Rich and I decided to take a spur of the moment drive to Ken’s Lake (a small-ish reservoir about 15 miles south of Moab) after dinner this evening. I just got a new camera last week, and have been dying to give it a few tests. I will talk more about the camera later.
As always, I wanted to take bird photos. Rich takes great photos no matter what his subject may be. Here we are at Ken’s Lake.
Here are a couple of photos from above the lake. It’s beautiful up there, too. Also, here’s a picture of the scenic errrhm….facilities.
I was envisioning lots of tree birds, but instead, there was a plethora of bird life on and around the water. We saw: several Killdeer, a Bufflehead duck (new to my lifelist), Green-Winged Teals, Mallards, a vibrantly rust-colored Cinnamon Teal, a really talkative Brown-Headed Cowbird, a Great Blue Heron, an Eared Grebe (which was the biggest surprise of the day), several Western Kingbirds, a Common Raven, American Coot, and an American Crow. I am sure I missed a few birds, but I was very interested in getting a GOOD photo of the Cinnamon Teal and the Eared Grebe.
Here’s a kind of panoramic photo. Left to right: Killdeer, Bufflehead, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal.
Here’s my lovely Cinnamon teal, and 2 shots of the Eared Grebe.
American Coot and Bufflehead, Brown-headed Cowbird, Great Blue Heron
Green-Winged Teal, Killdeer, and another Plover – which vaguely resembles the Killdeer, but isn’t quite right for it.
I am very happy with my new camera so far, and I am ALWAYS happy to go somewhere with Rich, take photos, and see new birds!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
On our second morning in Phoenix, we made it out of the motel at about 9:00 am (after a nice breakfast of cold Cafe Istanbul leftovers), heading for Boyce Thompson Arboretum (which is about forty-five minutes east of Phoenix). The road to the Arboretum goes through some low mountains, and there were tall pink Penstemons on both sides of the road. Beautiful!
Here are some photos, in no particular order, from BTA.
Here’s the one and only new plant I brought home from Phoenix. It is Haworthia herbacea. I love it!
After several lovely hours at the Arboretum, we drove back to Phoenix, and had a lovely late lunch at a little diner right next to the motel called Jim’s Coney Island Cafe. I had a really good tuna melt (which I am always on the lookout for – I LOVE a good tuna melt). Mom had a bacon cheeseburger, which she said was great.
We relaxed in the room for a little while, and then Janelle came to the motel and picked me up. We went out to have dinner and drinks. It was great to see her. We went to a place called Crave. The food was really good. The garlic fries were amazing! I had a beer, and Janelle ordered the sangria, not realizing it was a whole carafe of it. It was delicious, and she was nice enough to share! 
That’s me, drinking out of the carafe, and me and Janelle at Crave. The photos are phone pictures, and it was dark, so they aren’t great.
Thanks for reading and commenting!