Eighteen early risers, Carolyn Modeen - leader, Clara Rogers, John Gottfried, Vera Markham, Liz and Stew Morris, Marge Eckman, Barbara Meding, Clara Mae Ryder, Marshall Esty, Stanley and Marty Fackelman, Carol Maroney, Chuck and Loretta Richards, Andrea Nesbitt, Chuck Kangas and Fran Baughman, left the Sun Bowl parking lot at 7am to do some bird watching. .

It doesn't get any better than this at Thunderbird Park! The lush green growth promoted numerous feeding birds--one of the shrikes had the tail of a lizard swinging from its beak, as we admired he\she and the breakfast! Sorry to see the Black-crowned Night Herons are being displaced by the numerous cormorants--only two of the herons were visible--we couldn't even count all the cormorants.

Here is the list of the 33 species seen or heard: Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Common Merganser, Ruddy Duck, American Coot, Killdeer (Heard), Rock Pigeons, Mourning Dove, Greater Roadrunner, Anna's Hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird, Gila Woodpecker (Heard), Loggerhead Shrike, Common Raven, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Verdin, Cactus Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Mockingbird, Curve-billed Thrasher, Abert's Towhee, Northern Cardinal, Great-tailed Grackle, House Finch and White Crowned Sparrow.