursday Birders.’ We had gathered at 8 AM at the Four Hills Shopping Center and car pooled to a member’s home in the Manzano Mountains where we warmed ourselves with hot coffee and watched the activity at their myriad feeders from the windows that run the length of their home. It was also a time to catch up. A newcomer was about to build a house in the mountains, someone had returned from spending the summer in Michigan, and another spoke excitedly about their upcoming Elderhostel birding trip to Ecuador.

“There is a Calliope Hummingbird on the right,” someone exclaimed, as we watched hummingbirds buzz in and out at one of the feeders.

“How can you tell?” someone else asked. “They all look the same.”

“Watch the bill,” Karen explained. “It is much shorter than the bills of the others.”

Sure enough, I could see the difference. I learn something new every time I am with this group, many who are very accomplished birders. Regardless of where I have birded, I have experienced the generosity of helpful information from other birders.

After an hour, our car pool snaked its way south along State 357.

“We’re watching a raptor circling,” a voice announced over the walkie-talkie. We all inched our cars onto the shoulder and got out to ID the bird, a Red-tailed Hawk. A kettle of Turkey Vultures wafted on the thermals.

Further along, we could see small pale brown birds flushing from the bushes as we passed, and again, we pulled over to examine them. They were ‘chippies,’ or Chipping Sparrows, migrating in for the winter. Western Bluebirds and Western Kingbirds rested on the fence railing across the highway.

The scenic road passed through several old land grant villages, one with the oldest apple orchard in North America. At State 55, we turned west, and after a nonproductive stop at Manzano pond, we headed to Quarai.

Just beyond the ruins where the owl continued to sit, Lou spotted movement in an ocotillo cactus, and we all gathered around. It kept flying out and then back, this time to some dead branches above the cactus, indicative of a flycatcher – but which one?

Rebecca, our bird call expert, recognized the sharp “whit,” indicative of an empidonax type of flycatcher. “Its tail is flicking down,” someone observed.

“Notice that its head looks largish for its body,” noted Russell who was a visiting birder from Austin, Texas. “And its breast is pale. I would say that it is Least Flycatcher.”

Sure enough, a glance at my National Geographic Field Guide to Birds, showed its migration route knifing through New Mexico. I would have had difficulty with a positive ID without the collective wisdom of my birding friends, enabling me to get a new life bird.

The breezes rustled the leaves of the cottonwood trees as the group ate lunch.

On the next Thursday trip we explore migrants in the Corrales Bosque. Life is good.

Confessions of an Errant Pie Baker

I really like pie. In fact, it is my favorite dessert. Give me a peach, berry, or lemon pie any day rather than cake. Therefore, it seemed like a natural volunteer opportunity when our church started making pies for the Asbury Café at the state fair to raise money for hunger projects.

The first year I signed my name by one of the openings for an apple pie. I had moved into a house with an apple tree in the backyard and was looking forward to making desserts with my own apples.

“We really like folks to sign up for 2 pies,” the committee representative said when she noticed I had only put my name on one line. “The pie tins come packed together in twos.”

“Well, OK,” I responded meekly. How hard could two pies be? After all, Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crust comes two crusts to a package.

Feeling like an urban farmer, I hummed as I picked enough apples off my tree to fill two pie crusts. Peeling those tiny apples seemed to take forever. I began to wish I had one of those devices that make peeling apples easy. Next is the easy part, I thought. After I had stuffed the sink full of peelings down the garbage disposal, I began to cut the apples in preparation for slicing.

Something black lurked at the center. “Ugh!” I exclaimed out lout. I was not prepared to find a worm nestled around the core, its pathway winding through the apple. Perhaps this is an anomaly, I thought. However, no such luck – worms had taken up residence in most of the apples.

After tediously cutting away the wormy parts, I rinsed them thoroughly, hoping the de-wormed apples would meet health department standards. What a rude awakening to find the remaining bowl of sliced apples was significantly less than what I needed. Back to the apple tree to pick, peel, core and slice many more apples.

All of the volunteers received a set of aluminum pie tins, a reminder of the date the pies were due, and accompanying information.

“You are Wonderful,” the flyer began, and then continued, “The Asbury Café at the New Mexico State Fair has a reputation for serving scrumptious pies.” Also included were the ‘Pie Guidelines.’ “Better Homes and Gardens double crust pastry recipe is a standard, but you are welcome to use any family favorite,” the pamphlet stated.

“Oh, dear,” I exclaimed. My Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts were already coming to room temperature, and there was no time to start from scratch – if I even knew how.

There is no favorite family pie crust recipe. My mother evidently continued to harbor traumatic memories of her pie fiasco as a new bride. She only made two kinds of pies, purely out of obligation – lemon meringue for my Dad’s birthday and pumpkin for Thanksgiving. Smart woman – they were both one-crust pies. This led to limited coaching in pie preparation. And, as she demonstrated the appropriate technique for rolling out a crust, she would say, “You know, my first pie crust was so awful, I threw it against the kitchen wall.”

I made my pies with the refrigerated pie crust. The perfectly circular crust created a beautiful pie.

I must be glutton for punishment. The next year I again signed up for apple pies. I used Granny Smith apples from the supermarket – and refrigerated pie crust. Working full time and single-parenting two challenging adolescents limited my ability to venture into making crust from scratch. They were lucky to get my pies!

Year 3, I signed up for a repeat performance. However, my life had become more hectic, and I lost track of when I was supposed to produce the pies. I arrived home from work to the reminder call letting me know that I could deliver my pies to the church either at 7 PM that evening, or by 7:30 AM the following morning. I barely had time to eat my dinner and get to choir practice. What would I do? They were counting on my pies!

I hatched a plan. After choir practice, I stopped at the supermarket and purchased two Marie Callender’s frozen apple pies. I brought them home and popped them out of the tins. They fit perfectly in the aluminum pie plates I received. After placing them in their new baking containers, I re-scrunched the edges of the pie to look more natural. It was late when the pies came out of the oven – looking picture perfect, but not too perfect. I set the alarm early so I could deliver the pies before I went to work.

After my knee replacements, I took a hiatus from pie baking.

This was the year to try again. One of the joys of retirement has been having the time to cook. So, I signed up for two pies this year – blueberry – no peeling and coring. Breanne also decided to bake a pie, and I agreed to help her. She was going to do a cherry pie. Unfortunately, she came down with a respiratory infection, so I ended up baking three pies.

This year it would not be refrigerated pie crust! However, since I had not made crust from scratch since pre-made refrigerated pie crust was developed, I opted for using Betty Crocker’s pie crust mix. All I had to do was add the cold water. I would do all of the mixing and rolling of the dough – if I could find my rolling pin. I had not used it since I abandoned the ritual of cutout sugar cookies for the holidays.

I gently mixed the dough until it formed a ball. I recalled my 8th grade home economic teacher’s admonition to handle the pie crust as little as possible. I plopped the ball of dough on the board and proceeded to roll with light strokes. The edges were all crooked and cracked. I cut off some pieces and tried to make it round. Then, pie crust number one was in its tin.

The second one was a little better, and by time I got to number 5, I had gotten the technique down. My dog, Jasper, did his part cleaning up dough scraps from the floor. As I slid the last pie in the oven, I surveyed the kitchen. There was flour everywhere. It resembled my kitchen the year I hosted a Christmas cookie decorating party for four kindergarten-aged children!

As I prepared the pies for transport to the church, I surveyed my handiwork. These definitely looked home-baked! As I handed them over, I pronounced triumphantly, “I didn’t use prepared crust this year!”

“Oh, you can use refrigerated crust,” she replied. “We are just delighted to have your pies.”

ANWR DRILLING NOT THE ANSWER TO ENERGY CRISIS

The headline in the Albuquerque Journal Sept. 8 pronounced, ‘Better Mileage Rules Backed.’ “Wow,” I thought. “That’s encouraging!” Then my eye dropped to the sub-headline: ‘ANWR Drilling Also Supported Among Voters.’

Research & Polling, Inc. obtained these figures from a poll, commissioned by the newspaper, of 400 registered voters across New Mexico. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed felt that Congress should increase the mileage standards for new cars, and 53% supported opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil and natural gas drilling. I have been stewing about this disturbing news and how my Jottings might be a vehicle to spread the word about the importance of our national wildlife refuges, and ANWR in particular.

The National Wildlife Refuge System celebrated its 100th birthday in 2003. The following proclamation by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 3, 1903 launched the national commitment to wildlife preservation in motion:
It is hereby ordered that Pelican Island in Indian River in section nine, township thirty-one south, range thirty-nine east, State of Florida, be, and it is hereby reserved and set apart for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserve and breeding bird for native birds.

From this inauspicious beginning, the National Wildlife Refuge System now encompasses 538 refuges dotted across all fifty states, occupies 95 million acres, and reflects our country’s promise to safeguard both the habitats and its inhabitants for future generations. During the past fifty years, a number of key legislative actions strengthened the nation’s resolve to preserve our nation’s natural resources e.g. the Wilderness Act, the National Trails and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the National Forest Management Act. Other legislative policy initiatives included the National Environmental Policy Act, which created the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. All strengthened the promise of conservation. Despite this commitment, administrative rule changes and proposed legislation threaten to dismantle these safeguards.

The polling figures, I believe, reflect the public’s reaction to high gas prices and their belief that there is no other alternative. It is an easy choice that does not require any change in lifestyle.

ANWR, the largest refuge, comprising 19.2 million acres, is comparable in size to the state of South Carolina. Its website describes the diversity of ecosystems, including boreal forests, taiga plains, rocky peaks, river valleys, lagoons, barrier islands, and fragile tundra along the coastal plain. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency states, “A prominent reason for establishment of the Arctic Refuge was the fact that this single protected area encompasses an unbroken continuum of arctic and subarctic ecosystems.” The legislation creating the refuge permanently established 8 million acres as wilderness, primarily encompassing the mountainous areas, leaving the balance in question

The area bordering the coast, known as 1005, is the center of the drilling controversy. Most of the publicity focuses on the Porcupine and Central Arctic Caribou. However, this area is also home to 177 species of birds, many of which nest on the tundra and marshy wetlands. The law establishing the refuge specified further study on this 1.5 million acre region, which has made it vulnerable.

Existing oil development is located along the northern Alaskan coast up to the refuge border. Proposed legislation would allow drilling on 2,000 acres. On the surface, this sounds reasonable. However, what most do not realize is that this is not 2,000 contiguous acres, but spread throughout the coastal plain, like tendrils of a spider web. According to an article in Time Magazine, ‘Some Shaky Figures on ANWR Drilling,’ oil companies only have to count the area where a drilling platform actually touches the ground. The article states, “Each drilling platform can take up as little as 10 acres. The pipelines are above ground. For space purposes, the amendment counts only the ground touched by the stanchions holding up the pipe. Road widths also are conveniently left out of the space limit.”

Scattered drilling development would leave the area permanently scarred. An article in the autumn 2005 Wildlife Refuge Magazine details the dangers. “Direct effects include loss of nesting habitat to drill pads and road construction, seismic exploration, and dust from roads and construction work. Indirect effects include the inevitable oil spills, changes in drainage around roads, and potentially higher predation rates on shorebirds by birds of prey and foxes drawn to human activity.”

Drilling would put many waterfowl and shorebirds at risk, as this area supports the highest density of breeding shorebirds in North America. Others that breed on coastal islands depend upon this area of the refuge for critical feeding grounds before they embark on their marathon flights to the southern hemisphere. Eric Jay Dolin quotes former Supreme Court Chief Justice, William D. Douglas in the Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges, “this last American living wilderness must remain sacrosanct.”

Why does it matter whether these species are threatened? Congress answered this question in the preamble to the Endangered Species Act: “endangered and threatened species of wildlife and plants are of esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational and scientific value to the nation and its people.” While extinction is a natural part of evolution, the rate of extinction has accelerated at an unnatural and alarming rate through loss of habitat.

A comprehensive alternative energy policy is needed – one that is not dependent on oil, whether our own or foreign oil. Scott Weidensaull, in the conclusion of his book Return to Wild America, sums it up. “We have, I think, a responsibility to stretch beyond what common sense says is possible….The key is hope, because hope when painted with the ferocious love Americans have for their land, becomes action.”