Dana and I finally had a 3 ride week, the first in a very long time. It is a goal we have to ride our bikes 3 days a week. If some other fun activity conflicts with our goal, our attitude is to be flexible and to make the best of whatever comes our way, plow'n straight ahead come what may...... ;-) This week all the stars aligned and we got our 3 rides on our never boring, always interesting 50 km loop out the Salt River and Usery Pass Hill road and return. This week we enjoyed the company of our friends Steve and Joanne for 2 of the 3 days.
We did bird a couple of times this week and added Plumbeous Warbler, Common Black Hawk and House Wren to our growing list of species for 2015, which now stands at 104. We are 21st overall in Maricopa County for bird listing on eBird. Not that I am competitive or anything.
This past week we finally got down to business in our Bocce Ball League. We played a rare double-header on Tuesday. We played a make up match in the morning and then our regular scheduled league match in the afternoon. We entered the morning match feeling confident that our extensive off season training program and the minutes of preparation we invested would payoff. We won our first match in style 15-9. The match was filled with thrilling measurements which can occur when the distance between opposing balls is too close for the human eye to determine. The second match was a different story altogether as we were handed a bruising defeat at the hands of a rookie team that included friend John, who on this day deployed a "short course" strategy and then shot the lights out. In the end we congratulated the opposition and went back to our place for happy hour. Incredibly there was no media coverage of these games. I suppose Super Bowl activities tied up most of the media resources.
On Thursday Dana and left the comfort of our resort and headed the northwest corner of the Valley of the Sun. We went to Sun City West to visit friend JD and his mom. John has a home in Sun City that he shares with his Mom, Joanne. Golf was on the agenda for the afternoon. John, his friend Marie, Joanne and I golfed 18 holes on the Deer Valley course in Sun City. Dana walked the course with us. Following the round of golf we went back to John's place for a wonderful dinner. The drive from our resort to Sun City West is about 60 miles (90k) and took about an hour. A long day but well worth effort.
If you have been following our blog you know that we often find ourselves in bizarre situations. The "foal in the fence" being the most recent. Well, we can add this bizarre situation to the list. Yesterday we went down to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve to do a bit of late afternoon birding and photography. I wanted to take advantage of the brilliant afternoon sunlight. In fact I got a nice action shot of a Greater Roadrunner that I have posted below. On our way home we were coming up Greenfield and Dana spotted a Peregrine Falcon on a lamp standard. The afternoon sun was lighting up this bird and I had to try for a shot. I pulled a legal u-turn on this 4 lane street and then pulled off on to a side road to park. I got out the 4Runner and made my way across the 4 lanes of traffic to the sidewalk where I could sneak up on the bird. I got off a couple of shots before the bird had enough of me and flew off. I returned to the 4Runner. As we were waiting for a break in the traffic to turn left onto Greenfield we noticed a well dressed man and women on the sidewalk across Greenfield. The senior couple were gesturing in our direction and the woman had a camera and she pointing it in our direction. Well, the traffic was heavy and we had to wait for a minute of so. I looked over at the couple and said, "what is she taking pictures of?" What the heck!!?? She is taking pictures of us! We finally made it across the road and I pulled into a parking lot. Dana got out, feeling it was safe to do so, and approached the couple. I was watching the conversation closely. There was no anger only what appeared to be embarrassment on the part of the couple, especially when Dana was pointing to the light standard where the Falcon was sitting. Here's the deal. The couple owns an "Event Centre" next to where I was now parked. They told Dana that they have been having issues with neighbours and that on several recent occasions they would have someone pull up and take pictures of their Event Centre and quickly depart. They viewed this as a form of harassment and thought I was just another kook doing the same. They decided that they would take our picture for use in any future legal matters. The gentleman apologized to me and invited me to come into his yard anytime I wanted to take bird photos. Right.... Holy smokes! We are still wondering what that was all about. Was it:
- Paranoia reigns in the Valley of the Sun.
- Maybe the previous "mystery photographers" were also birders?
- We were just lucky it was a camera and not a gun!
Well folks, that was our week in the Valley of the Sun. It was a fun filled week that ended on a wacky note. The week ahead holds more adventures. We have a planned trip to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum with friend Dale, more rides, bocce ball and golf. Boring!!!!! NOT!!!!
As promised, here is one more Roadrunner photo, this one from yesterday. Enjoy the sunshine everyone!
Barry
BONUS shot.... I couldn't decide on which one to post.
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