The Caretaker

The Rock Wren remembered.  Passed on from one generation to the next before the Change, the stories were shared from one living thing to the next. The wind carried her forgotten secrets. It whispered......"Ruuuuuubbbby."

The Rock Wren remembered as he peered from his rotted rooftop home at the scarred land below. Rusty old metal scraps supported their weight on the mounds of rock and shattered glass. As he surveyed it all, the bird spotted movement. The whispers were true!

His loud whistle pierced the silence much like the first lightning bolt does during the start of a monsoon storm.

"BEWARE!  BEWARE!  They come again among us!" The mournful cry of the Montezuma Quail echoed their own warnings along the canyon walls. Everything else faded as best they could into the grasses.....vanishing into thin air like ghosts!  But not the Rock Wren.  He just watched with great curiosity.

The passing Javelina and nesting Great Horned Owls made great haste into the trees. It was the Rock Wren who first heard the faint whispers not so long ago.  Not much got by him as he was always moving about on old rooftops and rocks. In fact, that is how he heard about the stories of old. Being extremely curious, the Wren listened intently.

For it was the trees that remembered best.  They whispered their words by breeze and leaf and told the stories of the others who once lived among the Land.

For nearly 40 years, a group of beings came to settle on the Land.  It was a rough life.  At first it was a camp and then it became more. Eventually these beings created structures that the Rock Wren now used for his own home! They dug deep within the earth for the shiny rocks that defaced much of the Land now. There they slept, ate, and raised their young like other creatures do.

At times they fought against another group of similar looking beings .  Now the Rock Wren did not understand this need for loud noise and destruction. And many of the younger trees could not answer his questions. Would these new beings cause more harm to the Land after being absent for so many years?  He knew that if he wanted more information, he would have to go to the source of ancient memory.

So he went to the Great Water Tree along the deep pool and asked why these beings fought.  The Great Water Tree whispered of territories marked along the Land not unlike those created by the Mountain Lion or Bear.  So these beings had established territories.  That the Rock Wren could understand.

But the Rock Wren was still puzzled.  "Then why, Great Water Tree, did they still continue to fight and kill each other? Clearly their territory was marked. Surely they would not cross?"

The Rock Wren had noticed lately that the branches of the Great Water Tree seemed to sag as if the branches were too heavy to hold up.  He also noticed that the water in the dark pool wasn't as deep as it used to be. The Great Water Tree sighed,  "It is not for us to understand."

"But look how they have altered everything around us!  They've even poisoned our Land so that nothing green can grow. Instead of your kind living together, there are great sand dunes that keep you separated!  Even the water is poisoned so that not even my bird friends can drink!  Look at the Coyote.  He stands and hides far away.  I only know he is there when he calls to the bright light in the dark sky."

"They kill each other taking their own kind's things.  Why so much destruction?  I do not understand Great Water Tree."

"It is their way.  And while they no longer dwell here taking from the Land like they once did, you will notice that not far from their old ruins live the other beings who continue to carry things through the pastures and forests.  The Javelinas tell me that these same beings cross through the night with slings on their backs.  Sometimes they fight like the others from before. Wherever they may be, you, Rock Wren, must keep your distance and always alert the others of the Land."

The Rock Wren was puzzled by the Great Water Tree's response. "What shall I do now that these beings have returned to the Land? You are the Caretaker!  I am just a Rock Wren.  My memory is not as long nor as deep as yours! Surely you have the answers!"

The Great Water Tree carefully chose the last words. These days it took great energy to do much of anything. "As the Water disappears from the Land so will I.  You are the Caretaker now. Always keep watch and protect. Pass your knowledge on to your young. Always keep watch." And with those final words, the Great Water Tree slept.

The Rock Wren watched for several days as the new beings stayed together and walked around the Land.  He noticed that even the Coyote or Javelina could not hide from them.  But he also observed that they didn't do any harm to the Land. During the day, they walked vast distances while at night, they ate around a great light. There was much laughter after they drank what appeared to be a lot of dark water.  The following day, the Rock Wren watched them leave.  The Land was once again safe.  The new Caretaker sat on his rooftop lost in deep thought.  He wondered if he would always have to worry about these others destroying the Land around him.  Would more of these beings show up and force his friends away one day?  Could he protect them all?  And so the Caretaker pondered the future of what would be......

I wanted to try something different in my writing form from our last journey to Ruby Ghost Town.  Mining has been on my mind lately and it truly has a great impact on the land around us.  It was very evident here at this site decades later! Water was also scarce as were the birds! If you live around  Southern Arizona, please help keep Rosemont Copper Mine out of the Santa Rita mountains. Mining is bad for the environment and it doesn't belong on that mountain which is visited by thousands of birders and scientists each year.  It will have a long and negative impact on the wildlife if it is allowed to pass.

I'd like to thank Kathy Cooper and Gordon Karre for a wonderful weekend out.  It's always a blast when we explore together.  Until next week.....

Into The Heart of Darkness

Clifton

Our world is a crazy one.  Some parts are preserved well while others are left to fall apart. On a journey that would leave me with dark thoughts about mining, I struggled for one week to organize my thoughts and write this post.  I also struggled to find the art from it all.  Sometimes photography is about being uncomfortable with the observation.  This post today serves 2 purposes which I'll cover in just a moment.

The Morenci Mines

Arizona is a world of its own.  In many ways, I am thankful for the birding trips to the odd and bizarre because it allows me to see our state as a whole.  On this day, both Kathie and myself would head to Greenlee County.  We went because there hadn't been any bird counts in this region and I quickly understood why.  Greenlee county is a long and narrow one that runs along the New Mexico border.  It is full of breathtaking mountain ranges covered in forest.  Once again, it's home to some rare finds in Arizona which include Magpies!

Roper Lake State Park

We began our studies at Roper Lake Park in Cochise county.  A really lovely park full of cabins and water!  On this day, the Common Merganser would fill the lake with numbers over 150!  Kathie counted.  And I took in all the beautiful landscape locating birds for her to count:)  This took up much of our morning but we knew we had to get to Greenlee County to record data. And so the Las Aventuras and Kathie's Birds team went where most people avoid.....into the Heart of Darkness.

Female Great-tail Grackle

We entered Greenlee County and became excited finding our first birds.....2 Common Ravens!  The first Ebird count for the 2013 year! And then things went south once we entered the mining towns of Clifton and its sister city Morenci.  I became angry and upset because we are facing a mine opening up in the near future on our beautiful Santa Rita mountains.  The people have been fighting to keep this mine out and away from this pristine mountain range.  Pima County environmental officials rejected the proposal on this mine and the state of Arizona(run by Jan Brewer) didn't like Pima County's decision. The State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rosemont.   So they are giving this Canadian based company another opportunity to open their mine on these mountains.  As of last week, they are one permit away from opening.  What this tells me is that the people have no voice whatsoever and money, like always, speaks.  A mining company will promise the moon and the stars to a community. And then decades later, they'll leave you in a wasteland of human scrap destroying all the natural wonders that this world continues to lose daily.  All people have to do is go to Clifton or Morenci to witness what mining has done to the landscape and wildlife(or lack of!).  Even closer are the mines near Green Valley and Globe!  It's truly an eye stain!

After these pics were released on my Facebook page, a friend came up to me and said that she had been raised in this community as a child. The town is run and owned by the mining company.  You could feel and see the social changes once we entered into this broken down part of the world.  Many of the old homes abandoned.  And some of these decaying buildings were actually used!  I remember seeing a boarded up building that had plywood pulled away from the window which led me to believe vagrants lived in these places.

We went to do a count at one spot in the Morenci area and for the first time in my Ebird experience, we could not find any birds!  It was disheartening.  The place had trees and rock......but there was nothing!  I searched my best to prove to Kathie that there was a least one bird hiding.  Not a peep.  And for this report, a sad "0" was entered into our bird counts.  If most of us just stood still, we'd see or hear something(pigeons count:)  But at this site.....nothing.  And that was sad.

I suppose the town would be a photographer's dream but all the images made me very angry.  Let's just rip this entire world apart and destroy it!  There is a line that should not be crossed and these mines prove that point.  If a mine goes into the Santa Rita mountains, endemic species face yet another human threat. Water quality?  If I were a resident near these mines, I'd be very concerned.  Here is the link about what's going on in the Tucson/Green Valley area. Believe me, people are fighting against this mine opening.  It will affect those who come and enjoy the beautiful Arizona landscape from around the world.  It will destroy what Southern Arizona is best known for......an amazing diversity of birds and wildlife!

I detached my emotions from the ecological disaster and the harsh chemically stained landscape to examine the people.  My fb friend told me that it was a very different life growing up in a mining town.  The mine had indeed grown since she last visited this area.  I would have liked to spend a night in this town just to study the culture and speak to several people about living in this isolated area.  We will be going back here again for more work and study.  There are places we didn't have a chance to visit and would like to see next time.

Rock Wren at Roper Lake

Here is a link to a post I wrote last year titled, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas!  They are only 1 permit away from getting started and if it passes, a lot of people will be saddened by the news.

Imagine looking at this mountain range below with a mining scar on it.  Now imagine the life that lives on those lands and you can see why many people are upset about about a mine opening up.  We headed back home this day with heavy thoughts.   

The Pinaleño Mountains