Over the past few weeks I’ve been out and about enjoying the hot summer weather. I try to hike every chance I get, which hasn’t been near as often as I’d like.

I went through Stanley a few times in the last couple weeks driving to Santa Fe and other places for work. I hadn’t been here birding in a while so it was a nice change of scenery. As always there’s the ever present Western Meadowlarks singing on all the fence posts.

There are always Swainson’s Hawks about in great numbers. I managed to get a few nice photos.

Here are some of the other birds I’ve seen there lately.

The highlight of my Stanley trips though would have to be finding the Ferruginous Hawk’s nest. I had found them out there a few years ago but their nest got taken out by strong winds. They abandoned that nesting spot and I never figured out where they ended up. Then one day recently I saw one sitting on a telephone pole. He let me get pretty close for photos. Which got me this awesome pic!

But then I started thinking maybe he didn’t fly off because there’s a nest nearby. Now there are very few trees in Stanley as it is mostly comprised of crop farming. But there happened to be a short, stumpy tree right near this telephone pole. Now from the street you couldn’t even see the nest. But when I walked to the other side of the tree, I saw almost fully fledged young ones. I was thrilled to have found them again. Now I know where to look next spring. I’m thankful I found these guys before they left the nest this year. In all I saw 3 young ones, but one was always shy for photos.

One day I went to Glorietta to go hiking. On the way there I stopped in at Lamy. I had heard there was a Vermillion Flycatcher there. As soon as I parked and got out of the car I heard him singing. Such a beautiful bird!

The trail was very pretty and cool being up in higher elevation and treed. But there were lots of wildflowers and butterflies about.

I heard lots of birds on the trail, but I only managed to get one bird photo – an Evening Grosbeak. Such uniquely colored birds.

There were lots of bees out among the flowers. New Mexico has hundreds of different types of bees. So I’m always amazed when I see a variety while I’m hiking.

I saw this fly land on the trail in front of me. This guy was HUGE! Way bigger than most flies I see. I’m dubbing him the Batman fly as I think he looks like Batman with those dark black wings and body.

Just before leaving Glorietta, I came across a flock of Cliff Swallows gathering mud to build their nests. It was fun watching them gather up the mud and fly off.

I’ve been in the Sandia’s off and on. One day I specifically went to Capulin Spring. I’m still so disappointed in the work they did there over the last year or so. The birds are so skittish there now and there’s no natural cover for them or me. So though I heard a lot of birds in the trees, I only saw a few that were brave enough to come to the spring while I was there.

I’m ready to get out there some more! I love summertime!!!!