The KERP Basin

January 4, 2023

I’m halfway through my first cup when Rachael calls out to announce that there’s a pretty sunrise developing that she can see through the bathroom’s east-facing window. I quickly put on my sandals, grab the camera and head for the door, and when Rachael calls again to remind me to look for her glasses too I reach for the car keys hanging on the key rack.

The sunrise is nice enough, but the real thrill of the morning comes after I’ve scoured the ground around the car and gotten down on my knees to peer underneath it without success. Down to my last chance, I unlock the car again and thankfully spot them this time on the floor of the back seat - something that neither of us can come up with an explanation for. I return to the house with the good news, collect my celebratory hug, and sit down to finish my cup of coffee.

A nice sunrise, and a row of mourning doves - but nothing to get too excited about there. They’ve already been listed.

I finish my first cup and before I can even think of starting the second Rachael reminds me that I promised to check out her bike to see if I can find the explanation for her mysterious phantom clunk. She began complaining about this on the ride home yesterday and enlisted me to take it for a spin myself - which I did, but heard nothing. I can’t hear anything this morning either when I ride it up and down 4th Street for several minutes; but I do notice that I can’t get it to shift into the large chainring. When we talk it over we agree that she should just take it over to Fair Wheel Bikes when they open at 9. I draw her a map for the short ride over there, and while she’s out I wrap up the day’s post.

She’s back about 45 minutes later $37 the poorer but with a bike that performs better. There are still issues though - it needs a new chain, cluster and chainring among other things - work we knew was needed but have an appointment for when we return to Portland. Fair Wheel is a terrific shop though, and after talking it over we decide to bike over there, have them do a complete assessment, and see if they have the time and the parts on hand to do the work while we’re down here instead.

We decide to bike over together to see what’s possible. We only get two blocks from home though when we come to a block-long mural on 9th Avenue, one I haven’t seen before. I stop for it, telling Rachael I’ll meet her at the shop.

In the Dunbar Springs neighborhood. New this year?

Steve’s already got her bike up on the rack when I arrive and is busy spinning it through the gears, taking measurements, adding entries to the list of work needing to be done, and checking the inventory to see what’s in stock. He’s fast, obviously very knowledgeable, and talks through with us what he’s finding as he goes. Periodically he’ll call out a question to one of the three other mechanics at work on other bikes. Fair Wheel is a very impressive bike shop, and makes us wonder if we shouldn’t just change our home base from Portland to Tucson one of these years just to have a great bike store in the neighborhood.

When he’s done, Steve totals it all up and presents us with an $800 bill, which gets her a complete drive train replacement, new cables and housing, overhauled front and rear hubs, a new rear brake rotor, and rear brake pads. The good news is that her water bottle seems just fine, and they have the parts on hand and can return the bike tomorrow afternoon.

$800 is a hefty bill alright but the bike is five years old, probably has close to 50,000 miles on it, and it’s her main transportation expense. It’s just time.

So a joint bike ride either today or tomorrow is obviously out. For today Rachael heads off for home with plans for a walk over toward Pilot Butte already loaded to the Garmin. I wheel off the other way, planning a leisurely afternoon looking for some birds to add to the list. I find a few, beginning with a swing through the Lost Barrio.

In addition to the hummer and the mocker I spot a strange looking bird that looks like nothing I’ve seen before - a small grey bird with randomly placed scarlet highlights. A warbler or flycatcher maybe, but none I recognize.

Later, I’ll spin through the entire All About Birds catalog without success and am wondering if it’s some accidental up from Mexico when I look again at the few small birds with red and find a matching image. It’s another vermillion flycatcher, an immature male in the middle of transitioning to its adult coloration.

It’s bird #2 again, another vermillion flycatcher, with a look I haven’t seen before.

Leaving the Lost Barrio I bike southeast on the Aviation Bikeway, keeping an eye out for the birds and stopping here and there for the odd sighting. At the junction with Layton Place I’m stopped taking a photo of two giant ants and a beer stein on the roof of a house along with other exotic junk, when an elderly woman (but not so old as me, we confirm after exchanging ages - she’s a mere 74) bikes up and asks about it and wonders precisely where we are. I check the Garmin and give her the coordinates and she bikes off.

Worth a stop. This place should be listed on the Atlas Obscura.

A few miles later and I’ve crossed the highway and stopped to check out Bird #19 on the El Paso and Southwestern Greenway when the same elderly woman bicyclist shows up and wants to know what I’m stopped for this time. We chat for a bit - she and her husband are snowbirds, down from Indiana for the winter - and she wants to know if she can get to Julian Wash this way. She can - I’m headed there myself - but it’s hard to explain and I’m not sure how well signposted the route is so I bike with her for the next mile to the right turnoff.

I don’t follow her toward Julian Wash though because once again I’m astounded by the amount of standing water I’m seeing here this winter. This time it’s the ponds in KERP Basin, which always before have just had a few small pools in the lowest spots. Today they’re all filled to brimming, and they’re brimming with birds too. It’s pretty amazing - I add seven new birds to the list, for a ten bird day. It’s really lucky - I see lots of mergansers, shovelers, scaups and ruddy ducks, but there’s exactly one great blue heron, exactly one great egret, and exactly one double-crested cormorant, all close enough for a reasonable shot.

The KERP ponds, by the way, are an artificial development, created in 2000-2001 by the federally funded Kino Environmental Restoration Project to create an urban wetland and green oasis in the middle of the city and a system for collecting and recycling floodwater runoff. It’s always looked like it could be an attractive area, with its two mile bike path circling the ponds and exercise equipment spaced here and the along it. It certainly has a lot more appeal today though, with the ponds filled with water instead of the usual collection of dry wash urban junk.

One of the KERP ponds, with the Catalina Range behind. The ponds are artificial and cement lined, designed to collect and store floodwater runoff for reuse.

There’s a really nice view of Mount Lemmon from a high point on the bike path circling the ponds.

#20: Great egret, with rusty grocery cart.

I finish circling the pond and find a picnic bench in the shade to stop for lunch, and there’s one last birding treat for the day. Off at the edge of the field I see some movement, zoom in, and see an Abert’s towhee scraping away in the dirt. Nice! I can get a complete bird shot and quit walking down the street hoping for a better look at our local bird. I watch his little dance for several minutes, later realizing that a video would be worth capturing, and then decide to stealthily move a little closer for a better shot. I get exactly one step before he zips back under his Mesquite shelter.

Abert’s towhee, the complete bird revealed.

So that’s enough excitement for one day. I’m due a day off anyway, so I just bike home instead of heading southwest to Kennedy Park like I had planned. I need to save a few new birds for other posts, after all.

For dinner we drive out Columbus to Pastiche Modern Eatery, a restaurant we ate at a few times last year. I mention it here because we enjoyed it for its food and its live music - they feature a rotating list of local musicians, listed on a calendar they maintain on their website - but we couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant until Rachael finally stumbled on it.

Tonight it’s very quiet - the restaurant is nearly empty so soon after the holiday weekend - but we enjoy an excellent set performed by Jose Marquez, an acoustic guitarist/vocalist up from Nogales. We’re his primary audience, and as the set progresses he gradually engages more with us, talking about his background growing up in Mexico and learning the trade playing guitars for gents serenading their girlfriends on balconies. It’s a charming, memorable evening. It’s been such a long time since we’ve heard any live music performance that neither of us can remember the last one.

Jose Martin Marquez, performing dinner music at Pastiche Modern Eatery. Jose plays a requinto, which he described as a smaller, higher-pitched guitar.

Ride stats today: 17 miles, 400’; for the tour: 622 miles, 23,200’

____________________

2023 Bird List

17. Anna’s hummingbird

18. Northern Mockingbird

19. Say’s Phoebe

20. Great egret

21. Northern shoveler

22. Ruddy duck

23. Common merganser

24. Great blue heron

25. Double-crested cormorant

26. Lesser scaup

Today's ride: 17 miles (27 km)
Total: 622 miles (1,001 km)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	3

Janice BranhamWow! A banner bird day.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Janice BranhamYup. Almost too many at once. How am I going to draw this up if I use up all the common birds so quickly.
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1 year ago

Ron SuchanekSo while Rachael is out hiking, you're chatting up the young chicks...
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1 year ago