Valley of The Sun 2015: How to fill 5 days in the Valley of the Sun

It has been and extra busy week here in the Valley of the Sun. Dana's sister Robin and husband Robert arrived last Thursday and I don't think we have stopped moving since. It has been terrific showing them some of the natural sites of the valley. None of us are much for glitz, glamour or show so we skipped the usual tourist haunts and have elected to see what nature offers. It's a different way to visit the valley but it works for us.

Of course birding has been high on the agenda. In fact most days birding was the agenda. There are so many great places to bird in the Valley of the Sun. For a 5 or 6 day visit we needed to prioritize the locations. We chose to chase rarities on some days and go for quantity on others. We did not restricted our travel and as such have been from one end of the valley to the other. Tomorrow we will hit Boyce Thompson Arboretum to round out the week of birding.

So Barry, how's the birding? Well, nothing short of spectacular. With trips to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve, Sunflower, Coon Bluff Recreation Area, Tres Rios Wetlands, The Thrasher Spot and Veteran's Oasis, we have put together an impressive list of rare birds as well as the ones that are common to those locations. Here are a few of my highlights:

Ash-throated Flycatcher
Evening Grosbeak
Le Conte's Thrasher (Life Bird)
Western Meadowlark
Horned Lark (Life bird)
Townsend's Solitaire (Life bird)

Anyone hoping for photos of these birds will be as disappointed as I am. Sorry - no photos. I do have some good bird photos from the week and I will post several later in this post.

I should point out that adding 3 life birds in the past 5 days has been terrific. However, Robin has added 18 life birds to her growing list. Wow! 18 new birds. It has been fun helping her find and identify these birds.

We took time yesterday to do a short hike. Of all the many great hikes in the valley we chose the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstition Mountains. This is short hike, about 4 miles. The destination is the site of Petroglyphs. Why is it called the Hieroglyphic Trail and not the Petroglyph Trail? Don't know. Hieroglyphics are something that is down onto rock or some hard surface. Petroglyphs are figures or scenes carved into rock. These Hohokum peoples Petroglyphs date back 1,000 years or more. That is about all I know about them. All of this information was obtained from Cosmic Ray's book "Hiking Phoenix". This about the best book on day hiking in the Valley of the Sun. If you are wanting information on hiking in the valley, get this small pocket sized book. Don't be turned off by its cartoonish look. It is jam packed with great information on hiking in the Superstition Mountains and all of the areas in the valley.

Today we played our final Bocce Ball league match. Even though we practiced for 1 1/2 hours this morning we lost. Again! We played the top team in the league. Actually, this team plays in 4 or 5 leagues. They are the top team in all of them. We scored the 1st point of the match then saw our opposition run off 15 points to win the match 15-1. It was over in less time than it takes to make rice. I hate to lose worse than my sister-in-law D. I played badly. Dana was terrific as were Gayle and Tony. I can't really say I am disappointed that this sorry season is finally, mercifully over. Yes, we are signed up for the league for 2016. It is too early to be optimistic about next year. I think I know now how the Vancouver Canucks feel.....every damn year! But I digress.....

Bocce Ball league isn't about winning or losing (I can't believe I actually put this in writing...). It is about having fun with our friends Gayle and Tony. Even though we suffered through our worst season to date, we still had fun and enjoyed our social (Happy Hour) after each match.

The weather continues to be super although today it has been unseasonably cool. We are hoping that sunny, warmer days return soon. No one is going to understand how 65F and few spits of rain is bad or newsworthy so I'll just move on.....

Food has been one of the stories of the week so let me tell you a little about that. Today I cooked up a rack and a half of ribs. 4 hours at 235 degrees in the oven then finished on the grill. A big hit! We dined out 3 times. We went to the Blue Adobe, The Outback Steak House and Mike and Darlene's Diner ;-) All excellent. M&D's was the best although I am still nursing a hangover.....

Ok. I've got plenty of photos for the post so let's get right to them. The first few are birds. Alright, you knew that. Thanks to Dana I even have a few people and places photos to post this week. Hope you enjoy them all. Hope you have a great week ahead. Robin and Robert leave us this Thursday. We will miss them but won't have time to dwell on that as our friends Bud and Joanne fly in on Thursday. Bud and Jo are world travellers and avid birders. We can't wait to show them the birding hot spots in the Valley of the Sun, most of which we are getting to know pretty well..... I think you can guess what my next post will be about. Until then, Happy Birding or whatever fuels your passion.

Great Egret. This is a big bird. Hard to get in it all in a single frame. He cooperated by twisting himself into a pretzel.

Black-necked Stilt.

Horned Lark. Not a great, or even good photo but I had to post it. This is a gorgeous bird. They are timid and it was impossible to get close enough for a decent shot. You take what you get.

Pied-billed Grebe

Snowy Egret. A fast shutter speed was needed to freeze the water.

Photo of the Day. This Verdin was feeding on Fairy Duster. These shrubs are now in full bloom and offer some terrific photo opportunities. I'm pretty happy with the overall result of the photo. I have been getting some good feedback from fellow photographers on Flickr, Capture My Arizona and National Geographic "Your Shot".