May 27, 2024
Thick-billed Kingbird and Bronzed Cowbird, Box Canyon Old Dam 5-24-24
The Thick-bills and Hooded Orioles (2 pair) are nesting in the same tree at the top of Box Canyon, about 12 miles east of Green Valley. These two attractive species will not tolerate cowbirds anywhere near their nest sites. The same sycamore holds nests for Gray Hawk and Bushtits.
The area at the top of Box Canyon beyond the granite falls holds a silted-in dam. The area behind the dam has produced several good birds recently; two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, a Philadelphia Vireo and now the Rose-throated Becard. Last Fall the same spot hosted a Fan-tailed warbler and a Northern Waterthrush.
Rose-throated Becard , Box Canyon Old Dam, 5-27-24
This young male bird showed up several days ago. Found by Kaydnn Hatfield. Everyone expected it to be a one-day bird, but it has stayed put. A few birders have reported a second, female bird also. But the photos supplied show only the male and a misidentified Cassin’s Kingbird. These birds have been easy to find along the mighty Santa Cruz trickle in recent years. But this year they have not been seen along these usual nesting areas. This bird was seen carrying nesting material, in a careless manner, but not beginning a nest.
Five-stripe Sparrow, Montosa Canyon, 5-26-24
These birds were late this year, being just seen within the last two weeks in Montosa Canyon and finally appearing in Box Canyon on about 5-20-24.
Blue-throated Mountain Gem, Portal, 5-13-24
Grace’s Warbler, Carrie Nation Trail, 5-12-24
Grace’s Warbler, Carrie Nation Trail, 5-12-24
Gilded Flicker, Casa Corky, 5-9-24
Notes on American Culture: Sousa
(1854-1932)
It’s hard to overestimate the influence of John Phillip Sousa on turn-of-the-century American culture. March music was very popular, and was integral to public entertainment including dancing two-steps and foxtrots. Sousa’s marches, especially, The Stars and Stripes Forever, The Washington Post, and Semper Fidelis, for example, are still part of our current-day music scape. These marches are overplayed, and their lustre is declining. Other marches which deserve more attention are: Hands Across the Sea, King Cotton, and El Capitan.
But Sousa wasn’t limited to march writing, he produced numerous operettas, some of which were successes. At the time, between 1880 and 1929, live stage entertainment, especially light musical fare; vaudeville and operetta, were at their heights. Talkies pretty much ended both.
Sousa’s best known and very successful operetta is El Capitan (1896), a tale of the Spanish occupation of Peru, and is still occasionally mounted. Other lesser works such as The Bride Elect, The Charlatan, and The Freelance, are forgotten except as marches which Sousa assembled from the score of each of the operettas.
Here is a clip of the US Marine Corps Band performing Behold El Capitan (a 90 second clip). The original role of El Capitan was performed by DeWolf Hopper. Incidentally the husband of Hedda Hopper and father of William Hopper.