Valley of the Sun 2016: By the numbers.....

Almost forgot that this year February has 29 days. Tuesday is March 1st. 31 days in March, still, and that is the number days we will have left in our 2016 Adventure in the Valley of the Sun., on March 1. Lots of numbers so far in this post. Want some more? Of course you do.

143. The number of bird species we now have on our year to date list having added 9 yesterday while birding on Mt. Ord which is 50 miles, or 80 Canadian, northeast of Mesa. Mt. Ord has an elevation of around 7,100 feet. We spent about 4 hours birding our way up to the summit of Mt. Ord. The 6 miles of gravel road was very rough and dusty, except for the small patch of ice near the top.

Mt. Ord, above 5,000 feet, is a pine forest. These desert ecosystems are called "sky islands" and support a variety of flora and fauna. Pine, Live Oak and Juniper are abundant. Wild flowers dot the landscape. Snow patches on the north side of the mountain provide some needed water. The birds were quiet first thing in the morning but once the air warmed up to 50F they started moving around and feeding on seeds, insects and sap from the trees.

As I mentioned we picked up 9 new species on Mt. Ord. They are:

Williamson's Sapsucker, Bridled Titmouse, Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Olive Warbler, Violet-green Swallow, Acorn Woodpecker and Western Bluebird.

Photos were tough to get this day given the fast moving birds and the poor light in the forest. I did however manage to get a couple to share in this post. In addition to the sharing the bird photos I am going to share with you a little insight into my style of bird photography. There are times when I can photograph birds from the 4Runner (note the photo of the Crested Caracara from a previous post). There are other times when skulking in the woods by myself can yield outstanding photos. This is one of my favourite methods as I think it takes me back to my childhood on the farm where we ran free in the 10 acres of woods that made up half of the family "farm". Yesterday Carl surprised me by taking a couple of photos of me while I was busy at "work". These I have included in this post.

I leave you with a couple of other numbers. Today I golfed 18 holes at Sunland Village Golf Course. It was a gorgeous morning (most are...). In the 4some was brother Mike. Always great to golf with Mike. He tends to bring out the best in me. Today was no exception, in fact today was exceptional. I shot 7 over par. The best round I have had since, well, the last century. 1999 to be exact. Golf being "golf", the next time out may be completely different.

Well, that's about it for today. I am already thinking about my next post. March 1st is "Super Tuesday" on the U.S. political scene. Oh goody-goody! There will be scads of great material for my next post.

Enjoy the pics!