Birds!

Woke up (yes, even bicycles sleep…sigh) to the sound of the birds outside our window.  Having just come from the cold north where we have only the smaller winter population of birds that don’t waste energy singing, the birds were deafening.  From your classic LBB to magpies, it was a pleasure to hear.

Then, as we rode from Gila Bend to Wickenberg, we were accompanied by a cacophony of bird songs.  We saw many a LBB and MBB, but also road runner, cactus wren, vulture, crow, hawk, egret (ok, only my human’s other half saw those) and a new bird for me, phainopepla.  A long name for a glossy black cardinal-ish bird.  Very pretty in the sunshine.  One followed us for a while flitting from tree to tree.  But the most vocal of all were the cactus wren, sitting atop the saguaros.  Multiple songs all belted out such that we had no trouble hearing it even with the wind.

Speaking of wind.  Today was a mixed day.  We started and finished with a headwind, but had a really nice tailwind for the middle 40-ish miles.  Since today’s ride was mostly uphill, albeit only slightly uphill, the tailwind really flattened out that section.

But, the human is doing OK.  Today we rode near the middle of the pack despite keeping a light touch on the chain.  Another day of almost 90 miles with energy left at the end of the day.  But, we’re only 3 days in…4 more to go.  We’ll see how they human fares on Saturday.