With my several trips this year and busy work, I haven’t had time to blog as often as I would have liked to. So I thought I would combine several sightings over the summer into one post. Now that fall is officially here, many of these birds are gone or will be gone soon.
During the summer I went on several day hikes within a couple hours of Albuquerque. Partly to see something new in scenery and partly to see some birds I don’t normally see around home.
One hike that was new for me was the Cave Creek hike in the Pecos Wilderness. It’s about a 5-mile round trip hike to some caves that were created by water eroding through limestone. It was a beautiful hike in thick forest along a creek. Of course, Scarlett enjoyed the water immensely!

So much fun at the water crossings!

Lovely stream to hike along.
The caves were very interesting. There were several that were big enough to walk inside of. I didn’t go very far in as it got dark quickly and I wasn’t sure how deep the water got. But lots of fun to explore. Scarlett was curious about the caves as well.

Unique caves created by water erosion.

Scarlett exploring a smaller cave.
On this hike I saw a flock of Dusky Grouse. This is pretty much the only grouse specie New Mexico has. I’ve only seen this bird a few times of the past 20 years and never very close. But I was lucky on this hike. When I startled them, they flew into a nearby pine and sat very still – which was perfect for a great photo.

Dusky Grouse
Another day I ventured to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains next to Santa Fe. It was a very cloudy day and the birds were few, but I managed to get a few nice sightings. A favorite – Green Tailed Towhee – came close to check me out so I was able to see his colors nicely.

Green Tailed Towhee

Williamson’s Sapsucker – Juvenile

Dark-Eyed Junco
One of the highlights of this hike was seeing lots of mushrooms. I’ve seen photos of the red and white polka dot mushrooms, but never have seen one in person. It was a real treat seeing and photographing them. 🙂

Poisonous mushroom – but so pretty!
Aspen Vista is a beautiful hike at about 8,000 feet above sea level. As you know Scarlett loves water. But she also loves culverts. She’s always looking inside them to see what might be hiding. On this hike, she found a culvert that was big enough to run through and it had water flowing through it. Bonus!

Scarlett having a blast!
I walked along the Rio Grande several times. Most of the colorful summer birds love the Bosque. It’s so much fun looking for and photographing these beauties!

Blue Grosbeak

Summer Tanager

Neotropic Cormorant

Downy Woodpecker

Great Blue Heron

Say’s Phoebe

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird enjoying the summer mimosa blooms!

House Sparrow

House Finch – partial orange morph

Orange-Crowned Warbler
One day while hiking along the river, I came across a Cooper’s Hawk enjoying breakfast. You could tell it had caught a songbird by the foot hanging out of it’s beak. Poor thing….

Songbird for breakfast anyone???
While reviewing my photos, I realized I had captured a lifer bird on one of my outings along the river. I love it when that happens! In this case, I had mistaken it for a Summer Tanager. But when I reviewed the photo more closely, I realized it was a Hepatic Tanager. Yay!!!

Hepatic Tanager
Of course, Scarlett always enjoys a visit to the river!

Look at that big grin on Scarlett’s face!
One day I took a drive out to Stanley. I hadn’t been there for quite some time. I saw a lot of the usual residents there. I never tire seeing a Western Meadowlark or the many hawks that live there. 🙂

Cliff Swallow

Red-Tailed Hawk (juvenile) – I love the coloring of this particular bird

Western Meadowlark
Around home I’ve had several new birds visit my yard this summer. It’s so exciting to see something new show up. I hope they find me again next year! Some were easy to photograph, while others were very elusive. The birds I was unable to photograph but saw were Yellow-Headed Blackbird, Brown-Headed Blackbird, Northern Saw-Whet Owl, and Green-Tailed Towhee.

Pygmy Nuthatch

Curve-Billed Thrasher

I love their orange eyes.
Along with the new birds I’ve seen this year, I’ve had plenty of the resident birds stopping by the feeders and bird baths.

Western Bluebird

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

A very shy Ladderback Woodpecker (hence the blurry photo)

Wilson’s Warbler – coming to enjoy my bird bath

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

Hairy Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Holding down a sunflower seed to extract its goodness.

Bushtit

Lesser Goldfinch

Black-Headed Grosbeak

Juniper Titmouse

Virginia’s Warbler

Rufous Hummingbird

Bewick’s Wren
This summer New Mexico saw several forest fires in the Jemez Mountains. Because of this, a lot of the bird life has migrated south to new habitats. This summer we saw a large number of Lewis’s Woodpeckers in the greater Albuquerque area. We normally don’t see them here, so it was a real treat to see one only a couple miles from my house. It seemed to prefer this telephone pole as it was sighted there often. And it didn’t like the squirrel using its pole.

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Get off my pole!!!
I drove down to the Monzano Mountains a couple weeks ago hoping to see the fall colors starting in 4th of July Canyon. Though the colors still haven’t begun, I did get to see several birds.

Steller’s Jay – so beautiful!

Red-Tailed Hawks
I saw a Brown Creeper – always a delight. They are very difficult to see against the bark and they move quickly.

Brown Creeper
Plus I got a lifer! A Golden-Crowned Kinglet. I’ve been looking for this bird for several years and just happened upon it on this trail. Yay! This guy was way up in the canopy shadows and moving so fast!

Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Among the many bird sightings I had over the summer, I came across some other interesting things. I thought you might enjoy seeing them. 🙂

Cool bee on a beautiful summer sunflower

Ahhhhhhhh……

Southwestern Fence Lizard

Hoary Comma

Aphrodite Fritillary

Police Car Moth

Western Tailed-Blue

I love the colors on this dragonfly

This beetle “hisses” when you touch it. A unique defense!

Great Plains Skink (juvenile). This guy was so cool!!! I love the markings on the face. This skink will turn plain brown all over as an adult.

Painted Lady

Can you see the walking stick expertly hiding

Marine Blue

Common Side-Blotched Lizard

Jackrabbit
As always, great Pic. Congrats on your Lifers. Thanks for keeping me on your list. Cheers
Thank you so much Ed! Always good to hear from you. Do you still post photos??
Love the contrast in colour between the Grosbeak and Tanager, beautiful captures of beautiful birds. Love your amazing macros also, and other nature shots of animals and insects. Just a beautiful showcase of the areas you covered.
Thank you so much Ashley! I’m loving my new camera with the macro shots.
Oh, funny and beautiful pictures! I love the colors of the Orange-Crowned Warbler. May I ask: Do you use a 600 mm lense? I think over to buy me one from Sigma.
Thank you fotohabitate! I use an 200-800mm lens. I love it! It has an on lens image stabilization that I think is crucial to good photos at that focal length.
Thank you 1nmbirder! My lenses have all an IS. I don’t want to miss it! You get really better results.
What a hike! A huge assortment of beautiful birds, one more colorful than the other. Lovely shots – many winners.
Thank you so much Tiny!