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After the race on Sunday morning all I really wanted to do was eat a gigantic breakfast burrito smothered in red and green chile (Christmas style)and lay down on the couch. But later in the afternoon my dad said he was going for a walk along the irrigation ditch that parallels the Rio Grande, and I thought it might do my legs a bit of good to stretch out--not to mention check out some of the birds that might be hanging around in the neighborhood.

We had only gone a half-mile or so before we noticed quite a bit of activity across the ditch. In front of us was the ditch filled with water, the a yard or so thick of tall grass and brush, and beyond that some cottonwoods. At first I noticed the sounds of the nuthatches I had been listening to in my parents backyard all weekend, and then I noticed the obvious behavior of what I thought was a Western Kingbird. When I looked at the photo I took later on I realized it was a Say's Phoebe. You can really see the rusty sides in the photo, even from this far away distance.