Tucson Bird Alliance — Attraction in Tucson

I recently found out about the Tucson Audubon Society and it fascinated me to learn that it was an educational and pro-active bird conservationist and protective organization. I honestly thought someone said The Tucson Autobahn society and got real excited to meet some germans who love to go FAST on very well organized and upkept highways. Alas, birds. Not cars. There's no way in hell Germans would love driving in Tucson. Nobody loves driving in Tucson. My bad.

I wanted to visit to learn more about birds because birds are pretty rad. Although with all the strange alien and UFO, oh sorry, UAP talk happening lately, I kind of wanted to see if they could confirm that birds were, indeed, real and not government cameras sent to spy on us. I've seen some creepy birds who just stare from their high horse and look down on me as if they were scanning my body for weaknesses or hacking my phone or something. Don't gaslight me and tell me i'm crazy. Birds can be creepy. Sometimes I go to Owl's Club downtown to just talk to a few friends about potential surveillance owls roaming the region. We compare and contrast field notes and push-pin some maps over some whiskey and then just end up talking football.

Anyway, I went to the website before stopping by and saw the "Meet Your Birds" section which is an online guide to discover the birds of the southwest. Immediately my eye caught one called "The Lucifer Hummingbird" and it was like they were rubbing it in our face. My entire being went into high alert realizing that there could possibly be a sort of evil cult behind all of this. Maybe the government was working in tandem with some esoteric bird collective to gather intel. I had to go see for myself.

So when I walked into this quaint little spot, it was cozy and cluttered with birding memorabilia, knick-knacks, some patty-whacks and literature on anything bird related. Complete with a wood aesthetic and nature shop, I figured this is how they lure you in with a false sense of security and an overwhelming amount of bird related stimuli. When I walked over to who I assumed with a Bird Society Member, I had to play it cool and show some authentic interest. I made some "coo-ing" pigeon noises and then stuck out my hand and said "Hi, I'm Gabriel (didn't want to give my real name) and I'm very interested in birding!" The nice lady said "oh that's wonderful! Did someone recommend you?" I told her about how I listen to Beef Vegan on KFMA and how his hawk conservation awareness really impressed me and inspired me to learn more about raptor birds. I really wanted to ask her about her thoughts on what if velociraptors were still around and if we would try to make them pets or eat them, but I didn't.

I said "hey what's up with that Lucifer Hummingbird?" hoping I would notice her eyes get all shifty, but she just laughed and said "well, we get asked about that one more than you would think. Actually its just referring to the latin word denoting light bearing which refers to its beautiful iridescent purple gorget." "Yeah sure lady," I said. "Are there any other birds with rad heavy metal sounding names or just this one? Maybe there's one called the Orwellian Hummer? Maybe one called The NSA Warbler? The Samsung Harrier?" I was hoping she would catch my drift and give me some clues on the dark underbelly of the bird society. But we just stood in awkward silence for 20 seconds before she said "I'm pretty fond of the Loggerhead Shrike...so uhm are you interested in joining us on a birding field trip?" Sounded like a trap. I was definitely poking the beast at this point. I calmly said "no thank you! I'll check back in when it's cooler out. You have a nice day now!" She handed me a pamphlet and I drove back home feeling a sense of unease. I warmed up a hot pocket and tried to look for masonic imagery in the pamphlet but came up short.

I instead learned a lot about the localized research, conservation and activist efforts though. They're really passionate and it was kind of inspiring. I'll have to see what the guys at Owl's Club...

We just visited the store at Tucson Audubon Society. The store is cheerful with a broad selection of great gifts for nature-loving friends. We got some excellent advice about resources for attracting and viewing birds from our property. My husband had the opportunity to try out several pairs of binoculars in the courtyard and was able to select just the right pair for his particular preferences. We even got a nice discount on our purchases by joining the Audubon Society, which is an organization we are happy to support.

p.s. If you are lugging around old heavy binoculars, new technology allows you to get a much better view in very compact, light-weight...

The Tucson Audubon society is one of the most vibrant and effective local conservation organizations I have been associated with. There are a few places in the United States that can match the birds in southeast Arizona. The gift shop on University is one of the best appointed natural history/birdwatching organizations I have known.The people are super knowledgeable and helpful and above all kind. Too bad we can’t say that about every organization around us but this is...