Cold snap

January 4, 2024

Rocky and I are sitting around trying to keep warm when we hear what sounds like rain hitting the house. The weather app says there’s no rain due for the rest of the day (though apparently some came in overnight), so I go out on the front porch.

We were right - it is raining, here. But not anywhere else from the looks of it. There must be a tiny small cloud passing over the house now, one that passes a minute later.

We’re at the front edge of what counts as a cold snap here. It looks like it will be with us for about the next week or so, typically bringing highs in the low fifties and the lows at or near freezing. Not the most conducive for cycling, especially if it’s at all windy as it will be today. Definitely not a day that Rachael cares to bike on, when she could be taking a nice 13 mile walk instead.

Which she does. She and I leave the house at the same time, both well bundled up with all our layers. She’s on her way east to the shopping mall where she ordered her new glasses for a few errands, and then continues on to explore an attraction neither of us has visited before - Reid Park, the home of the zoo. There’s more there than the zoo though - there are ponds, walking paths, birds, and other typical urban park attractions. It looks like a nice place from the photos she brought back, and a place I should check out myself.

On the way home she walks along the Treat Walkway, a short unpaved path across the Arroyo Chico that integrates with the Treat Street Bike Boulevard.

Neotropic cormorants in Reid Park. It definitely looks like a place worth exploring.

In Reid Park. If those mallards would get their head out of their neck they could enjoy the view.

Crossing Arroyo Chico on the Treat Walkway.

While Rocky puts in her steps I decide to attempt again the route I cut short two days ago - a loop to El Rio, with stops at Silverbell Lake and Sweetwater en route. In short, a bird run. It nags at me that I only added three new birds yesterday, so I’m after more this time.

And I find them - 13 new species today! That’s the fun aspect of starting over with the new year - I can experience the rush of discovering many new birds for awhile, feeling a rush of excitement at my first sighting of what in many cases is a fairly common bird here.

The ride starts up the west side of the Santa Cruz, with me picking up my first American kestrel and red-tailed hawk of the year en passant. A circuit of the lake turns up red-winged blackbirds and rough-winged swallows, as well as a good close up look of the Neotropic cormorants I saw two days ago.

Looking across Silverbell Lake at the Catalinas. We’ll get several views of these mountains today, which under these conditions looks different every time I look their way.

It’s nice to get a good look at a Neotropic cormorant, one that shows its distinguishing features so well. Also, notice how small they are - without extending their long neck they don’t look much larger than that coot and wigeon.

It was chilly and breezy when I started this ride, but it’s even colder after I leave the lake because the wind has picked up significantly as I move north. I give some thought to turning back, but I gradually get into a rhythm and eventually make it to El Rio as planned. I don’t have much company though, and I’m an hour and a half into the ride before I see another biker out.

Along the way I pick up two more first for the year - a raven, one of a pair roosting atop a utility pole as I bike beneath them, and then a small flock of lark sparrows. I’m especially pleased about the lark sparrows, a species I’ve seldom seen - this is the first since last winter here. I’m afraid I won’t be able to get a focused shot off in time because my hands are so stiff from the cold, but fortunately one of the birds is patient and waits for me.

It looks forbidding in the direction of Mount Lemmon. It’s a good day to stay in the flats, if not indoors by the heater.

I’ll bet I saw fifteen different Gila woodpeckers today.

As it was last week and last year, the lake at El Rio is full and awash in waterfowl. I have two interesting encounters there while prowling the edge of the lake, both with elderly bird watchers. The woman was particularly interesting - an 83 year old who still rides horses and bikes a bit on her fat tire e-bike in spite of a fused spine and several heart condition interventions, she shares with me some of her past and then informs me that this transient lake is more or less permanent now that the city of Marana has invested in developing it as a destination wetland refuge.

The view of the Tortolita mountains from El Rio. We’ve always liked biking to this spot, but it’s even more appealing now that there’s water in the lake.

There are five species of ducks in this crowd.

One of them is #43 for the year, a Northern pintail.

Another view of the Catalinas, this time looking like an erupting volcano.

The ride back is faster and warmer, with the sun intermittently breaking through and the wind at my back most of the way. I’ve not gone far when a raptor glides by - a Northern harrier, a make up opportunity for the shot I missed yesterday. Surprising though - I think I only saw one all last year, and now I’ve seen two in as many days.

The Catalinas are looking particularly gloomy at the moment.

I don’t stop long at Sweetwater, because it’s getting late in the day and I’m planning a longer visit in the morning after dropping the car off for servicing. I’m there long enough though for another interesting encounter with another elderly bird watcher. When I first encounter her she’s muttering over the frustration of trying to photograph a goldeneye who spends about 90% of the time under water, surfacing just long enough for her to be ready for a shot when it dives again. Its a scenario I well recognize. Stupid birds!

Before she arrived though I saw what looked to me like a family of hooded mergansers, though I’m not positive. I ask her about them because they were swimming down at the end of the pond she’s just returning from. She agrees that they’re probably hooded, but they frustrated her too because she could never get all seven of them into the frame at once.

When I get home and unload the film, I almost feel guilty when I see that’s exactly what I came away with. I stole her shot!

I liked this scene of a flock of quail tussling over slices of bread.

It’s almost warm when I leave Sweetwater. I’m startled to look east at the Catalinas, looking much different than they did a half hour ago. The warm glow doesn’t last long though, as the sun soon gets covered by clouds and it’s suddenly chilly again.

There’s one last bird treat for the day when I near Grant Avenue and approach a flock of about a hundred blackbirds strewn across the path and lining the railing. At first I think they’re all Brewer’s blackbirds, but when I get home I see that there are many redwings mixed in. I’m hesitant to scatter them by biking through, but it’s not long before that it’s too cold to wait. As they all fly off when I come nearer, I’m sorry Rachael isn’t with me with her GoPro.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 939 miles (1,511 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	12
Comment on this entry	Comment	11

Bill ShaneyfeltYou getting "highs in the low fifties and the lows at or near freezing" would be great for me! Been mid to upper 30s in the afternoon heat here... Can't complain, it is still about 5 degrees or more above average.

Birds have not been cooperative lately here in Dayton, OH. Sparrows, a few house finches, robins that think they don't need to head south yet, frequent our yard. At the park there are plenty of mallards, a few blue herons and way too many Canada geese! I did see a pair of bluebirds there about a week ago. One downy woodpecker along the bike path last week. Pigeons stay around bridges where they huddle on the underside of the beams at night, and some kind of raptors are leaving white splotches on the bike path. Southern AZ is a birdwatching wonderland! I remember my semester of Ornithology spring of '69 at ASU. I just wish I could remember a fraction of what I studied.

Looking forward to seeing what else you spot! Thanks for the great pictures!
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Bruce LellmanIt will be interesting to see how many new species you record this year compared to last and if there are species you saw last year that you didn't see this year.

So many different kinds of birds down there.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Bruce LellmanYou might be in for an even colder snap than you think judging by the ten day forecast I've seen. Maybe it won't go as far down as where you are though.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanTucson seems to be in a pretty privileged position. These sever cold fronts seem to taper off north of here. We’ll be affected, but it would be worse if we were a hundred miles further north.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Scott AndersonThat's good!
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanIt’s a great birding area, alright. Over 300 species have been reported seen at Sweetwater, and over a hundred have been reported on eBird since the first of the year.

And I’m sure I’ll see some new ones this year and miss some I saw last year; that’s birding. Already I’ve seen four this year (including the next day’s report) that I didn’t see last year, including two lifetime firsts.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Bill ShaneyfeltReally? You saw bluebirds up there recently? I thought they all went south for the winter.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Bill ShaneyfeltTo Scott Anderson30 Dec.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cq7ha7FRqfucRpTb8

Not sure the link works, but here is the shot... Full 12x plus full digital zoom.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Bill ShaneyfeltInteresting. It looks like you’re north of its range map outside of breeding season. I wonder if they’re being pushed north by climate change.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Bill ShaneyfeltI rarely see them. Usually late fall, early winter. Was unusually warm that day but not as warm as a few years ago when it was about 10 degrees warmer. I think they just adjust as the temperatures change.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago

Keith AdamsI see bluebirds fairly often here in Maryland, but not at this time of year. There are a few places on the golf course I play most often where sightings are quite common.

Last spring I was visiting Antietam National Battlefield Historic Park and ran across a couple checking the bluebird houses in the park. In the four-plus decades they've been monitoring the local population they have counted over 11,000 birds.
Reply to this comment
4 months ago