Snow Geese: Bosque
Snow Geese: Bosque
Venture
to New Mexico:
Bosque del Apache, Las Vegas & Sandia Mountains
November 26 - December 2, 2004
Sandhills: Bosque
Snowy Las Vegas
Sandia Sunrise
Birding in New Mexico in November can be a pleasant experience or a challenge. Our Venture encompassed both. The first two days were cold early and warming up later in the day. The morning fly-out at Bosque del Apache was as spectacular as advertised. Hundreds of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes started flying out of their evening roosts in small groups against a backdrop of a brilliant orange sunrise and the full moon setting over the mountains. Dozens of people, birders and non-birders, locals and out-of-state visitors, gathered along the road to be a part of this morning ritual, then returning in the evening to a different spot to witness the "fly in" as the birds return to roost in the marsh ponds. Bosque itself was a great place for waterfowl, with hundreds of Northern Pintail, as well as fourteen other species of duck, including Northern Shoveler, Common Merganser, and Bufflehead. Our two pleasant days were followed by two frigid days at Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge. The first day there, we woke to 12 degrees, snow, and a wind chill of -5. Schools were on a two-hour delay, so we figured if school buses could be on the highways, we could too. After trudging across a field to a mostly frozen lake with the wind blowing snow in our faces, we decided that our birding that day would be from the van. We did get good looks at both Clark's and Western Grebes and Pacific Loon at Storrie Lake and Lapland, Chestnut-collared, and McCown's Longspurs feeding with Horned Larks along the roads at Las Vegas NWR. Our final day was spent at the top of Sandia Crest, elevation 10,678. This is one of the best places in the state to see all three species of Rosy-finch. Feeders at the gift shop are kept full and some years, the finches are numerous. This year, they were not. Several Black Rosy Finches came to the feeder, but only three Gray-crowned and one Brown-capped showed up. They were, however, close enough for us to see well and we ended our trip with satisfactory views of these difficult-to-see birds. Despite the cold weather, we enjoyed our Venture to New Mexico. It is a lovely state and we would not mind a return trip.
Bosque Sunrise
| Birds | |
| Pacific Loon | Hairy Woodpecker |
| Common Loon | Northern Flicker |
| Pied-billed Grebe | Black Phoebe |
| Eared Grebe | Say’s Phoebe |
| Western Grebe | Loggerhead Shrike |
| Clark’s Grebe | Steller’s Jay |
| American White Pelican | Western Scrub-Jay |
| Double-crested Cormorant | Pinyon Jay |
| Neotropic Cormorant | Black-billed Magpie |
| Great Blue Heron | Common Raven |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | American Crow |
| Greater White-fronted Goose | Horned Lark |
| Snow Goose | Tree Swallow |
| Ross’s Goose | Black-capped Chickadee (H) |
| Canada Goose | Mountain Chickadee |
| Cackling Goose | Juniper Titmouse |
| Wood Duck | Bushtit |
| Gadwall | Red-breasted Nuthatch |
| American Wigeon | White-breasted Nuthatch |
| Mallard | Pygmy Nuthatch |
| Northern Shoveler | Brown Creeper |
| Northern Pintail | Rock Wren |
| Green-winged Teal | Bewick's Wren |
| Canvasback | Marsh Wren |
| Redhead | American Dipper |
| Ring-necked Duck | Golden-crowned Kinglet |
| Lesser Scaup | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Bufflehead | Western Bluebird |
| Common Goldeneye | Eastern Bluebird |
| Common Merganser | Mountain Bluebird |
| Ruddy Duck | Townsend’s Solitaire |
| Bald Eagle | American Robin |
| Northern Harrier | European Starling |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | American Pipit |
| Cooper's Hawk | Cedar Waxwing |
| Red-tailed Hawk | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Ferruginous Hawk | Spotted Towhee |
| Rough-legged Hawk | Canyon Towhee |
| Golden Eagle | American Tree Sparrow |
| American Kestrel | Song Sparrow |
| Merlin | White-throated Sparrow |
| Prairie Falcon | White-crowned Sparrow |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | Fox Sparrow |
| Scaled Quail | Dark-eyed Junco |
| Gambel’s Quail (H) | McCown’s Longspur |
| American Coot | Lapland Longspur |
| Sandhill Crane | Chestnut-collared Longspur |
| Killdeer | Red-winged Blackbird |
| Greater Yellowlegs | Western Meadowlark |
| Long-billed Dowitcher | Brewer's Blackbird |
| Ring-billed Gull | Great-tailed Grackle |
| Herring Gull | Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch |
| Rock Pigeon | Brown-capped Rosy-Finch |
| White-winged Dove | Black Rosy-Finch |
| Mourning Dove | Pine Grosbeak |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | Cassin’s Finch |
| Northern Pygmy-Owl (H) | House Finch |
| Northern Saw-whet Owl (H) | Red Crossbill |
| Belted Kingfisher | Pine Siskin |
| Acorn Woodpecker | Lesser Goldfinch |
| Red-naped Sapsucker | American Goldfinch |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker | House Sparrow |
| Downy Woodpecker | |
| Mammals | |
| Mule Deer | Red Squirrel |
| Pronghorn Antelope | Muskrat |
| Coyote | Desert Cottontail |
| Rock Squirrel | Least Chipmunk |
| Abert’s Squirrel | Little Brown Bat |
| Other Critters | |
| Honeycomb Bee’s Nest | |
Cassin's Finch and Dipper