Orientation - Day 3

It rained overnight but was clearing in the morning with the sun rising through the clouds in the east. It was relatively warm at sunrise at 54° but pretty windy. It remained windy and cool most of the day.

We got to the visitor center early. With extra time before the orientation meeting, we did some needed tidying up outside the visitor center. There was a small over grown garden at one end that needed much weeding. The unwanted grasses were about two feet high. Since it had rained overnight, Ellen took advantage of the softer ground and started pulling away. She was about two-thirds completed by the time the other volunteers arrived and they helped her finish up. Meanwhile I sweep up the plaza between the visitor center and administration building. With the rain and wind overnight, it was littered with branches and debris. Both the garden and plaza were tidy by the time orientation started.

It was the last day of volunteer orientation and we finally had the biology presentation from Ann, the refuge biologist. She talked about the various biological initiatives on the refuge. It isn't all Masked Bobwhite Quail, but much of the work of the refuge is related to the highly endangered birds. There are several other endangered species here, the Chiricahua leopard frog, the Kearney bluestar (wildflower) and the Pima pineapple cactus are the others. In addition, there are efforts to re-establish previously common species, such as Pronghorn (antelope).

To support these varied efforts, much of the focus is grassland habitat restoration. If successful, it should provide an environment conducive to releasing the quails. The biologist spent much of the time talking about general environmental efforts and not so much on the quail project. It looks like there will be much we can do, from hydrology studies to wildlife camera maintenance to cactus surveys. We'll see what happens.

After Ann's presentation, we took a field trip to Arivaca, a town about 20 miles away. The refuge has two sites there, Arivaca Cienega (wetland) and Arivaca Creek. Each has a walking trail. We were visiting Arivaca Cienega, the more developed of the two, it has information kiosks, picnic table and vault toilets by the parking lot, but the main attraction is the mile and a half trail through the desert wetland, a great birding spot. The trail runs through grassland and wooded areas with pools (without water today), a section of Cienega Creek (with a little water) and Willow Pond (again no water right now). Needless to say, there were no water birds but we spotted several raptors, Pyrruloxia, Lesser Goldfinch and Green Towhee.

Dan and the Volunteers on the Cienaga Arivaca Trail

As part of walking the trail, we checked out the condition of the boardwalks and trail, picked up trash (not much at all) and greeted visitors. After the trail walk, we had lunch at the entrance picnic tables and emptied the trash barrels on leaving.

Tomorrow will be our first real day of volunteer work and we will be discussing projects with Dan in the morning and helping with the daily quail check.