When I bought my Chevy Volt in 2012, EVs were still very much a rarity (even the Tesla Model S was not yet available), and public EV charging infrastructure was more of a unicorn. Back then, finding a public charging station was a rare instance, and finding an EV actually USING a public charging station that wasn't my own was Mission Impossible. Fast forward 5 years, and my, how things have changed! While EV sales still are barely a rounding error compared to overall auto sales (just 1-2%), the population of EVs has steadily grown over that time period, each new year outpacing the previous year in sales. As the demand for EVs has increased, the infrastructure to support them has also expanded. Now charging stations can be found in many more places, to the point that sometimes I find myself filtering out 240V charging stations on the Plugshare app, as the numerous icons block too much of the map! Finding a public charging station NOT in use is the exception as opposed to the norm these days. Why do I bring this all up?
A few days ago, my wife stopped by the local Whole Foods to opportunity charge while shopping for groceries. The Whole Foods location has 2 free charging stations available for customer use, but one of them has been broken the past 16 months (ridiculous, I know). So with only 1 operational station and no other EVs in sight, the wife plugged the Bolt in and went off to shop. When she came back out to the Bolt, she had found that a silver Prius Plug-in (first generation plug-in with a whopping 13 miles of range) had unplugged her actively charging Bolt and had plugged himself in! No note, no nothing (thanks, jerk!). Appropriately miffed, the wife left a note to the Prius owner informing them she was not finished charging, and didn't appreciate being unplugged. After being told about what had happened, myself (also being quite miffed) posted about it in a FB Bolt owners group. Most other owners agreed that it was a jerk move for the Prius owner to unplug the actively charging Bolt, but then one member (not even a Bolt owner, but rather a Tesla owner.
Bolt in the first place was the more egregious move than the Prius unplugging my Bolt, since it was a "long range" BEV and shouldn't ever need to local charge and the Prius needed it more (dafuq??). EVHOLE (typically used to describe EV owners than block charging spots without plugging in, or just EV owners acting like a-holes in general). Well, too bad buddy, first come first serve. If a low-range BEV owner asked me if they could charge, I would 99% of the time have no problem letting them take the plug (something the Prius owner mentioned above failed to do). But this cavalier belief that there is a pecking order for who has priority over public charging stations is simply ridiculous. TL;DR version of my blog post: First come, first served for public charging stations; don't be an a-hole and steal plugs from actively charging EVs without permission. And if you DO need to charge, ASK first! And if it is a life or death (riiight) situation and you absolutely need to charge, at least leave a damn note for crying out loud!
The smaller ponds at Sweetwater are kept in water all the time, but none at Gilbert are. The Water Ranch also sports a great diversity, but I don't know how many would be on its bird list. I've never seen one. It has the advantage over Sweetwater that it is possible to get closer to the birds at times, and there are a few blinds here and there, which is helpful. You can also walk between shore vegetation to get right down to the water in a number of places. This is the Baikal Teal, the rare bird I mentioned. When I went to look for him, I met a man walking toward the entrance, and I asked him, "Where is the Baikal Teal?" He said, go down this trail and look for the photographers. That worked. So later when I was leaving, I met a man who asked me, "Where is the Baikal Teal?" So I told him, "Go down this trail and look for the photographers." Works every time, doesn't it? The best birding just outside of southeastern Arizona.
Madera Canyon gets a number of species from Mexico that do not go any further north than that, and like the mountain habitat. For quite a number of years, this was THE place to go to see the Elegant Trogon, a species every serious birder wants to see. In recent years, trogons can be seen elsewhere in Arizona's mountains. This includes the Huachuca Mountains and the Chiracahuas. This year, some were found in the Patagonia Mountains. There are rumors that a Quetzal appeared in the area, but apparently he either didn't stay long, or it was just that: rumors. There are numerous other species that appear in Madera Canyon, which has several locations where people feed the birds. This includes at least a half dozen species of hummingbird, and other mountain birds. Among the noisiest are the Mexican Jays, which are everywhere. Black-headed Grosbeaks, several species of Woodpeckers, and others round out the scene.
