January 22nd

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Well, we were up and at ‘em around 8 am, but David had to scrape the HARD FROST off the car – see photo. We also took a photo of our “landmark” in finding this AirBnB – it’s the huge palm tree.

We drove to Madera Canyon again, found the berry bush, but not the trogon that new friend Yvonne Parrott had told us about. Oh well, met Clare (a very well educated birder who works at a park in TN) and her college friend Tina, and got to show them where the birdfeeders were at the Santa Rita Inn. It was cold in the shade! Thanks to Clare we identified new bird # 5, a Townsend’s solitaire – a relative of a robin.

We saw many of the other expected birds, busily eating and flying by. David took a great photo of an acorn woodpecker thinking he is Superman (I’ve included a “normal” photo of one as well.)

We drove straight to the 11:30 service at Grace Church, a non-denominational church. Great music and message, and coffee to take into the auditorium. Hmmm. But still not as friendly as Advent!!

Because it’s Lunar New Year we thought we should find a good Chinese restaurant – Yelp said go to Jun’s in Tucson – and it was delicious indeed, and crowded. No lion dance, but our server greeted us with “Happy New Year” and was pleased with our attempt at Cong Xi Fa Choy.

As we were up north a ways, we went to the same waste water treatment place we had gone to last year, desperate to see a Marsh Wren. Nope, but the far away lake had Northern Pintails galore, and overall we saw over 16 species of birds – just no new ones. Saw wigeons, mallards, gadwalls, blue winged teal, northern shovelers, green winged teal, Anna’s hummingbirds (how about this one, taking a HUGE STRETCH!)

Overall, a lovely day, especially when it warmed up above 60. We made it home in time to finally get on a Zoom chat with our daughters and their families, yeah!! We sure did miss them.

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