Randall Davey Audubon Center Newsletter   Fall 2005
SANTA FE MASTER GARDENERS BEAUTIFY THE CENTER
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S NEST
A VERY FOND FAREWELL & WELCOME
A SUMMER FILLED WITH YOUNG NATURALISTS
BEYOND BARS EXHIBIT
RDAC VOLUNTEERS
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
THE BEDSIDE BOOK OF BIRDS

SANTA FE MASTER GARDENERS BEAUTIFY THE CENTER
What a difference a year makes! This is the second full year of our collaboration with the Santa Fe Master Gardeners Association (SFMGA). Their work in the Wildlife Garden that was supported in our capital campaign by Ginger Hyland has been attracting birds, insects, mammals, reptiles and humans all summer long! The “gardeners” have spent countless volunteer hours planting, pruning, watering, weeding and staffing an information table on Mondays. This year’s big addition to the garden was a gorgeous stone fountain. Robins, towhees. hummingbirds and house finches have been seen bathing and drinking in the fountain’s recirculating water. SFMGA project leader Joy Mandelbaum and her husband Ron (Audubon New Mexico Board Member) generously donated a stone bench to encourage visitors to sit, relax and enjoy the activity in the garden. Be sure to visit this special garden next time you’re at RDAC. Special thanks to SPMGA volunteers: Joy, Ron, Donna, Sylvia, Zella, Paquime, Judy, Christina, Mike, Kris, Sharlene and Lynn.

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S NEST
Recently I came across an article written by Aldo Leopold in 1933 entitled THE VIRGIN SOUTHWEST. As many of you know Aldo Leopold is considered the father of American wildlife management, and one of the great ecological thinkers of the 20th century. A side note: he also served on the National Audubon Society Board of Directors in the 1930s. His lead sentence grabbed and held me. “The major premise of civilization is that the attainments of one generation shall be available to the next.”

As Randall Davey Center and New Mexico State Director, this statement hits pretty close to home. In an ecological sense my generation inherited a certain kind of world from the previous generation that is defined by the compassion, wisdom and, yes, at times, the greed of that generation. It is now our time to define our generation and prepare to pass the torch. That is why I am always moved when I take the time to observe our education programs, either here at the Center or out in the field across the state. We are educating the next generation that will have to do the very best with what is passed on to them. I am convinced that the programs conducted by our educators and the army of interns and camp counselors will create the appropriate foundation for the decision-makers of tomorrow to put the health of the planet, our only home, in its proper priority.

We recently concluded perhaps our most successful summer camp ever. We were oversubscribed but we did what we could to accommodate all we could. Our staff was the best, and the programs and take-home messages were on mark for these future leaders. Our spring and fall classes last school year, both at schools and the Center, served to hone skills of observation, scientific investigation, and solution-based action necessary to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Our outreach program has taken this same message to schools across the state front Raton to Silver City, Roswell to Los Lunas: the importance of understanding the need to protect this state’s gift of biological and cultural diversity is so critical.

Our commitment to environmental education is stronger than ever. Programs continue to evolve and grow stronger. We are about to embark on a site planning effort for the Randall Davey Audubon Center that will help us look through a clearer lens at our needs, as we address the needs of the 21st century.

These are exciting times and I’m glad you are all a part of it.

A VERY FOND FAREWELL & WELCOME
With a mixture of sadness and joy we bid farewell to Deanna Einspahr who has skillfully guided Audubon New Mexico and the Randall Davey Center as Operations Manager for eleven years. We are excited by the possibilities that are in Deanna’s future, knowing that she will stay involved in the Audubon family as an avid birder, volunteer and Christmas Bird Counter. A full tribute to Deanna’s marvelous years with us will appear in the winter edition of the statewide Audubon New Mexico newsletter.

We are delighted to welcome Alyssa Latuchie, our new Office Manager at Audubon New Mexico and the Randall Davey Audubon Center. A native of Philadelphia, Alyssa graduated from Kenyon College in 2004 with a major in economics and a concentration in environmental studies. Shortly thereafter she moved to Santa Fe. She comes to Audubon from Youth Shelters & Family Services where site worked in financial management. She is eager to learn more about birding and natural history while at the Audubon Center. Please help us welcome Alyssa to the Audubon family!

A SUMMER FILLED WITH YOUNG NATURALISTS
As the temperatures beg in to drop and the apples in the orchard the to the ground, we are reminded that summer is coming to a close. Before beginning what is expected to be another successful year of education programs-at the Audubon Center, it is important to reflect on all that has been accomplished this summer. With the help of 42 talented youth counselors and 2 dedicated interns, the education staff offered eight weeks of extraordinary camps. Thanks to a grant from the City of Santa Fe and generous donors, five children were able to attend camp on scholarships and we hired the largest staff ever in our youth counselor program, 20 paid youth counselors and 23 youth counselors-in-training. We hope to provide even more scholarships next summer.

Twenty-two optimistic, energetic faces were welcomed for each week of camp. Campers participated in a variety of hands-on activities such as bird watching, catching wriggling lizards, discovering native plants, and exploring local geology through minerals and fossils. Using their creative imaginations, campers designed their own rain dances, created life-like fossils, and showed their strategic skills at games such as capture the flag. All in all, it was a safe and fun-filled summer for campers and staff alike!

BEYOND BARS EXHIBIT SEPTEMBER 30 – 31
Beyond Bars is an exhibit created to give chimpanzees a voice, chimpanzees that are recovering from the pain, trauma and fear of laboratory research. Artist Valerie Romano of Cloudcroft is a volunteer at The Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, a former laboratory in Alamogordo, New Mexico that has been converted into a sanctuary by Save the Chimps. She has seen first-hand the emotional and physical suffering of these animals, our closest primate kin. Most of their 1ives have been spent alone in small concrete cells. But today, thanks to the enormous efforts of many dedicated people, the animals are treated with dignity and respect in a compassionate and nurturing environment, as they are brought out of isolation and introduced into group life.

Each chimp is a unique individual, intelligent and engaging. Romano has been capturing their moods and personalities in a series of remarkable portraits since she began volunteering at the center two years ago. Between the care taking duties of washing blankets and preparing meals, she sits outside their cages, looking beyond the bars to connect and communicate with them.

Calling her involvement with the chimpanzees “life-changing,” Romano takes viewers right to the heart of that experience; in these direct, compassionate, and moving portraits, she reveals her subjects’ souls and gives voice to their silence.

Valerie Romano, 1116 Springs Circle, Cloudcroft NM 88317, 505-687-4169 vromano@pvtn.net

RDAC VOLUNTEERS
A summer at the Randall Davey Audubon Center without volunteers? Not possible!

As the RDAC staff will attest, the Summer of 2005 was especially busy and trying. Our volunteers stepped up and helped out in a myriad of ways. They worked extra shifts in the visitor center/nature store. They led birding walks every Saturday morning. They helped park cars for special events. They did endless amounts of administrative work. They shored up trails after much welcomed rains. They gave countless hours helping with rentals of the RDAC grounds. They proposed and implemented a new birding program that has become quite successful. They graciously greeted groups of people and gave tours of the historic Randall Davey home. They spent hours in the hot New Mexico sun working on special gardening projects. And they did it all with a smile!

Our sincere gratitude goes out to Tom, Arlene, Walt, Natali, Ron, Grace, Carolyn, Douglas, Martha, Ken, Pam, Elle, Nancy, Judy, Rick, Andrea, Martin, John, Scott, Karen and Ann.

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
There are times when a single person can make a huge impact. That’s the case with volunteer, Tom Kenny. Tom’s love for, and dedication to the Center were proven time and again this summer. He averaged five to six days a week working in the visitor center/nature store. He helped with rentals on almost every weekend. He “adopted” the fish in the Healy Education Building and made sure they were fed on a daily basis. He stepped in and led a tour 0f the historic Randall Davey home one Monday. And he comes up to the Center at dusk to bring in the birdfeeders and lock the gate.

Many of his fellow volunteers have commented to me about Tom’s dedication. They are impressed and so are we. Thanks Tommy!

THE BEDSIDE BOOK OF BIRDS: AN AVIAN MISCELLANY by Graeme Gibson
Reading and Booksigning, Thursday November 3 Garcia Street Books

“Graeme Gibson’s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligences are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering. It’s what I will take to bed tonight to incite my dreams” Barry Lopez

As divine messengers, symbols of our yearning for the heavens, or avatars of glorious song and color, birds have stirred our imaginations from the moment that we first looked up at the sky.

Associated with freedom, creativity, and spirit, they are featured in the creation myths and religious traditions of many different civilizations. As omens, allegories, disguises, and guides, they appear with great frequency in the mythology, folk tales, and literature of many cultures. Yet just as birds have been worshipped and celebrated throughout time, so too they have been feared, hunted, eaten, collected, culled, used for sport and fashion - and even as instruments of revenge and of war. In THE BEDSIDE BOOKS OF BIRDS: An Avian Miscellany- (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; October 25, 2005; Hardcover; $29.95), a stunning and unprecedented assemblage of words and images, acclaimed novelist and avid birder Graeme Gibson has created an extraordinary tribute to the richly varied relationships we have established with birds during the hundreds of thousands of years that we and they have shared life on earth.

The chairman of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory and an active councilmember of WWF Canada, Graeme Gibson has been involved in birding and conservation issues for many years. Along with his wife, the writer Margaret Atwood, he was instrumental in facilitating the World Wildlife Fund’s pioneering work with the Cuban government in 1988 to protect the Zapata wetlands.

9/29/05