The desert quenches her thirst.

I LOVE RAIN.......!!!!!!!!

Yes, today we had a good soaking.  We watched the rain from the comfort of our aluminum chalet, at least for most of the day.  We, rather I, finally got antsy and had to get out to do a bit of shopping and some more birding.  First off we went to the Queen Creek Olive Mill.  This is sort of an annual trip.  Dana goes for the olive oil and  olive tappannade and I go for the coffee.  I must admit, I enjoy the olive oil and olive tappannade almost as much as I enjoy the coffee.  The coffee I go for is roasted by the Superstition Coffee Company and is only available by mail order or at their outlet at the Olive Mill.  My preferred blend is the "Midnight Blend" which is their dark roast coffee beans.  To me it ranks in the top 5 of my all time favorites.

On the subject of rain, or should I say water, I will use this weeks blog for my annual editorial on water use in the desert.  Actually, I will expand the issue to water usage in the southwest.  There was significant article on the subject in Sunday's edition of the Arizona Republic.  The article chronicled how the southwest essentially went from having plenty of water 30 years ago to be on the verge of catastrophe.  Too many people.  Too much development.  Too many farms serving the beef industry.  Too many lawns and gardens that suck up too much water.  Too little political will to do what needs to be done to curtail the waste of a resource that is in serious decline, and will NOT BE REPLENISHED.  Some cities are paying people to remove their lawns and go for desert friendly yards.  Some cities are more active than others in creating public policy on water usage.  From what I can discern, it is too little, too late.  Some people are even dreaming up ways of moving water from other states to the southwest.  Great Lake States are on guard and have essentially told the southwest states to "pound sand".  Canada beware and "stand on guard for thee".  The looming water war is going to make the war of 1812 seem like an out of control "Kegger".

Now on to other stuff.  I will backtrack a bit to last Thursday.  Robin and Robert departed early in the morning from the Mesa Gateway Airport.  We dropped them at the terminal at 6:30 a.m.  We had a great week with them, packing in a lot of activity.  There wasn't a lot of down time.  Lots of great memories!

We were back home at 7:00 to get ready for the arrival of our good friends Bud and Joanne who had arrived late the previous evening at the Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport.  We headed out at 9:30 to pick them up at a hotel near Sky Harbour at 10:00.  They were waiting for us outside their hotel.  It was great to see their smiling faces.  At first I thought they were just happy to see us.  When we greeted them I found out that they hadn't stopped smiling after seeing oranges on the trees in the parking lot, the blue sky and feeling the warmth of the sun.  Okay, maybe they were a bit happy to see us too ;-)

We have a had a very busy week with Bud and Jo.  We have been to Boyce Thompson Arboretum, The Thrasher Spot, Gilbert Riparian Preserve (twice), Veteran's Memorial Oasis and Coon Bluff Recreation Area.  In addition we have dined out several times including breakfast this morning at Tia Rosa Mexican restaurant.

Saturday evening was the cultural event of the season.  The four of us attended the Symphony of the Southwest at the the Mesa Performing Arts Centre.  Thinking back, the last concert I was at was Jimmy Buffett in Seattle back in the last century.  It was a blast.  This concert was a bit different.  I must say our seats were terrific.  To be honest, the music is not my preferred genre.  However, the musicians were amazingly talented and gave a terrific performance.  Not sure about the guy at the front of the stage with the little stick (I would have tossed him out), but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

There has been very little time for too much else this week.  I did take in my normal Sunday morning golf gig with the "Royal Canadians".  Have I mentioned that this is what our group is called?  No?  Well, now you know.  Nothing "royal" about the group and I believe it is a name that has been used for several decades.  In fact, I don't think any of the current group was around when the name was first assigned to the Sunday morning group.  I'll have to check with my brother Mike.  No, I'm not saying he is old enough to know the origin...... hahaha....

So Barry, how was the birding last week.  Well, actually it has been pretty damn good.  Here is a brief summary:

New Life Birds this week:

Lark Bunting - The Thrasher Spot (Photo below)
White-throated Swift - Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Bell's Sparrow - The Thrasher Spot

We have added 4 new birds to our Arizona year to date list.  The 3 above plus the Sage Thrasher, also observed at the Thrasher Spot with Bud and Jo.

Speaking of the Thrasher Spot, our visit there last Saturday morning was a huge success.  We were able to observe 4 species of Thrasher (Sage, Curve-billed, Crissal and Bendire's) missing only the Le Conte's.  In addition we observed 2 Bell's Sparrows and a Lark Bunting (Photo below).  The Lark Bunting initially stumped us as the bird was in between its' winter plumage and breeding plummage.  The photo is not great as it was taken on a cloudy morning at long range.  However, you can very clearly see that it is a Lark Bunting.  Don't worry if you don't know what a Lark Bunting is.  I didn't before I saw this one.  Noteworthy is that our sighting is one of only a handful at this location over the past 20 years. Talk about lucky!

I got pretty lucky in the photography category this week.  Although many of these photos can be viewed on my Flickr site I thought I would post them for anyone not visiting Flickr.  A few of the photos in this post did not make it to Flickr but I thought I would share them by way of my blog.  I hope you enjoy them.

Well I could go on, and on, but I already have.....  It is late and I am running out of steam.  The week ahead looks to be pretty birdy.  The weather will be improving as the week progresses.  The forecast calls for 80F or 26 Canadian by the weekend.  We are on our countdown here in Mesa, Az.  We depart in less than 2 weeks.  Hard to believe we have been here for over 2 months.  Never mind.  No time to dwell on the past or worry about the future.  Live in the moment and go get some new birds....

Ash-throated Flycatcher - Coon Bluff Recreation Area.

Ash-throated Flycatcher - Coon Bluff Recreation Area.

Northern Cardinal - Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

Gray Flycatcher - Coon Bluff Recreation Area.

Green Heron - Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Lark Bunting - The Thrasher Spot

Wilson's Snipe. Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Male Ladder-back Woodpecker.  Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

The duck in the foreground is a Mallard-Mexican Intergrade.  Note the difference between it and the other duck, a female Mallard.  Photo from Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Pipeline Swallowtail Butterfly - Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

..........and at long last the end of the post and fittingly staring a Pond Slider Turtle who resides at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.....