Birds of the Park

This time of year, there is not a great deal of bird activity in the area. There are the usual busy grackles every where you go, lots of sparrows and we almost always see quail when we are out and about. When I went out to get the paper yesterday morning, I heard this fellow's shrill chirp and spotted him in the tree behind Auntie Violet.

It's a Gila Woodpecker, one of the ladderback clan as you can tell by its back.

I don't know if this is the one that has been raiding the hummingbird's sugar water or not. It looks a little bigger than that one to me...

  

Forry has seen one when he went to get the mail and both Sandy and Ron in the office talk about them being around all the time, but I had not seen a Greater Roadrunner since we got to Eagle's View. But today, I spotted one!

She was hunkered down along the road and she kept trying to make herself small. They are so funny to watch. She kept acting like if she didn't move, I wouldn't be able to see her...

We spent several hours this afternoon in Fountain Hills and Scottsdale trying to find a bicycle shop where we could get the flat on the rear tire of my trike repaired. One of the shops was now a car repair place, another had its phone disconnected. The one we finally found in near Old Scottsdale was an empty building, but had a sign on the door telling us where they had moved to.

Turns out the tire had a thorn in it -- surprise! The fellow at the shop took it out; looked for more; and then put in a new thicker tube. The trike should be good to go now. It works good for Forry to ride it while I walk around the park.

Our last stop was at Safeway to pick up groceries. Once again it was dark by the time we got back to the RV Park.