Three Star Owl at Wings Over Willcox
For those of you within range of southeastern Arizona, consider visiting the annual Wings Over Willcox Nature Festival this weekend. Held in the historic community of Willcox, this event celebrates the yearly return of tens of thousands of Sandhill cranes to the Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Arizona. The rich Chihuahuan desertscrub and grasslands are slung between the Chiricahua Mountains and the Dragoon Mountains. Patched with mesquite bosques, farmland, rangeland, and dotted with pools and ponds of semi-permanent and seasonal water, the Sulphur Springs Valley is winter home not only to the cranes, but to extraordinary numbers of birds of prey, sparrows and longspurs, waterfowl, shore birds including upland varieties, and other bird species people may not commonly associate with our region. Scaled quail, Eastern meadowlarks, Bendire’s thrashers and Mountain plovers lurk in the wintery fields along with more expected Roadrunners and Gambel’s quail. It’s a land of agricultural heritage — hydroponics and hay, and ranching, too.
This close to the event, many of the fieldtrips are filled, but check at the registration desk in the Community Center for last minute cancellations. Also, many of the sights, notably the crane lift-off at Whitewater Draw and elsewhere along the farm roads in the Valley, are something you can do on your own. The WOW organizers can give advice on where and when to go.
This year’s festival is the sixteenth annual WOW, and it’s the second year Three Star Owl has been in Willcox for the event, offering Arizona-specific table wares and sculptural items both funky and sensible.
Come visit “The Owl” at:
Booth 12, Willcox Community Center, 312 West Stewart Street, Willcox, AZ
Friday 16 Jan: 10am -7pm
Saturday 17 Jan: 8am – 5pm
Sunday 18 Jan: 8am – 3.30pm
more info at: wingsoverwillcox.com
Right: Small Turkey Vulture “Bottle” with detachable, posable head.
(3.75″ ht, $52)
Bird photograpy by Ed Bustya, “Sandhill Cranes taking flight”.