I first started birding when I lived in Tucson, Arizona, many years ago. The Sonoran Desert of southeastern Arizona is one of the richest areas of biological diversity in the U.S., because it contains the southern end of the Rocky Mountain range and the northernmost edge of the Mexican Sierras, as well as providing a full expanse of Sonoran biomes and its own set of basin-and-range mountains which have different ecological niches at different elevations. As far as birds go, it's a wonderland of bright and beautiful types, many of which you are unlikely to see anywhere else in the U.S..
The richest areas for bird-watching are along the creeks and rivers that flow out of the mountains and across the desert. The riparian vegetation that grows only along these waterways sustains a variety of wildlife that otherwise couldn't survive in this harsh land.
The Chiricahua Mountains are my favorite area to camp and bird, and over the years I've had many wonderful trips there. But it was in Madera Canyon, in camp one evening after a day of bird-watching, that I saw my first and only pygmy owl -- the rare, tiny owl pictured here. ...
Madera Canyon is a great spot for birding, but it was never a favorite with my friends and I. Since it is very famous as a birding hot-spot, and easily accessible from Tucson, Madera was always packed with people. On weekends traffic could back up for miles before you even reach the canyon, and that's not my idea of a good time. But then again, because it was easy to get to and filled with so much to see -- hummingbirds of all kinds, painted redstarts, some Mexican species like yellow-eyed juncos and Mexican chickadees, plus real rarities like the trogon -- visiting was irresistable at times, especially if you could be in the canyon during the week.
So it was after dark, and we were hanging around the campfire chatting, when suddenly a wild flurry of noise came from a mesquite tree overhead. Chitter-chatter that sounded almost human, except that there weren't any words. We swung a flashlight up to see a Cactus ferruginous pygmy owl on the branch right by us. The name is much too long for this small owl. They may reach six inches from head to tail, and only weigh a couple of ounces. But they have a definite presence, with a bold look and loud voice that are unmistakable once you've seen and heard them. This one watched us a while, apparently without fear. We looked away for a moment and it was gone as suddenly as it had arrived, though we continued to hear it chattering.
I was long gone from Arizona by the time the pygmy owl was added to the Endangered Species List in 1997. The Center for Biological Diversity says that by 1999 only 47 individual pygmy owls lived in Arizona, and by 2003 habitat loss had dropped that number to 18. Over 700,000 acres of habitat had been set aside for this endangered owl and other declining desert wildlife. But developers in Arizona, who are among the most rapacious entrepreneurs in the country today, sued to reverse the decision and free the land for human use.
This month, after a series of court cases, the U.S. government decided to voluntarily remove the pygmy owl from the Endangered Species List, deciding that the Mexican populations would be enough to sustain the bird's survival. Scientists had argued that the Arizona population was genetically distinct, but at least for now the government is not accepting that argument. The decision opens up a lot of land for immediate development, which will probably make any future actions irrelevant.
"This decision isn't just a local issue. This decision really illustrate's the Bush administration's absolute contempt for wildlife and nature," said Hogan, the (Center for Biological Diversity)'s urban wildlands coordinator. "It's a fundamentally flawed decision that ignores the best science and expert recommendations, including those of the service's own biologists."
I'm sure many people will think that the extinction of one small population of one small bird is no great loss, no matter how charming that bird may be. But of course the pygmy owl is intertwined with many other desert and riparian species of the Sonoran Desert, and all of them are threatened by the vast amounts of building that continues to take place on delicate desert lands, and by the draining of streams and aquifers as people attempt to live in a landscape that can never hold so many in the long term.
I like to think that someday, when most of the people currently living in Arizona have been forced back out by lack of water, the little pygmy owl will find a way to return to this place which, unlike humans, it has evolved to live in. But for now, the loss of these birds will have to stand as one more testimonial to human hubris and greed.
Photo by Bill Miles, Arizona Fish & Game, provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Cross-posted at World Turning.