Birding Around Albuquerque

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to get out and bird a time or two. I mostly went out to see some rare sightings that have shown up around town. I missed several, but managed to see a couple to add to my life list.

I visited Valle de Oro a couple times. I had heard there were a number of warblers there. It’s always fun to go find warblers, though my neck complains by the end of the day LOL!

When I arrived at Valle de Oro I saw a pair of coyotes out hunting. One disappeared right away, but the other stayed out long enough to let me get a few good pics.

Coyote

As always, I saw several Western Meadowlarks out singing. I love their beautiful voice.

Western Meadowlark

I walked along the main drainage ditch hoping to see some good birds. A scrub jay announced his presence.

Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay

Then almost right away I heard a lot of birds singing. I just started taking pics of everything that moved. As you know, songbirds are small and fast!!! When I looked at the pics I was surprised to see a several birds I don’t see often. Mainly my nemesis, the Lazuli Bunting. Try my hardest, I can’t get a good pic of this bird.

Lazuli Bunting

Black-Throated Gray Warbler

Cedar Waxwing

I heard several Summer Tanagers singing. It’s amazing how a bright red bird can hide among green leaves. But they can just disappear! I only got a few pics and they weren’t very good. But I did see a Western Tanager female closer to me.

Western Tanager Female

I had been told where a Common Black Hawk’s nest was near the Valle de Oro. So I went on a 2-mile hike to find this beautiful bird. Once I was in the general location, I looked for the nest. I found it way up high in a cottonwood tree. There was no seeing if anything was in the nest. I waited around for a while and eventually heard the hawk calling from a distance. Then to my delight the bird flew in and landed near the nest. A lifer for me! At first I barely saw him as he was deep in the leaves.

Common Black Hawk

Eventually he moved to a better location for photos. This is a magnificent bird. From what I understand there are only about 250 breeding pairs in the US. They are easily disturbed by humans and are known to abandon nests if bothered too much. So after getting a few pics, I quietly left the area to let them raise their young undisturbed.

Common Black Hawk

On my way back I saw a flycatcher along the ditch. I believe it’s a Hammond’s Flycatcher.

Hammond’s Flycatcher

Then I heard another bird calling that I only rarely hear – a Gray Catbird. Always a treat to see and hear! I only managed one pic and that was from behind.

Gray Catbird

While hiking along he ditch, I enjoyed the wild irises blooming.

Wild irises

While hiking at Valle de Oro I came across this interesting insect. I tried looking it up, but I can’t figure out what it is.

Not sure what this cute guy is….

I had heard about a very rare sighting in the East Mountain area that I just had to go find. There was a Golden-Winged Warbler sighted and it was practically in my back yard. After much searching I was rewarded with a short view of this bird. I took several photos before he disappeared into the deep brush. I managed to get a few decent pics. Another lifer!

Golden-Winged Warbler

While hiking there I was treated to some beautiful wild apple blossoms.

Wild apple tree blossoms

I visited the Rio Grande Nature Center. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a treat to see it in the springtime. Right away I heard a Yellow-Breasted Chat singing. I managed to find it in a tree on the island in the pond. So it was quite a distance away.

Yellow-Breasted Chat

I also saw the resident roadrunners in the parking lot. Always fun to photograph!

Greater Roadrunner

While walking the paths, I heard some Summer Tanagers talking back and forth amongst each other. This time I had more success getting photos of the pair.

Summer Tanager male

Summer Tanager female

There were several Black-Chinned Hummingbirds visiting the feeders. Whenever there are several hummingbirds at a feeder, there’s always fights defending their food. For a tiny bird, they are fierce!

Black-Chinned Hummingbird

Uh oh! He sees another hummer coming for him!

Defending the feeder!

Here are some of the other birds I saw on my visit.

Canada Goose

Western-Wood Pewee

Lesser Goldfinch

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

The gardens were beginning to bloom. The bees were happily gathering pollen.

Poppies

Shooting stars

Giant black bee

I was entertained by a resident White-Winged Dove that has become very tame. The gardeners told me his name was Lonesome Larry. He was so tame, he would take see from your hand. He stayed so close to me, that I barely got photos because my zoom lens had a hard time focusing on such a close subject. 🙂

White-Winged Dove

Lonesome Larry

Such beautiful coloring

I’ve been keeping an eye on a Red-Tailed Hawk’s nest not far from my house. When I visited recently, I saw the eggs have finally hatched. When I first looked, I thought there was only one baby. But the mother flew off the nest and I saw two babies!

Red-Tailed Hawk with babies

It’s been great getting out birding. It was nice to see all the summer birds returning to Albuquerque.

Last Birding Trip of 2017

During the last week of December, I was able to take a trip to Bosque del Apache. I try to visit there every December as that’s when the winter bird count is pretty high.

I left well before sunrise. As I was driving down, I started getting into thicker and thicker fog. At one point I had to slow down to 40 mph on a 75 mph interstate.

It was difficult to bird first thing due to the thick fog, so I took a few scenic shots.

Boardwalk through the marsh

A lone American Coot walking through the marsh area

Quiet solitude

I was pleased to see a beautiful coyote in his handsome winter coat.

Beautiful coyote among the hoarfrost

Fortunately, the fog cleared up once the sun rose and I was able to start hunting for birds.

I first noticed a Great Blue Heron grooming.

Great Blue Heron

There were lots of raptors about. Most of them seemed reluctant to move from their morning perch.

Northern Harrier

Cooper’s Hawk

American Kestral

Northern Harrier

American Bald Eagles

Red-Tailed Hawk

I started driving around the ponds to see what waterfowl was about. I happened to notice two Northern Harriers squabbling. They were quite a ways away but I managed to capture a pic.

Northern Harriers fighting

I was surprised to find that there really wasn’t very many waterfowl about. I had to really search the ponds to find any. Not sure where they were all hiding.

Bufflehead – male

Northern Pintail

Bufflehead – female

Pied-Billed Grebe

Ring-Necked Duck

Northern Shoveler

Of course there were lots of Snow Geese about. But every time I made it around the circle to see them, they were flying.

Snow Geese

I always hear there are wading birds that winter at the refuge, but I rarely see them. But on this day I saw three Lesser Yellowlegs feeding in the shallows of a pond.

Lesser Yellowlegs

I saw a few songbirds about that day. There were a couple of rare sightings for the area, but I never saw them. Drat!

Song Sparrow

Gambel’s Quail

Marsh Wren

White-Winged Dove

House Finch

One of my favorite sightings of the day was a Crissal Thrasher singing his little heart out atop a bush. Surprisingly he let me get pretty close singing the whole time.

Crissal Thrasher

I sat and watched a roadrunner look for lunch. They are always entertaining. He hunted for awhile before he noticed me watching. I took this pic the moment he realized he wasn’t alone. 🙂

Greater Roadrunner

My last sighting of the day was a grebe off in the distance. When I zoomed in and took a pic, I was delighted to see it was a Clark’s Grebe. These are considered a rare sighting for the area, so that was a real treat.

Clark’s Grebe

I left around noon and decided to drive a different route home. I took the Quebradas Scenic Route home. I had heard a lot about this road. But to be honest I couldn’t really see why it was considered so beautiful. But there was one place on the road I found very picturesque, so I got out a took a pic.

Quebradas Scenic Route

Just before leaving that highway, I came across some deer feeding in the fields.

Mule Deer

I still had some light left in the day, so I stopped in at the Bernardo Refuge. The Sandhill Cranes seem to prefer this area over Bosque del Apache.

I got there near sunset, and all the cranes were coming in to the pond to drink. It was a beautiful sight seeing and hearing the cranes flying overhead in the soft light of sunset.

Sandhill Cranes

While photographing the cranes, I happened to notice the Super Moon had risen. It was big and blue!

Super Moon

I had a wonderful day birding. It had been quite some time since I had been able to take a whole day to bird.

Just beautiful…

While hiking the trails, a train came through. 🙂

Rocky Mountain National Park – Day 4

Our last day in Estes Park. I really didn’t want to leave. There was so much to explore!

Dia said she wanted to sleep in. So Scarlett and I headed out very early to go birding in Moraine Park where I had seen so many birds before. It was a gorgeous morning. And when I arrived at the trail head, there was birdsong everywhere. Yay!

The trail I chose crossed a creek flowing through the meadow and headed for a rock outcropping with large pines and oaks. I figured this would give me a bigger variety of species to look for with the range of habitat available.

My first bird sighting was a Lincoln’s Sparrow. I could hear him singing among some dead trees along the creek. But it took me forever to spot him. He was very camouflaged among the dead branches.

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Up ahead on the little bridge crossing the creek I saw several American Crows enjoying the morning sun.

Soon I was at the treeline edge. Lots of birds here. There were many House Wrens busy flitting here and there so it was a challenge to get a decent pic.

House Wren

While photographing the wrens, a pair of juvenile Williamson’s Sapsuckers came over to check me out.

Juvenile Williamson’s Sapsucker

A White-Breasted Nuthatch was busy feeding above me.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

I saw several Northern Flickers. For the most part they stayed a ways away. I did manage to get a decent pic of one before it saw me and took off.

Northern Flicker

Then I saw a quick peek of yellow. At first I thought it might be a warbler, but when I finally got a good look at it, I realized it was a young male Western Tanager. Always a pleasure to see!

Western Tanager

A cute little bunny was feeding next to the trail. I always think they are so adorable.

All of a sudden Scarlett let out a low growl. I saw where she was looking and realized there was a coyote in the meadow. It decided it didn’t want anything to do with Scarlett, so it quickly headed off deeper into the meadow. He was between me and the morning sun, so I didn’t get a great pic. But I always love seeing coyotes. For some reason, Scarlett always growls when she sees one. That’s a good thing I guess!

Coyote

There were several hummingbirds about. I believe they were all Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds. In that same area where we saw the coyote, there was a patch of Bee Balm. I love these flowers. Such unusual blooms and hummingbirds love them. I managed to catch one feeding but that low morning sun didn’t make for very good photos. Sigh….

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird feeding on Bee Balm flowers

Further up the trail I saw a LBB (little brown bird). That’s usually how I end up identifying sparrows when you can’t get a good enough look at them. This one caught my attention because it had two wing feathers sticking out funny. 🙂

I believe this is a Brewer’s Sparrow

I only got one butterfly photo the whole trip. There were wildflowers everywhere but very few butterflies.

Small Wood Nymph

There were squirrels everywhere. This park has a healthy population of a large variety of squirrels and chipmunks. I almost didn’t see this chipmunk as it blended very well with the rock it was sitting on.

To my delight a Steller’s Jay landed nearby and the sun was behind me! 🙂 This one looks to be a young one starting to get more adult plumage.

Steller’s Jay

Out in the meadow I saw a flock of Red-Winged and Brewer’s Blackbirds feeding on the grass seeds.

Brewer’s Blackbird

Red-Winged Blackbird – female

I saw many American Robins while in the park, but I only managed to get one good photo of one.

American Robin

As I was getting into my car to leave, I got one last photo of a Black-Billed Magpie. I love these birds. I’m so glad I was able to see so many of them and get some nice photos.

Black-Billed Magpie

I was sad to leave the park. I am definitely coming back again in the future!

Mule Deer

Dia called me as I was heading back to town. I asked her where she was. Where else?!? Starbucks! So I met her there and we enjoyed sitting by the river that runs through Estes Park. Such a beautiful town.

Dia at her happy place!

Before I end this trip, I thought I would share some of the fun and silly photos we took over the weekend. 🙂

I made Scarlett get in the water. She was not happy with me. I think the loud waterfall nearby was scaring her.

Scarlett didn’t know what to think of all the raging rivers and waterfalls. Even though she loves water, this kind of water was scary!

These marmots knew how to beg for treats

This is definitely NOT my husband’s Jeep LOL!

Dia photo bombing me

Dia enjoying all her pleasures

Kelly and her precious Scarlett

What I do to get that “perfect” photo LOL!

I just couldn’t get my new tube scarf thing to work 😐

Enjoying gourmet ice cream on main street

And of course, Scarlett wanted ice cream too!

Miscellaneous Birds and Other Fun Stuff in Port Aransas, Texas

I saved the most difficult category for last – miscellaneous birds. Specifically flycatchers. I am challenged when it comes to identifying flycatchers. Thankfully, there was a local birding expert nearby when I saw the flycatchers, and she was able to identify them for me. You can see why it’s challenging to identify them…they almost look identical!

Here’s the many variety of flycatchers I saw at Port Aransas. And they are all lifers!!!

Alder Flycatcher

Acadian Flycatcher

Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Least Flycatcher

While visiting there, I went out every morning before dawn. I saw some beautiful sights around the town. One morning I toured the marina and took a few pics.

Beautiful sailboats

Homes on the Port Aransas Marina

The beach at dawn is gorgeous. Very few people, calm winds, the sounds of the surf and birds.

Horace Caldwell Pier at sunrise

I found some sand sculptures one morning. They must have had a contest the day before that was sponsored by Crown Royal. I was pretty impressed with the sculptures, though I can’t figure out why the pig was the grand champion. Hmmmmmm…..

Willie Nelson

It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere

Lovely mermaid

Grand Champion Pig

While walking Charlie’s Pasture I did encounter a few butterflies. They were difficult to find as the wind blew pretty good almost my entire trip. I found other fun stuff too while hiking the boardwalks.

A gorgeous passion flower

I believe this is a White Peacock that survived a close call!

Funereal Duskywing

Ceraunus Blue

Green Anole shedding its skin. I loved to catch these lizards when I was a little kid living in Houston!

Common Buckeye

A very fresh Pipevine Swallowtail

One morning at Charlie’s Pasture I came across a coyote. Just beautiful!

Coyote

While visiting the Leonabelle Refuge I saw lots of Great-Tailed Grackles and a few other fun things.

Crab

The sightings of the day 🙂

Great-Tailed Grackle

Mullet – this fish was 2.5 feet long!

I had two birds I really wanted to see while visiting the Gulf Coast. The first was the Roseate Spoonbill, which I did see and posted about previously. The second bird was the Crested Caracara. I have looked for this bird for years. On this trip I finally saw it. Then like my blogging friend Aussiebirder who recently commented “it takes you forever to see that lifer bird, then it seems like once you see it, you see it everywhere!” I think I saw over 10 individuals while there this last trip.

Crested Caracara

Along with the Crested Caracara I saw these other two birds I scared off a dead coyote.

Turkey Vulture

Harris’s Hawk

One day we visited Aransas Wildlife Refuge. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, but was well worth the trip. That particular day was extremely windy. The beach would have been miserable. But with all the trees at the refuge, it was a beautiful day. The very first thing we saw were 3 alligators!!! 🙂 That was awesome!

Alligator

Alligators

We drove around this large refuge and came across some fun stuff. There was this 80-foot high catwalk. It was so fun to walk that climbing, winding cawalk. At the top the views of the coastline were amazing!

Scarlett loved running up the path

My mom waving from further down the path. Such fun!

Gorgeous view!

While hiking this catwalk, we spotted a huge butterfly. It landed very briefly for one photo.

Palamedes Swallowtail

And I got a beautiful shot of a dove.

White-Winged Dove

We had a picnic in a lovely spot. A deer greeted us as we drove up. This would be one of several deer we would see that day.

White-Tailed Deer

Me and Scarlett

Beautiful picnic area

I love the oak trees in Texas

I took mom and dad out to a nice dinner for Dad’s birthday. The restaurant was small and intimate and the food was delicious.

My dad (Joe) at his birthday dinner

But our favorite place to eat was Trout Street. We ate there twice on the patio enjoying the marina view. After dinner on one visit, mom and I toured the docks. I really considered buying this yacht that was for sale (NOT!). 🙂

Mom and Dad (Dorothy and Joe)

Dad looking very nautical in his blue and white striped shirt 🙂

Me enjoying a lovely dinner on the marina

My beautiful mother!

Tempting to buy….. LOL!

One day visiting the beach we drove past a Jeep Rally. I was really wishing I was in my Jeep. But sadly we were in my dad’s Ford pickup. I need to see about Jeep Rallies in New Mexico!

Jeep Rally at the Beach

Lots of great Jeeps were there

It was a wonderful trip to the Gulf Coast!!! I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures there.

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike

Today is the 2nd anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe I’ve been posting my adventures for 2 years! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my birding outings and other adventures.

Scarlett and I have been walking a lot lately. And sometimes my fiends join us. It’s been a lot of fun getting out there and seeing the bosque start to wake up for spring.

My friend Joe Schelling has told me about a couple of owl nests. So I went to find them over the past couple of weeks. One is a Great Horned Owl nest. The male was difficult to find, but I did manage to locate him after much searching. He was hiding very well in a pine tree. The female in the nest is very easy to see. I’m looking forward to seeing babies soon.

Great Horned Owl

Can you see the owl among the branches?

The other owl nest is a Western Screech Owl. He’s located near the duck ponds at Tingley Beach. Which brings me to my 11-mile hike.

For awhile now, I’ve wanted to hike the trail along the Rio Grande from Tingley Beach to Alameda Open Space. I knew it was going to be a long hike and I needed a full day to do it. The weather has gotten so nice lately, that I decided I was ready to attempt this long hike. My plan was to start at Tingley Beach and head north. Once I got to Alameda, I was going to call a cab to take me back to my car.

So a couple of days ago, Scarlett and I headed out. It was a glorious spring day. At the parking lot, I was greeted by loads of beautiful daffodils blooming. So cheerful. A wonderful way to start a day.

I started at the duck ponds. I met up with a couple birder friends there and we enjoyed watching a very cooperative Neotropic Cormorant. He was enjoying the beautiful morning as well.

Neotropic Cormorant

Love their teal-colored eyes

A Pied-Billed Grebe was also enjoying the morning. As well as a gorgeous male Wood Duck.

Pied-Billed Grebe

Wood Duck enjoying a good grooming

I’ve seen a particular coloring of duck over the past year. For the longest time, I thought it was a mallard hybrid of some sort. But recently I stumbled across a photo of this same duck on the internet. Come to find out, it’s a Swedish Blue Duck. Evidently it’s a domesticated duck in Sweden and over the past few years has spread among the states. I’ve seen this duck in Utah, Nevada and now New Mexico.

Swedish Blue Duck behind a Mallard female

There were lots of turtles out sunning themselves as well. While taking photos, I guess I never realized there were so many varieties of turtles in the ponds.

I then left the ponds and went in search of that Western Screech Owl. He was looking out of his hole with slitted eyes. I guess that bright morning sun wasn’t so pleasant to him. But I was thrilled to get a cool shot of that owl looking out of the trunk of a cottonwood tree.

Western Screech Owl

I made my way along the bosque. I saw several porcupines up in the trees. Soon the leaves will make it much more difficult to see them.

Porcupine

Not far past the owl’s nest, I came across a pair of nesting Cooper’s Hawks. The female was way down low in the nest and was difficult to see. But the male was calling from a branch making himself very visible. I was pleased to get such a nice photo of him.

Cooper’s Hawk

During my hike, I saw a total of four Cooper’s Hawks. The others were not nearly as cooperative for photos.

Further along the trail, I heard this guy making odd noises. As I came closer, I saw him in the water. At first I thought he needed help, but as I got closer I realized he was doing some kind of training. Not sure what, but I guess he knew what he was doing. LOL!

Hmmmmmm……

Just upstream of this guy, I saw a Canada Goose wondering about that guy as well!

Canada Goose

I happened upon a pair of Lesser Goldfinches trying to glean a few more seeds from last season’s sunflowers.

Lesser Goldfinch – male

Lesser Goldfinch – female

At one point I heard a bunch of Gambel’s Quail. I only managed to see this one male as he peeked out from behind some cacti.

Gambel’s Quail

At one point, Scarlett stopped and was staring into the dense brush. All of a sudden, I saw a coyote run out from behind a bush. I managed to get a quick pic before he disappeared from view.

Coyote

Flying overhead I saw a nice Red-Tailed Hawk. He was enjoying the thermals.

Red-Tailed Hawk

I came across a few crows feeding on the ground. They actually let me get pretty close. Which was nice, because black birds are so difficult to get a good photo of .

American Crow

I saw a few other birds along my hike.

Say’s Phoebe

White-Crowned Sparrows

Downy Woodpecker

Spotted Towhee

Five hours and 11-miles later I arrived at Alameda Open Space parking lot. Whew!!! That was a long walk. Scarlett and I were pooped! But we had a great time. It was so much fun, I think I will do it again soon!

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New Mexico Birder

Birding & Photography in New Mexico & the Southwest

Category Archives: coyote

Birding Around Albuquerque

Last Birding Trip of 2017

Rocky Mountain National Park – Day 4

Miscellaneous Birds and Other Fun Stuff in Port Aransas, Texas

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike