It was a nice crisp morning when two carloads headed out to Rio Salado in downtown Phoenix for some birding.  Since it was Columbus Day, the traffic was much lighter and we made it to our meeting place on Central Avenue in plenty of time.  There we met our leader, Tom Gaskill, who has been leading trips at Rio Salado for some time.

Tom gave us (Dan Bohlmann, Marge Eckman, Dick Fogle, Darlene Gatto, Kathy Orr, Donna Smith, George Wall and Nancy Woods) a brief history of Rio Salado as well as a look ahead to the future and if all comes to past, it's a bright future for us birders.

Almost the first bird we saw right at the parking lot in a nearby pond was an immature Little Blue Heron and this started the day off right.  Before the morning was over, we saw or heard 43 species.  They were Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Green Heron, Turkey Vulture, Ruddy Duck, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Gambel's Quail, Common Moorhen, American Coot, Killdeer, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Anna's Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Northern Mockingbird, Black Phoebe, Say's Phoebe, Horned Lark, Marsh Wren (H), Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Verdin, Common Raven, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Abert's Towhee, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, House Finch, House Sparrow, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle.