Trip Report by Louise Fraza, published 4/3/2016.
Participants: 6
Bird Species: 115
We started on a bright, beautiful spring day in the Rio Grande State Park in Albuquerque. There were flowering trees and young greens but the old cottonwoods in the park were still hanging on to their old, dried-up leaves, which rustled in the light breeze. The river, so close to its source in southern Colorado, was wide and mighty. We observed a pair of Bushtits building their long pendulous nest, which involved some interesting acrobatics. There were numerous White-crowned Sparrows, several subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, an Eastern Bluebirds and other woodland birds. On the water were numerous Wood Ducks, Cinnamon Teal and other duck species as well as a few Wilson’s Snipe.
The nearby Sandia Mountains were our other Albuquerque destination. By the afternoon the sky had clouded over and we encountered some snow flurries during our ascent and again at the top at eight thousand feet. The higher we went, the more snow cover was left on the ground. It was 24 degrees and windy when we got to the top. The glass-enclosed restaurant with the feeder in the pine trees outside and comfortable chairs inside, was just what we needed there, especially since some of us were experiencing some mild altitude reactions. Small flocks of birds descended on the feeder from time to time including Mountain Chickadees and the various subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos. Soon, Rick started seeing some rosy-finches nearby and then on the feeder. Eventually a big group of at least 50 visited the feeder. They were mostly Gray-crowned and Black but Rick spotted a Brown-capped, which is less numerous and was a life bird for Rick as it was for everyone in our group.
Bosque del Apache is a wild stretch of the Rio Grande river about two hours east of Albuquerque. It is a National Wildlife Refuge and a famous winter destination for Sandhill Cranes and geese. The heart of the refuge consists of 12,900 acres of moist bottomlands consisting of flood plains, pools and ponds. The cranes had already left for Nebraska, where Rick was planning to catch up with them on his tour for VENT afterwards. We drove slowly around this beautiful refuge encountering almost all the duck species, several Neotropic Cormorants and some leftover Ross’s Geese. We watched a loud, enthusiastic Bewick’s Wren working shrub after shrub along the water’s edge. Near the visitor’s center we observed a small flock of Brewer’s Sparrows, every stripe and mark clearly visible in the bright light. Whoever said they were dull? There were Pyrrhuloxia near the feeders, as well as the ubiquitous White-crowed Sparrows and White-winged Doves.
Our next birding destination was the site of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken lek near the Texas border. We left our hotel in Roswell at 4 am to meet with Grant, a researcher with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, who drove ahead of us for several miles in the dark through some sandy tracks behind a farm. Gina remarked that this was the most hard-core birding she had done yet. Then we waited with the windows open until we started hearing strange sounds in the dark outside: chips, chucks, hoots and gurgles, which were coming from dark, moving shapes outside. Gradually, as the dawn advanced, the shapes revealed themselves to have big reddish air sacks, raised tails and ear plumes and spread wingtips and to be rushing at each other and interacting in other intimidating ways. We were on a lek of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. It was estimated that about 15 males visit this lek, a big one for this rare and declining species. It was early in the season and the females had not yet arrived.
Our afternoon that day was spent at Bitter Lake, a National Wildlife Refuge just a few miles outside of Roswell. It is part of the Pecos River watershed situated where the Chihuahuan desert meets the Southern Plains. Here we spotted some lingering Sandhill Cranes high in the sky, alerting us to their presence by their gurgling cries. In a windless spot with great light we found some new waterfowl and were able to study in our scopes all the wonderful ducks we had seen before. New were the American Avocets, Eared Grebes, Snowy Egret and a shore bird, the Snowy Plover, which appeared to have newly arrived to this nesting site.
It was a long way back from Roswell to Albuquerque. Rick had planned for us to stop about a third of the way at the Salazar Canyon camp site but due to high winds that day it was hard to find birds. Eventually we found a quiet spot where we indulged in the simple pleasure of watching birds from the car. After good looks at Mountain Bluebirds we observed a mixed flock of Western Bluebirds, Dark-eyed Juncos, freshly plumaged Chipping Sparrows and Northern Flickers for quite a relaxing while. Our final stop on the way back was at “Taco Bell” Marsh, close to Albuquerque, where we had one last look at ducks and shorebirds and saw a new trip mammal, the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog. We saw the last bird of the trip after dinner when Rick took us to a school yard on the outskirts of town where we saw a Western Screech-Owl sitting at the entrance of a nest box. This brought our total for the 4-day trip to 114 birds.
Species Lists
Birds
Snow Goose
Ross’s Goose
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Scaled Quail
Gambel’s Quail
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
American Avocet
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Wilson’s Snipe
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
Golden Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Western Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
Kingbird sp.
Loggerhead Shrike
Steller’s Jay
American Crow
Chihuahuan Raven
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bushtit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick’s Wren
European Starling
Curve-billed Thrasher
Crissal Thrasher
Sage Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Phainopepla
House Sparrow
American Pipit
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Black Rosy-Finch
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Canyon Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Western Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pyrrhuloxia
Mammals
Pronghorn
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
Coyote
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Rock Squirrel
Cliff Chipmunk
Abert’s Squirrel
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