January 10, 2023
Guest Star Day
Another blitz post, because there’s not much to say about our respective rides today, and because our suddenly busy social calendar is sucking up the spare time. In fact, the posts for the entire next week might either be brief or late in coming.
I’ve got a can’t miss appointment on the schedule this afternoon, so it’s the right day for another short ride and bird crawl. While Rachael bikes out Julian Wash again and bangs out another 45 miles, I limit myself to biking south to check again to see if the redheads are in town this winter, and then maybe bike back up to Sweetwater again.
The ride gets off to a promising start when I bike south up the Santa Cruz and a small flock of small birds flits into a mesquite right beside the trail. Birds like this are such teases - they’ll reveal themselves briefly, but then as soon as you stop and reach for the camera they’re off again. Maybe if I mastered the one handed moving shot I’d have better luck? Today though one of them surprises me and lingers long enough to get a passable shot off. A yellow-rumpled warbler! I know these birds are around in the winter and will see one from time to time, but I’ve seldom had a chance to capture one on film. Bird #40!
So I’m right, and the warbler sighting is a harbinger of good things to come. There are a few redheads on Kennedy Lake this morning, and two of them are drifting by close enough to get a good shot. And while I’m there I decide to snag better shots of birds we’ve already seen, the boat-tailed grackle and Anna’s hummingbird. A good day, and I’m only six miles into it.
On the way back past town though, I decide that’s enough. It’s looking like it might cramp the schedule too much if I go out to Sweetwater, especially if today’s the day I pick up the first flat of the year. And besides, I have to go to the bathroom so I just head for home.
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So about that errand. I’ve got a date at the Tucson airport to pick up a special guest. I’ve set the alarm so I don’t lose track, and leave about three. Plenty of time, even factoring in the possibility that I get held up by a freight train, which often happens in our neighborhood.
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I’m on time, and the special guest arrives on time - I receive a text from announcing the plane just touched down, two minutes early. Fifteen or twenty minutes later I’m driving back to the Barrio, Susan Carpenter riding shotgun and Vivien George in the hold.
Susan Carpenter again! She’s a bit put out to see she’s only our third CycleBlaze meetup of the new year - bad luck for her really, since we’re only 10 days into it. She’s a good sport and gets over it quickly, and soon settles into the second bedroom where she’ll stay for the next week as long as she behaves herself. Although there is a very nice Day’s Inn just the other side of the Santa Cruz she could shift to if it comes to that.
Much more to come.
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1 year ago
Ride stats today: 45 miles, 1,100’; for the tour: 888 miles, 33,700’
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2023 Bird List
40. Yellow-rumpled warbler
41. Redhead
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 839 miles (1,350 km)
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