So, how hot is it?

A few hot jokes courtesy of the internet:

Q: How hot is it in the Valley of the Sun?

A: So hot every fat guy sweating in the city smells like Bacon!

Q: How hot is it in Mesa, Az?

A: So hot that I saw a fire hydrant chasing a pack of dogs! 

Q: What happened after the mom purchased a loaf of bread from Albertsons? 

A: By the time she got home it was toast!

 Q: What do you need to visit Death Valley, Arizona? 

A: Dental Records

Q: What are the only two seasons in Phoenix, Arizona? 

A: Hot and Hotter.

 Q: What did the one pig say to the another at the beach? 

A: I'm bacon! 

Okay, the weather is certainly the new of the week.  80F every day!  I sure miss the cold damp weather back home.  I miss the downpours.  The dreaded wet flurries.  I miss sloshing through puddles on our daily walks.  No I don't!  Ha!

I went to Gilbert this morning to catch the sunrise on the Riparian Preserve.  I got there a bit after sunrise expecting to see many birds to be in the ponds.  I think the number of photographers outnumbered the birds.  It is unusually hot and dry and the birds are flocking off to cooler climes.  I did get a good shot of a Verdin and Black Phoebe that I will post here tonight.  We are going to have to scope out some new birding spots.  Maybe Robin and Robert can help us with that next week!

Last Wednesday was the monthly street party.  This month almost everyone on our street got together for a pot luck Valentine's Day theme breakfast.  Great food and a good time was had by all.

Last Thursday I golfed with Steve at his Red Mountain Golf Club in north Mesa.  The course was fantastic.  It is your iconic desert golf course with elevated tees looking down on green fairways lined with cactus and Palo Verde trees.  Of course there was lots of sand and designer Pete Dye took full advantage of the setting.  Diabolically he added sand traps around each green to add to the challenge.  Thanks Pete.  This was only the second time in 14 years that I golfed a full 18 holes.  Not unexpectedly I shot a high number, but less than the previous 18 hole effort in Victoria in December.  I had some brilliant holes and some that were memorable only to be forgettable.  Steve was not rattled by my erratic play and played well from tee to green.  The two 80 year olds who made up our foursome were amazing.  I think the fellow birdied the last 3 holes while the gal was consistent throughout and was perhaps the best chipper/putter that I have ever golfed with.

We rode our bikes several times last week.  Of note is Dana's record setting time on the Usery hill.  The hill, a steady 5k climb, is on our regular route.  Last Wednesday Dana set a personal best time up the hill.  Her new time of 15:57 was amazing and is a new standard for her.  On Saturday Steve, Joanne, Dana and I rode the Wild Horse trail on our mountain bikes.  This challenging desert trail offers some technical sections that kept all of us alert and focused.  Joanne took a spill in some soft sand and got up sporting a clump of Cholla cactus attached to the side of her knee.  If you have never had Cholla cactus stuck to your body think a pin-cushion of porcupine needles.  These things do not come out easily.  Impressively Joanne yanked them out of her skin with little fuss.  

Friday we dined at our fav restaurant, The Blue Adobe, in downtown Mesa.  It is always a treat to go out and even though we say we should do it more often, we don't.  It does make the times we do go out that much more special.  Enough said on that.

I golfed with the Sunday "Royal Canadians".  This is the regular "9 and Dine" group from our RV resort.  Fun time for all although I putted as though I were putting with a croquet mallet rather than a putter.  I clearly need work on this aspect of my golf game.  Then again, there is little of my golf game that does not need work, and a lot of it!

Yesterday we took out 4Runner in for a little preventative maintenance.  This gave us reason to hop the Light Rail to Tempe Town Lakes for a morning of birding.  There were not many birds in and around the lake but we did identify 3 new species to add to our Arizona list for 2014.  These were Eared Grebe, Brown Pelican and the very striking Cliff Swallow.  The Cliff Swallows have made quite an impact in Arizona over the past 3 days being reported for the first time this year in many locations in Southern Arizona.  I think they all few in at the same time....  Our yearly bird species count stands at 123, thanks in part to the arrival of the Cliff Swallows.

Here are some images captured this week.  Enjoy!  

Ciao from the Valley of the Sun.

Dana, looking fast in her Garmin Giro d'Italia jersey minutes before she set her PR on Usery Hill.

Barry before witnessing Dana's PR......

Steve and Joanne on the Wild horse Trail

Joanne with Cholla Cactus embedded in her knee.  Ouch!!!

Black Phoebe.  Damn if he isn't just one cute bird.  What do you think he is thinking right now?

Verdin - these birds are very active building elaborate nests quilted out of sticks, feathers and other building materials they can find.

Morning Glow - Snowy Egret at Gilbert Riparian Preserve

Biking and Birding for fun.......

I want to know who stole at least 4 days from us?  Was it you?  You?  No?  Okay, relax you're off the hook.....for now......

Yes, the days are screaming by.  Feb 11?  Maybe it was the Super Bowl hangover.  Ground Hog day?  Well, not that.  No one celebrates or recognizes Ground Hog day in the Valley of the Sun.  I mean really.  It is already summer, or early spring or something.  We read of the Polar Vortex but most desert dwellers think that a Polar Vortex is a new ice-cream bar and they can't wait to try it.  But I digress.....

Recap of the week.  First of all a "drum roll".......

Dana and I rode our normal road bike route on Monday (yesterday), joined by our friends Steve and Joanne.  As is the custom we stop at the base of hill on Usery Mountain Road to shed unwanted clothing bits and have a drink of water before starting the climb.  As we were doing so a group of 8 "roadies" rode by us.  Steve and I got on our bike and pedalled hard to catch the small group.  When we caught them, which didn't take long, I noticed that they were all wearing Vision Quest team jerseys.   I called out to one rider that I train using Vision Quest training videos.  The rider said, "That's great.  That is Robbie Ventura on the front of the group".  (note: Robbie Ventura is the founder and main spokesperson for Vision Quest cycling training.  Robbie is also a former professional cyclist having won dozens of professional races.  He was part of U.S. Postal professional cycling team and a team mate of Lance Armstrong for several of their Tour de France winning teams).

When I heard this I immediately road up to the front of the group, put my hand on Robbie's shoulder and said, "Robbie Ventura.  I can't tell you what a thrill this is for me to ride up this hill with you and your guys".  Okay, I sound like a complete starstruck goof but I meant every word.  Robbie didn't miss a beat, welcomed me to ride with them and introduced me to several of his team including Dan and Dave from his training video that Dana and I have used each winter, before we come to Az, for the past 3 or 4 years.  17 minutes went by like it was 5.  We chatted about his videos and his upcoming cycling camp, his Ironman in Penticton.  He listened to me talk about my recent decision to retire from racing and encouraged me to keep riding "for the fun of it".  Near the top of the hill I did something pretty dumb but it was spontaneous and in keeping with his training video on hill climbing.  Near the top I told him that I wanted to see him sprint to the top and crank out 1,200 watts of power.  So, about 1/2 k from the top I said, "Okay, let's go", and I took off at a full sprint to the top......by myself.  Dumb.  Dumb.  Dumb.  I pulled over and waited for everyone to come over the top of the hill.  They were good natured about it and waived and high-fived me on their way by.

Steve and I waited for Dana and Joanne.  I told Dana what had occurred and who I had ridden up the hill with.  She was very, very disappointed that she did not get to meet Robbie, Dan and Dave.

From biking to birding......  Today we finally met up with our birding friend Marcus.  Marcus lives in Mesa.  We met him last winter while birding at Granite Reef which is on the Salt River.  We were joined by Judy and Carl who are snowbirds from Iowa and North Dakota respectively.  The five of us travelled west to Buckeye for a day of birding.  Our goal today was to find Thrashers (Sage, Crissals, LeConte's and Bendire's), Sparrows (Sage and Bells) and Hawks.  A big ask!

When one goes birding for specific species it can turn out great in that you find all the species you were looking for, or it can turn out great that you don't find everything you were looking for but you find other cool birds.  On this day we did not find all the birds we were looking for but we found a couple of them and many other great birds.

First of all we found a Crissal's Thrasher.  I have a not so good photo if it but I am posting it regardless as you have to see the bill on this guy.  Impressive!  We also found a Sage Sparrow.  The photos I got of this bird is okay and shows most of the field marks for this bird.  Both of these birds are hard to find and just as hard to photograph as they are very timid and do not let you get close.

In total we found 41 species.  Of this 6 were new to us this year.  Of the 6, 3 were completely new to us.  The six were:  Western Meadow Lark, White Pelican, Cattle Egret, Long-billed Curlew, Sage Sparrow and Crissal's Thrasher.  The last 3 were new life birds for us.  Some of the other birds we saw were Merlin, Ferruginous Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Black Vulture, Harris's Hawk, Bald Eagle, Great Egret, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and the list goes on.

The Long-billed Curlew was the highlight of the day.  We were travelling down a farm road when Marcus spotted a flock of birds.  We estimated the flock to be approximately 400.   He pull over and we all saw the large flock of large birds land in an alfalfa field.  We got out binoculars and cameras and scanned the field to find necks and head of birds with very long bills sticking out of the alfalfa.  After some hooting an hollering we regained out composure to take a few photos.  The flock was very active.  I got a decent shot of one of the Curlews in flight.  I have posted that photo together with a shot of them in the field.  In the photo you will see a few birds standing on clumps of earth and others wading through the alfalfa.  What fun!

We returned home mid-afternoon to play our weekly Bocce Ball league match.  We lost a close one.  This season is a bust.  I can almost identify with the Canucks.  Almost.....  At least no one on our team is going get traded before the end of the season and our coach/captain is not going to get fired. But I digress...

All in all a fantastic week.  The weather is outstanding.  We are both in good health.  Albertson's grocery store is well stocked with Tillamook ice cream.  Life is grand!

That's a wrap.  Have a good week.  Enjoy the photos!  Ciao!!   Go Canada!!!!!!

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  (best photo of the day)

Long-billed Curlews in the field

Long-billed Curlew in flight

Merlin in flight

Sage Sparrow

Western Meadow Lark

Crissal's Thrasher

Monday morning quarterback.

Dana's first words this morning were, "I had a dream that Seattle won the Super Bowl".  Well Dorothy, you are not in Kansas anymore, you are in Mesa and the Seattle Sea Hawks won the Super Bowl.  By the way, Dana is feeling much better and is almost back to 100%.

We loaded up with a big breakfast planning to go for a bike ride.  The weather today is on the cool side so we decided to skip the bike ride and go for a trail run at Usery Park.  We had not run since before Christmas.  We limited our distance to around 7k.  It was a terrific run but we both felt the effects of no running for over 7 weeks.  Home for lunch and then out the door for birding at Lost Dutchman State Park.  We spend 2 hours walking the washes in the lower park area.  We identified 13 species of birds. We were actually pleasantly surprised with this number as the park is not know as a birding hot spot.  One of the first birds that we spotted was one that we had not seen before.  It is an Ash-throated Flycatcher.   I got a reasonably good photo of the bird.  I have included the photo in this post.  I have also included a photo of a Rock Wren, a bird that is very shy and hard to get close too, and the iconic Phainopepla, this one a female.  (It was a cloudy day so the quality of the photos was less that the photographer expected.....)

Tomorrow we are driving out to the Boyce Thompson Park.  We are hopeful that we will add several new species to our Arizona total.

All for now.  Ciao!

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Female Phainopepla

Rock Wren (shot the photo through an opening under a Palo Verde Tree.  I had about 5 seconds to get the shot.

"We are the Champions.....of the World"

Short post today.  Seattle Sea Hawks win the Super Bowl.  End of story......

PS:  Super Bowl Sunday was a fantastic day.  I golfed in the sunshine with the Sunday morning "Royal Canadians" group in the morning (9 holes.  I shot a 4 over, 35).  Dana and I hosted a small tailgate party on the street in front of our park model.  I grilled dogs and brauts.  After the tailgate party everyone headed off to their Super Bowl parties.  Dana and I enjoyed the game together at home.  Well, Dana listened to the game from the dining room table being unable to sit in front of the television.  I was mostly sitting in front of the set save for the occasions when I was jumping up and down hooting and hollering when Seattle scored or recovered one of Denver's 4 turnovers.  We watched to the sweet bitter end.  Congratulations to the Seattle Sea Hawk players and organization.

Month #1 in the books

Dana turned over the calendar this morning.  Our second month in the Valley of the Sun starts today.  Time to reflect on the events and happenings of the month of January.  You know what?  If you are dying to know what we did in the month of January, read the posts from January.  I guarantee you that it had something to do with cycling, birding, photography, golf, tennis, bocce ball, social activity galore, hiking and just a wee bit of recovery from illness.  Sometime in the month we found time to sleep, eat and keep the house neat and tidy.  Really, just another fantastic month in the Valley of the Sun.

In my last post I wrote about the streak we were on finding new species of birds.  Well, this past week was the best week so far for adding new species to our Arizona 2014 bird list.  Species to date stands at 102 thanks to our finding and identifying 8 new species this week.  This weeks highlight was spotting a pair of Road Runners at Usery Park this morning.  A highlight only because it is the first time we have seen a pair.  Plus these two birds stayed in plain view and close by for several minutes before they went "beep-beep" and scooted off.  Well, maybe not.....

This week also gave us our first big raptor day.  On Wednesday we birded on the Salt River and were rewarded with sightings of 5 new species for our list.  These were: Golden Eagles, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Common Black Hawk, a Merlin, and a Prairie Falcon.

Other new species this week included a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.  I have posted a photo of this bird in this post.

Other than birding we have had a great week cycling.  Dana recovered from her cold earlier in the week so that we were able to ride our mountain bikes at Usery Park on Wednesday.  We rode our road bikes on Friday and this morning we road our mountain bikes again at Usery Park with Steve and Bill.  I did a road bike ride with Steve on Monday without Dana as she had not yet recovered enough.

I golfed twice this week.  I spent 1 1/2 on the tennis court on Friday afternoon giving some instruction to the 1.5 tennis team.  This week I gave instruction on forehand ground strokes.  Adult instruction is interesting and rewarding.  I am very much enjoying my time on the court.  Not sure how long this gig will last but I will volunteer my time until I am not needed, or I am told to stay away.

On Tuesday we played our third league game of Bocce Ball.  We lost.  End of story.  After the game we hosted happy hour and thoroughly enjoyed an evening of fun with our Bocce Ball partners Gail and Tony as well as our dear friends and neighbours Lila and LeRoy and Spence and Rosie.

Finally, a comment on the weather.  No rain yet!  However, humidity soared up to 54% today and there were menacing looking clouds to the north and to the south.  The daytime temperature had dropped from mid to high 70's to around 60 today.  The same is predicted for the next 4 or 5 days.  Please think of us as we struggle through this "cold snap".  I think we are in the middle of a Canadian Polar Vortex.   Hell, it might even rain.  Maybe.

Included in this post are photos of some of the birds we saw this week.  In addition I am posting one I took at around 9:00 p.m. last evening.  The fountain is at the small entertainment area adjacent to the bocce ball, pickle ball and tennis courts.  The camera was mounted on a tripod.  I set the shutter on the camera to be open for about 2.5 seconds.  Surprising how much light is captured in 2.5 seconds.

That is all for this week. Ciao!

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.  A real cutie!!

We saw this little get together this afternoon at Gilbert.  The Snowy Egret is surrounded by his fans.  He is like a rock star.  The other birds are Black-necked Stilts and Avocets.

Cannot have too many Heron photos.  This Heron though itself and Eagle, or perhaps a Raven?

Lesser Goldfinch at Gilbert Water Ranch this afternoon.

Yellow-rumped Warbler.  A very common bird here.  Hard to photograph as it is very active and normally is in found high in the tree canopy.

Fountain at Mesa Regal RV

Palm trees across from the fountain.