Settling into desert life

Recovery from my bout with flu and cold has been slow.  Very slow.  I am now feeling about 90% so no more putting off riding, birding and of course - Bocce Ball.  Dana and I got in a couple of good rides this past week.  Today we had planned to ride but made a sudden change of plans when we got a call from a fellow birder who wanted help finding a rare bird that we had seen last week.  We met our friend at Coon Bluff Recreation Area this morning and walked him out to the location we had seen the bird (Rusty Blackbird).  We got to the spot to find another birder sitting on a stool watching the bird in question.  Easy!  Mission accomplished.

January 13 and our bird count stands at 82 species.  Last year at this time we had counted 91 species.  We are 9 down on last year but I think last year we birded every day compared to the handful of days we have made it out this year.  Still time to make up the difference.  I have included photos of some of the birds we have seen in the last 2 days.  Other than the American Redstart the rest are a few of the more common birds one can see here in the desert.  The American Redstart is rare here as its normal range does not include Arizona.

We played our first of 7 league Bocce Ball games yesterday.  All 4 of us made some timely shots and we came away with a win.  We are off to a good start.  Best of all, we had fun and met some great folks.

Tomorrow I am golfing for the first time this year.  I went to the driving range this afternoon and confirmed, once again, that golf is a very simple game.   I mean really, you get to select your club given the distance you want the ball to go, the ball is stationary and you get time to make that perfect swing.  How hard could this really be?  Yeah right.....   I'll try to remind myself of this tomorrow....

Well, that's about it for now.  For the last few days Dana has got up, looked outside and declared it to be "another sunny day".  After the start we had to the month, the change in weather is very welcomed.

I hope you like the photos.  Remember, if you want them enlarged, click on one and your browser should do the rest of the work.

"Star of the week".  Rare bird in the desert.  American Redstart, this one a female.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Granite Reef on the Salt River.

Curve-billed Thrasher perched on Cholla Cactus 

Northern Cardinal