P.I.R.

Seven o'clock saw the departure of a trinity of birders from the Sun Bowl parking lot. Shirley Fackelman and Cathy Huffman accompanied the leader, Marshall Esty, on this trip to the Phoenix International Raceway area.

Our first stop was at 10101 Olive Avenue for a look at burrowing owls. We saw seven or eight. Some of them obligingly posed for us.

Our second stop was at "The El Mirage Ephemeral Ponds" which were completely dry and mostly devoid of visible bird life.

We went across El Mirage Road and visited "Hunter Ponds" next. They were drier than usual but there was some (stinky) water. That was the area where we got good looks at a Black-bellied Whistling Duck which sat in the meager shade of a shrub and eyed us passively. Further down that road we saw, one-byone, about a dozen White-faced Ibis -not in breeding plumage. (Photo above)

At the P.I.R., we saw that the cliff swallows were using the nests under the bridge. We were able to get quite close.

On the way back, up El Mirage Road, Cathy spotted a field with lots of egrets in it. There was a Great Egret, but most of the rest were Cattle Egrets, with breeding plumage.

We were back at The Sun Bowl lot before ten o'clock, having seen 27 species “fer sure" and two probables, and a maybe!

Here’s what we saw: Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, White-faced Ibis, Turkey Vulture, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Gamble’s Quail, Common Moorhen, American Coot, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Rock Pigeon, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Burrowing Owl, Cliff Swallow, Northern Mockingbird, Abert’s Towhee, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Northern Cardinal (f), House Finch, House Sparrow, Possible Common Raven, possible Lesser Goldfinch and maybe some “Peeps” Sandpipers.