Like many “Big Deals”, this one started with a “Little Deal”. In this case, the little deal was a flying jewel about 10 cm long and weighed in at about 5 grams. It had feathers, of course. A white underbelly, red beak, and sported a violet crown. It was also an immigrant from Mexico. Not sure if it crossed our southern border with the proper documents.
In the early 70’s, Marion and Wally, hardy New England stock, acquired a small, modest home in Patagonia with about an acre of land along Sonoita Creek in Southeastern Arizona. They planted gardens and hung bird feeders about, including hummingbird feeders that Marion filled regularly with sweet sugar water.
The birds came. Then the birdwatchers. Marion and Wally could see the birders peering over their fence with their binoculars and spotting scopes. One Sunday, a fellow knocked on their door. When Wally answered, this fellow asked excitedly, “Do you know you’ve got a very rare hummingbird at your feeders out there?”
Wally replied, “No, we know we’ve got hummingbirds and like to watch them and they’re pretty, but …”
The fellow at the door couldn’t wait for Wally to finish his sentence.
“Yeah, well you’ve got a Mexican Violet-crowned out there,” pointing toward the backyard.
“If you look at the road over there it’s lined with people with spotting scopes looking at your feeders. That’s what they are looking at.”
Years later, Wally recalled, “So we invited him in and sat and had a long talk. And he wanted to know if he could go out back and take some pictures. So he did.”
About this time, Wally figured that if he and Marion had a rare hummingbird in their backyard, perhaps all those folks peering over their fence might want to come into the yard for a closer look. So he went outside and invited them all into the backyard. As Wally put it, “And that’s how it all started.”
Wally and Marion Paton created the gardens that became Paton’s Birder Haven. The fellow at their door who wanted to go out back and take some pictures was Arthur Morris, a retired New York school teacher who was also a freelance photographer specializing in birds for over 30 years. His Art of Bird Photography: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques is a classic. Over 20,000 of his bird photographs have been published in Audubon, Birder’s World, National Geographic, Bird Watcher’s Digest and many others.
So far, bird watchers from all over the world have spotted 370 species of birds in Arizona; 213 in the Paton’s yard. Over the years, Paton’s has been visited by tens of thousands of bird watchers, including Ms. Karen and me.
In addition to increasing my knowledge of birds, Journey Home taught me other useful information. For example, did you know that worms could be raised as a cash crop? I’ll bet you had no idea. But Wally Paton did.
In 2015, Marion and Wally Paton’s daughter, Bonnie Paton Moon published Journey Home: How A Simple Act Of Kindness Led To The Creation Of A Living Legacy. It’s her parent’s story, of course. Including their childhood in the Great Depression and her father’s World War II service as a B-17 pilot over Germany. Journey Home is “a story about preserving and protecting birds and their habitat” … “But also a story about two kind and generous people who shared their yard for decades with strangers asking nothing in return.”
In Bonnie’s telling, Journey Home becomes an interesting birding handbook because of its many excellent photographs of birds. A photographer myself, I am well aware of the technical skills and patience really good bird photography requires.
Moreover, Journey Home is about Bonnies’ personal journey, the six-year-long, hard road to find the exceptional people who would help her family preserve Marion and Wally’s legacy in perpetuity.
Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds
The author makes it clear that she could not have accomplished her mission without the generosity of thousands of bird lovers. Today, Marion and Wally’s modest home in Patagonia has beccome Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds.
And so it shall remain … as long as enough people care about birds and are willing to protect their habitat. Thanks, Bonnie! We too will return year after year.
Journey Home: How A Simple Act Of Kindness Led To The Creation Of A Living Legacy is currently available at Amazon and locally at the Patagonia Museum/Creative Spirit Gallery in Patagonia, Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, the Tucson Audubon Nature Shop at 300 E University Blvd # 120 in Tucson, and Jay’s Bird Barn in Prescott, Sedona and Flagstaff. If you go there, tell them we sent you!
For our pick for some of the Best Birding Hot Spots In Southern Arizona check out this link.
