Seven members of Birders’ Anonymous and the Sonoran Audubon Society went on a joint birding tripto the P.I.R. area. – Dave Bradford, Marshall Esty (leader), Phil Evanstock, John Gottfried, CathyHuffman, Vera Markham and George Wall – left the Sun Bowl parking lot and headed for the racetrack.

We stopped at the El Mirage Ponds and along the roadside on the way to the racetrack and saw Mallard, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Common Moorhen, American Coot, Black-necked Stilt, Killdeer, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, European Starling, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle.

At the P.I.R. area, we met up with Chuck Kangas [who had missed us at 6:33a.m.at the Sun Bowl], Alice Brawley-Chesworth and Wendy Wonderley from the Tres Rios Wastewater Engineering Division.

There, besides seeing many of the species we'd seen earlier, we saw Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Least Bittern, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, American Kestrel, Gambel’s Quail, White-winged Dove, White-throated Swift, Costa’s Hummingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Cliff Swallow, House Finch, Bronzed Cowbird and Brown-headed Cowbird.

34 species were seen. Aside from the Least Bittern, which played hide and seek with us on three different occasions and was only seen by four of us, everyone was afforded a look at all of the other birds.