The Sunday Wrap

I got up around 7 this morning feeling fresh and energized.  No political hangover!  Thankfully!  After a nutritious breakfast I headed out for Sunday morning golf at Sunland Village Golf Course.  On Sunday mornings I normally play 9 holes with the "Royal Canadians", friends from Mesa Regal Resort.  Today I joined in for the back 9 as well.  It was a glorious morning. Just a breath of wind.  The temperature at the start of the day was around 65F.  By the time we walked off the 18th it was hovering around 75F.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Oh, the golf was pretty good too....

It's been a great week here in the Valley of the Sun.  On Monday we spent the day on Santa Cruz flats with Carl and Marcus.  I posted about our day there so I'll skip on to Tuesday.  We played our 6th league game in Bocce Ball.  We entered the game with a 2 and 3 record.  We had a great team effort on Tuesday against a good team and we won fairly handily.  It was good to bounce back from the defeat in the previous game.  We go into the final week of the season with a .500 record.  This week we play the top team in the league.  Expectations are low, and we just plan on having fun and seeing how the balls roll.

On Wednesday we rode with Steve, Joanne and Peter.  It was a stunningly beautiful day.  Maybe a bit hot at the end (80F), but none the less, near perfect conditions.

On Thursday I golfed 9 holes at Superstition Springs Golf Course in the morning.  Approaching the green on number 13 I noticed 2 large birds circling the green.  Turns out to be Zone-tailed Hawks.  This species of hawk is rare here for this time of year.

When I got home I entered the birds into eBird so that the observation would be recorded for others to see.  That is one of the great features of eBird.  Your observations are recorded and anyone searching eBird for information on what species are being observed in any particular geographic area has access to the data you submit.  eBird also sorts data by country, state, province, county, etc.  There is feature where you can see how your yearly species count compares to other birders who are submitting data.  Okay, this is where things get a bit competitive.  Yes, there is such a thing as competitive birding.

Year to date we are 103rd in the state of Arizona for total species count.  For Maricopa County, which is most of the Valley of the Sun, we are 30th overall.  Keep in mind there are literally hundreds of birders submitting data into eBird.  Our (read - Barry's) goal is to surpass last years placing which was 63rd in the state.  We are pretty much on track and will find many more species before we leave Arizona in April.

On Friday Dana and I had an awesome ride.  We took advantage of light winds and relatively cool temps.  Cool being under 75F.  We completed our 50k ride in 1 hr 49 minutes at an average speed of 27.2 kph.  We were pretty thrashed after the ride and rested for rest of the day.

On Saturday we started the day with some shopping at Trader Joe's where we bought a case of mixed wine for $36.00.  $3 bucks a bottle for decent Cab, Sav Blanc and Pinot Grigio.  In the afternoon we did some late afternoon birding at Coon Bluff where we picked up a new species for the year, Lark Sparrow.

Our year to date bird list now includes 132 having added 4 new species this week (Lesser Yellowlegs, Harris's Hawk which was seen earlier but not recorded, Lark Sparrow and Zone-tailed Hawk).

Well, that was the week that was.  Lots of the same stuff but loads of fun.  The week ahead is already shaping up to be another week of biking, birding, bocce, golfing and socializing.  Fun times!

Here are a couple of photos from this week.

Lark Sparrow at Coon Bluff

Lesser Yellowlegs at Gilbert Riparian Preserve




Surprise!  Hi everyone!!!