The “Nifty Nine” (Tim Cullison, Bill & Pat Docker, Marshall Esty, Gerry Horton, Vera Markham, Jim Treece, Marilyn Poncey and George Wall) made the trip to a Sun City golf-course pond, The El Mirage (Ephemeral) Pond on El Mirage Road just South of Lower Buckeye Road, some drainage ponds on the other side of El Mirage Road in the fields near the power poles that George Wall knew about, and to the area just north of the Phoenix International Raceway.

Birds seen were: Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, immature Black-crowned Night Heron, White-faced Ibis, Turkey Vulture, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Canada Goose, Mallard, Harris Hawk, 1 mystery hawk, Osprey, American Kestrel, Gambel’s Quail, American Coot, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Greater Yellowlegs, Marbled Godwit, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Burrowing Owl, heard: Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Barn Swallow, Verdin, Northern Mockingbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Redwinged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, and House Finch. [some hybrid geese and mallards and mute swans were also seen] About 37 species and some others identified as to type, but not species.

Good weather and bright skies enabled us to watch some Snowy Egrets “dancing” in the water, saw the sky ‘filled’ with Yellow-headed Blackbirds, were ‘ogled’ by three Burrowing Owls and, in general, had a wonderful time. We were back by half-past ten.