Arizona’s new wave of activists

DRESSED IN MULTI-POCKETED beige vests and big hats, a group of elderly tourists gathered on a recent bright spring day at the edge of the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve in southern Arizona. Behind them, a dry-erase board listed the birds they’d seen so far that day: golden crown sparrows, vermilion flycatchers, violet-crowned hummingbirds.

This 873-acre preserve, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy, takes up about 60% of the land in the town of Patagonia, a popular springtime destination for bird-watchers