The wintery world of Taos County, New Mexico January 16-26, 2015

As a native Texan, I've been interested and held in awe at the beauty of Taos, New Mexico and it's surrounding mountains, canyons, and imposing gorge looming to the west since I was a kid (and a kid lucky enough to spend a lot of time across NM before moving here as soon as High School was done). My daughter Ruby lives in the Taos area, so I make the drive up and over the mountains frequently to pick her up. These drives give me the chance to slip in some short-birding forays here and there before or after school-picks ups, mostly at the wetlands along Hwy 518 just south of Talpa (Rio Grande del Rancho Wetlands, Tierra Azul Wetlands), but occasionally down to Pilar to slip in the short but very productive drive along the Orilla Verde National Recreation area within the Rio Grande Gorge itself. As with most things, the best of these trips are those when Ruby can come with me!

January 17th
Ruby's house in Arroyo Seco is in a wonderful part of the valley, lush alfalfa fields, with abundant cottonwood gallery forests and sub-irrigated fields, the place is always great for birds, any time of year. I was happy to see the Lewis' Woodpecker that has been around since May 2014 was still returning to her suet feeder and happily working the Populus angustifolia (Narrow-leaf Cottonwood) trees around the yard. A first for me in her yard, a very cute Red-breasted Nuthatch also visited the suet frequently, giving Ruby great looks at her lifer RBNU. Unfortunately the bird did not call, as I was describing it's nasaly trumpet call. Gray-headed Dark-eyed Juncos made every bush and tree jump with activity.

Lewis' Woodpecker adult, Taos Co., NM 1/17/2015

Red-breasted nuthatch in Taos Co., NM 1/17/2015

Gray-headed Dark-eyed Junco, Taos Co., NM 1/17/2015

After departing Taos, proper, I turned to Ruby and made a bio-challenge, that we shouldn't leave Taos county (on our way back to Las Vegas) before seeing a Bald Eagle, challenge accepted! We took the short, but windy road from Ranchos down to Pilar before hanging a right off the busy hwy 68 and onto the tranquil Hwy 570 which follows the Rio Grande through the Gorge for 10 miles before climbing to the west up above the caprock at the bustling little village (sarcasm) of Carson, NM. It's one of those classic New Mexico backroads, where you'll spot landscape views familiar in travel magazines and post-cards from Taos.
As Ruby and I stopped to check out a mixed flock of sparrows, and to move a dead Sharp-shinned hawk (roadkill, probably a car) off the road, I spied a big shadow moving across the river's reflective blue. We both looked up to find a beautiful adult Bald Eagle soaring in loops not 40m above our heads. Ruby had my binoculars and enjoyed National Geographic-quality views, while I grabbed my camera and took some not-so-National Geographic-quality photos.

Adult Bald Eagle soaring over the Rio Grande in the Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/17/2015

With our challenge-Eagle out of the way, and Ruby eager to get back home to Las Vegas to start on our to-do-list for the weekend (mostly involving playing, building cardboard houses, building snowmen, and watching movies) I knew her birding attention span would soon be out, luckily, 2 new duck species for her where present in good numbers along the Rio, and she enjoyed great looks at Common Goldeneye drakes, Common Mergansers, and the ubiquitous Canada Geese, while I busied myself trying to take some decent photographs. I loved hearing her say, "I can actually see the golden-eye - wow that's cool!", things like this make me really repeat the mantra as often as I can - take a kid birding, it's good for them!

Common Goldeneye drakes (males) in Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/23/2015

A Common Merganser male in full breeding plumage in Orilla Verde. Merganser and Goldeneye ducks are the most common species within the river during winter, they're diving ducks, meaning they dive for fish as their primary diet, young trout be ware! Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/23/2015

January 23rd

 I returned the following week to the Taos area to pick Ruby up for a long weekend. Her school pick up was on friday, so I decided to visit my dear friends Dani and Adam who are now living in Pojaque (after living 3 blocks away for the past 7 years) on Thursday and cut my friday commute short and get in some Pilar-birding! After a wonderful thursday night of playing bones (dominos), 'Wa-hoo', and enough rum to keep a corpse warm, I set off Friday morning (after a gallon of cheap gas-station coffee to counteract said Rum) for Pilar.

The actual village of Pilar is a great little haven of deciduous trees (Elm, Cottonwood, Russian Olive, Willow, and a few ornamentals) and bird feeders amidst a Pinon-Juniper dominated landscape. I find the best parking is at Dolores Rd (north end of Pilar), or at the mailboxes. The people who live in the area are friendly, and if you're wandering around the neighborhood, just make sure your binoculars are visible and you shouldn't be considered as a person of interest! A few bird-feeders visible from public roads offer nice concentrations of feeder-visitors, I found Mountain Chickadees, Evening Grosbeaks, House Finches, and Dark-eyed Juncos (Gray-headed, Pink-sided) along the roads, with an unending chorus of corvids; Common Raven, American Crow, Western Scrub-Jay, and Black-billed magpie were all vocally present, proclaiming likely complex messages to each other.

The big surprise of my Pilar walk were 2 Eastern Bluebirds foraging between the river and road. I later found that EABL had been reported a few days earlier by some Taos birders (eBird) in the same area. Eastern Bluebirds can be common in the Albuquerque area and eastern edge of the state, but for them to be in Taos county is an uncommon event, with only a couple of records per year. These were my first for Taos county. Also in Pilar was a female Hooded Merganser, flagged in eBird as 'rare' for Taos county, however many have been seen in the past few months, both on the Rio Grande, and in Ranchos de Taos.

 

An adult Eastern Bluebird in Pilar, NM was a great surprise. Eastern Bluebirds have a distinctively clean white belly that adds a nice tri-colored effect. Pilar, NM lies at the southern entrance of the Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM. 1/23/2015

Hooded Merganser female, Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/23/2015

 A familiar bird across New Mexico, but uncommon in the gorge, a single Northern Pintail was seen with a group of Gadwall and Canada Geese. This is one of my favorite ducks, for it's elegant shape and head pattern. During the Orilla Verde CBC on 12/17/2014 our group recorded and photo'd a single Northern Pintail drake as they are uncommon and documentation would be requested, could this be the same individual? Although it was in approximately the same place as the previous month, the Rio Grande is an artery of migration, with birds likely traveling up and down it's flow frequently, so short answer; hard to say. A handful of Ring-necked Duck males and females were seen along with Common Goldeneye in a rapid section of the river. It's always fun watching ducks navigate riffles and rapids, as much of my observation time of ducks is on still-water lakes and bays.

Northern Pintail Drake on the Rio Grande, Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/23/2015

Ring-necked Duck (left), and Common Goldeneye (right), Orilla Verde Rec. Area, Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, Taos Co., NM, 1/23/2015

Quick trip to the Chiricahuas and southwest New Mexico - Day 1

On February 13th I set off for a quick trip to the eastern Cochise county and the border towns of Douglas, AZ/Agua Prieta, SN. I had a temporary vehicle permit for Sonora only set to expire in a few days and needed to close out officially, risking the chance to not be able to re-enter Sonora with a personal vehicle if the deadline was not met. I figured a 10 hour drive just for a DMV-type visit warranted more time spent in the area to the north of Douglas, the fabled Chiricahua mountains. In 2014 I worked extensively throughout the Chiricahuas from May - September, and had spent some recreational time on the eastern slope in February of the same year.

Day 1 (2/13/2015)

I departed from Las Vegas at 0600 with a mostly southern bearing, fueling up in Las Vegas (Gas) and Pecos (Pancho's Burrito) and headed for a rendezvous with the most famous of New Mexico's National Wildlife Refuges; Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM. The 'bosque' is famous for Sandhill Cranes and other wintering waterfowl and hosts an annual a birding festival in November (Festival of the Cranes) centered around the fall migration. A variety of habitats and it's location along the Rio Grande make birding in the bosque good year-round, not just during the heavily-visited winter months. A Great-horned Owl being pursued by a Common Raven across I-25 just south of Bernalillo were my first birds of the trip. The owl was near a grain silo, probably a resident taking advantage of inflated rodent populations, I've seen this phenomenon in west Texas at grain silos along State Hwy 287. Arriving in San Antonio, I turned onto NM 1, finding Sandhill Cranes in scattered small groups in agricultural fields along the way. A small group of Snow/Ross's Geese were foraging in an alfalfa field, I didn't' stop to differentiate the two similiar species, thinking I would run into more once on the dirt roads of the bosque, which I did not. Sparrows were around in high numbers, mostly White-crowned and Savanna Sparrows (first of the year for me in NM). Bald Eagles, Loggerhead Shrike, Curve-billed Thrasher were all roadside birds, good for ID at 50 mph. At the first water stop, good dabbling duck mix of Northern Pintails, Gadwalls and Green-winged Teal, but the real highlight was a singing Eastern Meadowlark, less bubbly than Western, with a two-part type of song. Many nearby Western Meadowlarks also gave song comparisons, I don't believe it's possible to say one is prettier than the other, but I think I prefer the Western's more gurgling finish. The BDANWR Visitor Center has a nice feeder and water bubbler setup outside of an observation window. I always lurk around the side of the building, as I try not to bird from the indoors as much as possible (you miss out on many of the good sounds!). Sparrow diversity was really great at the VC, with White-throated, White-crowned, Chipping, and House Sparrows, along with both Spotted and Green-tailed Towhee. The Green-tailed Towhee was very active around the buildings, giving great looks in shifting light of it's iridescent lime green tail and coverts, a more beautiful sparrow does not exist. A Red-tailed Hawk in the tree above the feeders failed to scare away the many Gambel's Quail visiting the water bubbler. Mountain Chickadees were another active passerine flitting and chipping around the parking area.

Green-tailed Towhee, BDANWR, 2/13/2015

Cooper's Hawk, BDANWR, 2/13/2015

The refuge tour road was the next stop, more of a long, often-paused cruise. High duck diversity and low Geese numbers was the theme, with nearly every expected dabbler and diver present. The highlight was great looks at a large group of Cinnamon Teal, probably fresh from the south. Cinnamon Teal drakes are a rich beautiful chestnut color, but uncommon in my home county, so this was a treat watching a whole group associating with Northern Shovelers dabble around the marshes.
Photo. Passerines were few and far between, with Bewick's Wrens, Marsh Wrens, and Brown Creepers abundant in expected habitats. A single Cooper's Hawk flushed from a bosque portion of cottonwood.

A lone Phainopepla was heard from somewhere in the scrub habitats surrounding the marsh boardwalk. Shorebirds were even fewer, with a single pair of Greater Yellowlegs doing a bizarre flight display, where one individual led the other on an indirect, frantic flight over one of the marshes. They appeared to want to land, but perhaps water depth was too deep, for they kept circling around above the water for at least 4 minutes before alighting on the shoreline, vocalizing the entire time, their piercing 'kye kye kye' drowning out the hundreds of ducks in the water. Just before leaving, I got out to road-bird just before the pay-booth, finding my 3rd Phoebe of the day for the trifecta, Eastern (Uncommon), Say's, and Black Phoebe. It always makes me smile to see flycatchers in February. In all I saw 56 species (+4 subspecies) along the loop, not bad for 3.5 hours.

Say's Phoebe, BDANWR, 2/13/2015

Canvasback drake, BDANWR, 2/13/2015

Cinnamon Teal, BDANWR, 2/13/2015

This was a big day for my 2015 New Mexico list, going from 115-132 species, with 79 species in Soccorro in the span of about 4 hours.
Leaving the Bosque behind I continued south on I-25, feeling hungry and looking for a Green-chili cheeseburger screaming my name. I stopped at some place in Hatch with a bbq type name; stucky's or stubbys or tubby's or something of the sort. In any event, the G.C. Cheeseburger was as advertised and excellent, just greasy enough, and perfectly medium rare as ordered. The road from Hatch-Deming and eventually Lordsburg goes through beautiful rolling Chihuahan desert grassland, and in a year such as this with at least average rainfall, has several large playa complexes along route. I cruised through the 'Nutthatch' playa, which harboured some dabblers and many raptors. The playa is named not after a wayward nuthatch that was ever seen at this grassland-playa, but for its geographic location, about halfway between Nutt and Hatch, NM, very clever name for a birding hotspot indeed!

A small group of 3 Sandhill Cranes flew over Hwy 80 heading for Animas as I pulled into the Rodeo Tavern just as twilight overtook a beautiful, lingering sunset over the Chiricahuas. Rodeo Tavern has good beer, and good people, some said good people will even buy you a good beer if you bring a good story! A shrieking Barn Owl was the last bird of the day, heard as I left the Tavern, not much easier birding than that!

Day 1 Total: 480 miles driven, 78 species, 4,400+ individual birds, YTD Birds (All US): 241 species

A wet snow and some new birds to close out the month - January 31st, 2015

The final days of January kicked us back into wintery vistas around Las Vegas, a wet 3" fell over the course of 2 days, leaving roads muddy, trees laden, and streams jamming. I went for my usual long walk along the Gallinas River, following the Riverwalk park to the Roundhouse bosquette, then across the train tracks to the woodlands near I-25, it's about a 5 mile loop and with abundant woodland habitat, plenty of water, and interspersed pastures to give plenty of 'edge' it's always great for a variety of resident, wintering, and migrant birds, and even a pretty Paint or two.

A Paint horse on the wrong side of the tracks.

 Marsh wrens have been one of those species I've really tried to become attuned in the past 6 months or so, they're cryptically colored, wonderfully small, and are nearly always found in willow-thickets and cat-tail marsh habitat. Las Vegas is apparently at the edge of their wintering grounds, adding to my level of interest in detecting any that are around. While we had good MARW (Marsh Wren) numbers in the late fall, and were able to add one during the Las Vegas CBC back in December 2014 (12/20/2014, NMLV), I had not observed one in the area since. So, while watching and (attempting) to capture a photograph of a very active Ruby-crowned Kinglet along the River's course, it was a pleasant, but not entirely surprising moment when I spied a very LBB (little brown bird) moving through the willows, inches above the water's surface. It turned out to be my first county Marsh Wren of the year. 

Marsh Wren, one of our uncommon visitors through the year. Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM 1/31/2015

Marsh Wren. Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM 1/31/2015

Brown Creeper, Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM, 1/31/2015

 A 'photographic nemesis' of mine, the Brown Creeper, is a common-enough bird this time of year, but they just do not like cameras! Their calls are distinctive and frequently given, they often forage low against elm and cottonwood trees, however they rarely stop moving for more than a few seconds, dodge to the opposing side of trees, and just overall make photographing them a challenge. These are perhaps the best shots I've taken of a Creeper, but I'm still not satisfied, the quest continues!

Brown Creepers use their tails to prop themselves vertically against tree trunks while foraging, like miniature woodpeckers. In contrast to woodpeckers which use their bills as chisels to excavate insects, Creepers have long, decurved and delicate bills meant for probing into cracks and crevices. Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM, 1/31/2015

Winter is a great time for mixed flocks of birds, where species of mostly in the sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpecker families tend to stick near eachother in loose, but connected flocks while foraging in their own specific ways. Because the methods of foraging and preferred food items are different enough, there is little competition between species within a mixed flock, and all members receive the added bonus of 'strength in numbers'. A sharp-shinned hawk seen by one Junco, can alert the nearby chickadee, who raises a racket and alerts the flicker on the ground digging at an anthill, and so on. Because these mixed flocks tend to concentrate many of the birds in a given area, birding these groups becomes almost like 'oasis birding', where one could walk for long periods without even the scent of a bird, then suddenly you come across 5 or 10 species, with maybe 20 individual birds; the oasis. Most of the mixed flocks today were composed of the regulars; Mountain Chickadees, Black-capped Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos (Pink-sided), White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a male/female pair of Downy Woodpeckers close by.

Mountain Chickadee and some-kind of pink something or other food item. Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM 1/31/2015

Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided), Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM 1/31/2015

Winter reveals many things once leaves drop and leave fractal skeletons exposed. Old nests become easier to find, woodpecker cavities suddenly appear out of no-where, and even finding birds becomes less of a challenge. I came across a nice cavity in a broken off 'staub', a dead tree with the top broken off. It will surely be used in 3 or 4 months as a nesting cavity of a variety of birds, maybe a Hairy Woodpecker (like the possible creator), maybe an Ash-throated Flycatcher, or perhaps by a European Starling family, who often unfortunately out-compete native birds for nesting cavities.  

Waiting to be occupied.

 At the far end of my walk, near the interstate, I was hoping to catch up with a flock of Evening Grosbeaks that had been hanging out in the area, and while I could not locate the grosbeaks, I did find a rarity in Las Vegas during winter; the big, bold White-throated Sparrow. These birds move through during spring and fall migration, but their usual wintering range is farther south towards Albuquerque and warming climes. This was the first I had seen in the Vegas area in upwards of two years. It was associating with a large flock of White-crowned Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, and  Dark-eyed Juncos of several races (Pink-sided, Oregon, and Gray-headed).

White-throated Sparrow, Gallinas River, Las Vegas, NM 1/31/2015

 After a little more time at the south end of town, and a few raptor additions to the day (Red-tailed Hawk and Northern Harrier (male)), I started heading home. Those that know me are aware of my general laissez-faire attitude towards fences that I feel are inappropriate. That being said, as I straddle-crossed a barbed-wire fence for the 2,482nd time in my life, I managed to shred my thumb pretty good during the dismount. Packing ice on the wound to reduce the bleeding, I cursed myself for not being more careful as I started down the train tracks home. Adding insult to injury, a nicely perched Sharp-shinned Hawk that would've made a great photograph avoided ending up in this blogpost, as I was reluctant to work my camera with a bloody digit. Beware the unforeseen dangers of birding! *The thumb is healing nicely.
 Link to the checklist mentioned in this post