Reid Park

January 9, 2024

So yesterday wasn’t quite the coldest day after all. It dropped to 27 last night, and when Rachael and I drove over to her optometrist’s office to pick up her new glasses at 9:30 the ice was just beginning to melt off the windshield.

By eleven though it’s above forty; and on a sunny windless day it feels fine for a ride. I’m in a pretty small time box though, because Susan’s flight is due to arrive just before two and I’m the one picking her up. What sort of ride makes sense that will get me back in time without getting me too far from home in case something goes wrong? Oh, I know - I’ll check out Reid Park, the place Rachael walked to east of here a few days ago. I look up eBird to see what’s been reported seen from there recently and decide that it’s worth a look. The mix of birds there is somewhat different than the other places I’ve been snooping around, and with luck I can pick up a new bird or two.

It’s a good omen when I’m biking down the alley a block from home and hear a familiar sound. I look up expecting to see another Gila woodpecker, and am surprised to see three of them noisily chattering away in the crown of the tree.

I’m crossing the university campus about a mile and a half into my short four mile ride to the park when I realize that I forgot to pocket my camera when I stepped out the door. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to go out on a bird quest without a camera, so I head back home again. Not the best, when I’m time-limited already, but at least I realized it in time to act on it.

When I’m back again it’s getting near lunch time and the way ahead is blocked by a set of food robots on their appointed rounds. So cute! I’m glad to see them, the first since we returned this winter. I’d been afraid the program had been cancelled since we were here last.

Nice to see that the food-delivery robots are still in business on the campus. Looks like I’ve arrived during the noontime rush.

There’s always something worth stopping for on a ride through the campus. Those robots are cute, but this is even better.

Reid Park, once I get there, exceeds expectations. I begin by checking out the two small ponds, both brimming with birds. Hundreds of ducks, most of them wigeons, and at least several dozen cormorants. Nothing new, but they’re fun to watch and listen to at such close range.

Nothing new though until I come across a lone male wood duck standing in the shadows. That’s certainly worth the price of admission.

A study in black and white, with a turtle.

Reid Park is a fairly large space, mostly open grassy areas with scattered trees. It’s a good place to explore by bicycle, rolling along sidewalks, paths and just on the grass looking for signs of life. There’s one tree that contains thirty or forty sparrows that drop to the grass and peck around until something alerts them and they immediately get vacuumed back up into the tree again. I never succeed in getting too close before they disappear, but close enough to see they’re the first chipping sparrows of the year.

Another rock squirrel. I’ve still got my eye out for one of those cute round tailed ground squirrels, but I’ll likely have to get into a different habitat.

I’m pretty happy to have picked up two new birds for what’s a pretty brief, casual outing. But I’m really happy when I look up from the sparrows and see a small bird walking down a nearby tree trunk and then around the back out of sight. A nuthatch! It’s one of the birds I was hoping to see here, and one I’ve had in mind for months ever since I realized I went the entire last year without seeing one. I watch for several minutes, waiting for him to show up again until finally he flies off.

So that’s pretty amazing. As I bike home I’m thinking counting the birds I’ve seen today - it’s somewhere around twenty - when one more adds itself to the list when I ride up Treat Avenue and a roadrunner crosses the road and disappears into the shrubbery.

There’s always something worth stopping for on a ride down Treat Street (which is actually an Avenue, just so you know we know).

And then, an already great day gets even better when I’m back home going through photos while waiting for Susan’s weather-delayed flight to arrive and find another surprise. At the last minute I took a photo of a bird up higher in the nuthatch’s tree, thinking it’s another Gila woodpecker although I can’t really see him well in the shadows. Its not though - it’s a flicker, and a much better shot of one than I’ve usually succeeded in coming home with.

Susan calls when her plane hits the tarmac, and I leave for the twenty minute drive down to the airport. Timing is perfect, with me having barely parked the car in the cell phone wait area when she calls again saying she’s ready to be picked up.

She’ll be with us for the next eight days, staying in her own place just a block and a half from ours. I drop her and Vivian George off at her place, and later after Rachael’s home from her ten mile walk we pick her up to head down to Reilly’s for dinner and a long overdue reunion. how long has it been, Susan? In Amiens last spring, when you took the train up from Paris on a mission of mercy to return my lost Pendleton? Too long.

Oh, wait. Susan was here with us for a while in Tucson last winter too. Duh.

Today's ride: 13 miles (21 km)
Total: 1,036 miles (1,667 km)

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