January 7, 2023
Not Tangerine Road
We’re five miles from home, on the Loop and heading north along the Santa Cruz when I look ahead and see the familiar profile of a raven soaring above the hills ahead. Then there are two, then ten. I imagine they’re the same flock that I saw a week ago on my birthday ride, because it’s at about the same location. Surprisingly these are the first ravens I’ve seen since the first of the year, so the species goes on the list. The pressure’s off - I’ve gotten my bird of the day and can relax and just enjoy the ride out to Tangerine Road.
This is about how I expect it to be for the rest of our time in Tucson. Progressively fewer first sightings, and undoubtedly a number of days with none at all. I’ve already seen a large share of the most commmon birds that winter here, and I’m hopeful a few more will trickle in. I’m up to thirty species now and am hoping to hit forty, fifty if I’m really lucky before starting the drive back north.
The plan today is a repeat of a ride we took for the first time last year - a fifty miler that includes a loop along Tangerine Road at its northern end. I remember it for the great views of the Tortolitas and Catalinas and the rattlesnake rest stop at the top, but Rachael also remembers it as the place she went for fifteen miles hoping without success to find a decent spot to go to the bathroom so she’s not sure about repeating it. We look over the route, identify the known rest stops that are only about 15 miles apart, and she decides she’ll be fine as long as she plans ahead and stops at strategic points.
What if I’m not ready to go when we come to the rest stop, she asks. Easy - just jump up and down until you are ready, I advise. That often works well, in my experience. Reassured by this great tip, she’s good to go. It’s a comfortable 55F when we coast down to Saint Mary’s, on a day that will warm to 70.
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After all that thoughtful planning though, it looks like Tangerine Road will have to wait for another day. I get behind Rachael when I stop for the ravens, and not long after the bike train catches up with and passes her she makes a wrong turn and heads up the Oro Valley instead of continuing north along the Santa Cruz. Maybe the bikers distracted her at the wrong moment, and after that the auto-renavigation function on the Garmin kept luring her further down the wrong path. In effect she’s riding the correct loop, but backwards.
I first learn of this when I’m crossing Ina Road and get a phone call from her. She knows she’s off route but can’t quite figure out what’s gone wrong and what to do. She’s especially confused that the Garmin seems to be steering her along the perimeter of a block-wide box. She doesn’t want to keep doing that all day, so she calls me up for some roadside assistance.
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It takes awhile to sort out where she is. She’s across the street from an Enterprise car rental office, and after I encourage her to read her map more closely she says she’s on Thornydale Road. I have no idea where that is and can’t find it on the Garmin - it doesn't look like it’s anywhere near where I am. I cut off the call so I can use the phone’s map to look up the nearest Enterprise office, and finally find it. She’s about two miles away, and after staring at the map in puzzlement I figure out what’s happened.
I tell her to just keep biking in circles while I bike over there and then head east on Ina Boulevard. Not the most pleasant cycling route, but there’s compensation when I’m waiting for a stoplight, look up, and see my first starlings of the year. A two bird day!
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Fifteen minutes later we’re back together, biking south on Thornydale to get back on the loop. Two stoplights later we reverse direction and bike north on Thornydale when it finally occurs to me we’re going the wrong direction and the Loop is north of us. Dumb - I could have just looked around and oriented myself from the mountains.
With all this delay, we scrap the idea of riding up to Tangerine Road. We continue north up Oro Valley to the nearest rest stop and then backtrack to the junction with the Rillito Wash leg, where we part ways. She’s off east up Rillito to rack up some miles, while I decide I’ll head south along the Santa Cruz to cruise for birds at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. Here’s her route for the day, which ended up being considerably longer than mine:
Video sound track: Come Saturday Morning, by The Sandpipers
I find some birds alright - at the holding pond outside Sweetwater Wetlands Park - and add a surprising additional four species to the day’s catch. I see the ring-billed ducks I hoped might be there, and the resident kingfisher the way I usually see him here - flying across the pond and disappearing before I can get a shot off. There’s a pied-billed grebe too, and since I can’t remember for sure if he’s been listed yet I grab a shot to be on the safe side.
The big surprise though, and the one that I’m pretty sure will cement this day in my memory, is the green heron fishing just below my feet. I don’t remember for sure but this may be the first green heron I’ve ever seen. In any case, I’ve definitely never seen one up close like this, near enough to see what a glorious color riot they are.
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1 year ago
1 year ago
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I’ve got plenty of time, so I decide it’s a good day to walk my bike through Sweetwater (you can’t bike there, and I don’t trust the place to leave the Rodriguez locked unattended) and maybe see a few more birds. I don’t find any, but midday is the wrong time to be here looking - but I’m reminded of what a pretty, pleasant oasis it is.
Leaving Sweetwater I take a minute wavering over whether to add a couple of miles by backtracking to the nearest overpass and cross over to the other side of the wash to check out the bird scene at Silverbell Lake, and finally decide to. There’s nothing exciting at Silverbell this afternoon - just the usual collection of coots, mallards and grackles - but it was the right decision nonetheless. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have seen the first coyote of the year, resting in the shade down in the wash; and I wouldn’t have been shocked to cross paths with Kelly, who I hadn’t even known was in town. She was surprised too, especially since a half hour earlier she also encountered Rachael along the Rillito Wash.
Quite the day - an interesting misadventure, six new birds, a coyote, a CycleBlazer. Not bad for a blown itinerary!
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Ride stats today: 48 miles, 1,000’; for the tour: 755 miles, 27,700’
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2023 Bird List
31. Common raven
32. Starling
33. Pied-billed grebe
34. Ring-billed duck
35. Belted kingfisher
36. Green heron
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What to do if she didn't have to go,
Scott said "jump up and down,"
Imagine Rocky's frown,
But it worked, so on with the show.
Ravens, coyotes, and Cycleblazers too,
Then Kelly came riding out of the blue,
Herons and rats,
Wetlands, and that's,
Why I read about Rocky and you.
1 year ago
1 year ago