Rocky Mountain National Park – Day 1

Recently my friend Dia and I took a long weekend to visit Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) near Estes, Colorado. We have talked about going there for about 5 years. Finally our schedules came together and we were able to go. I have long wanted to visit this national park. The photos I’ve seen from there are just stunning. Water everywhere! (Unlike New Mexico LOL!)

It took us about 10 hours to drive there, due to the many stops made at Starbucks 🙂

Kelly and Dia getting their Starbucks fix!

We arrived at the entrance sign to Estes Park late in the day. Of course, we had to take a pic there of us in our matches dresses. 🙂

We made it! Don’t you love our matching dresses!? 🙂

There were several Black-Billed Magpies around and one was happy to pose for me on the sign. I guess they are no longer a nemesis of mine LOL!

Black-Billed Magpie

We knew it was going to be crowded every day there as we were visiting during peak season. So we made plans to go to bed early and get up very early to beat the crowds. It proved to be a great plan as we found when we were leaving the trails that’s when most people were heading out. Doing this allowed us to visit the spectacular park with minimal intrusion of other people. There’s nothing more discouraging to a photographer than to have a beautiful setting for a photo crowded out with masses of tourists.

Dia has been to RMNP a few times in the past. I had never been before. So I followed her lead on what to see first. Her favorite drive is up Old Fall River Road. A one-way dirt road that climbs to the highest point in the park. When I looked at the map, I realized a couple of the waterfalls I wanted to photograph were on this route. Yay!

Our first stop was at the Allivial Fan Falls. This waterfall was created by a major flood due to a failure in a dam upstream.

Alluvial Fan Falls

Heading up Old Fall River Road, we saw so many beautiful sights. Everywhere you looked, it was a Kodak moment. Dia drove my Jeep so I could take photos. She loves driving my Jeep – especially off road. 🙂 At one point, Dia almost ran over a marmot who had no fear of the Jeep. Evidently he’s used to tourists feeding him as they pass.

Kelly and her Jeep (not her husband’s Jeep) 😉

Dia and Scarlett enjoying the drive up Old Fall River Road

Marmot

I especially loved this little waterfall at the beginning of the drive. There was no formal trail, just enough of a path to view the water closer.

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Further up the road we came to Chasm Falls – another waterfall on my “must see” list. What a beautiful waterfall coming through the narrow canyon.

Looking downstream

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Scarlett, Kelly & Dia

Scarlett loves water – so of course we had to let her play a little before hitting the road again.

Scarlett enjoying the falls in her own way 🙂

Soon we were climbing higher and higher. The views expanded. Just glorious!

Gorgeous views from Old Fall River Road.

We eventually rose above the tree line. Beautiful! We came across patches of wildflowers. Everything was so green – way different from New Mexico.

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Just before reaching the RMNP Alpine Visitor Center, we came across more marmot. I liked how this one posed nicely for me.

Marmot

The views at the visitor center overlooking a glacial cirque were truly breathtaking. The grasses were so lush and the snow provided a beautiful contrast to the photos.

Glacial Cirque

There is a hike from the visitor’s center that takes you to a peak. It was tough going considering there was very little oxygen at 12,000 feet above sea level. The views from the top were amazing. I love exploring!

Trail from the visitor’s center.

Breathtaking views!

Dia

Where’s Starbucks???!!!!!

Views of the visitor center from the top of the trail.

Dia, Kelly and Scarlett at the top!

After a brief stop at the Visitor’s Center, we decided to take the drive to Grand Lake. We wound our way back down the other side of the mountain. At the bottom we took a short hike to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful weather. I saw several sparrows in this area but only managed to get one pic of a Savannah Sparrow.

Such a lush valley of green

These squirrels found a good home.

Dia happy with her Starbucks! 🙂

This was the only butterfly I saw that day. Terrible photo as I didn’t have my birding lens. I believe this is a Mormon Fritillary

Savannah Sparrow

As we made our way toward Grand Lake we saw a turn off for Lake Irene. What a serene little lake.

Lake Irene

As we left Irene Lake we saw a bunch of folks looking into the dense brush along the road. We figured they’d spotted something good. And indeed they had – a moose! Actually two moose – a mother and calf. They were a ways away and in dense brush, but I managed to get a couple photos. I’d never seen a moose before!

Moose with calf

We also saw some nice bull Elk along the road. One was really enjoying the good life of summer.

Very healthy bull Elk

Enjoying summer

Near Grand Lake I spotted an Osprey nest. It’s always a good day when you see a bird of prey.

Osprey

Grand Lake was very touristy and actually not in RMNP. So we turned around and decided to drive the Ridge Road back to Estes Park. Once again we were in store for more stunning views way above the tree line.

Click, click, click….I took over 5,000 photos on this trip! Yikes!

Expansive views

I love the high alpine meadow flowers – so small and delicate.

Dia and Kelly

At one point we saw a nice herd of elk. They were grazing in the high meadows well above 11,000 feet. They have a very picturesque home.

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Scarlett was enjoying all the sights and smells.

So many smells!!!!

We stopped at one pullout to view a glacier.

Hmmmm…look at my Jeep keys precariously dangling from Dia’s hand….

Glacier at 12,000 feet. I love the blue pool of water in the lower right.

While taking photos, Dia noticed a little brown bird hopping just below us. I quickly got my birding lens and was happy to see it was a Brown-Capped Rosy Finch.

Brown-Capped Rosy Finch

Further down the road we stopped at another pullout. There were lots of folks feeding the birds and squirrels here. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take close up photos of the rather tame squirrels.

What a cutie!

excuse me…you have something in the corner of your mouth…

But I was thrilled to see a Clark’s Nutcracker here looking for handouts. I’ve only seen this bird once before several years ago in Santa Fe. I’ve heard them a few times since then, but never saw them for a photo. So it was great to see this bird close up!

Clark’s Nutcracker

The views from this location were beautiful. You could see the entire valley below. You can even see the Alluvial Fan Falls area we had visited in the morning.

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It was a full day of fun!!! Off to bed early for another full day of exploring!

These flowers were extremely tiny!

Birds, Butterflies, Bees and more

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.

Western Meadowlark

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

Swainson’s Hawk

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

Blue Grosbeak

Vesper Sparrow

Red-Tailed Hawk – juvenile

Curve-Billed Thrasher

Loggerhead Shrike

Brewer’s Blackbird – female

Brewer’s Blackbird – male

Horned Lark

Barn Swallow

Bullock’s Oriole

Lark Sparrow

Lesser Goldfinch

Cassin’s Kingbird

Cooper’s Hawk

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!

Ferruginous Hawk

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.

Ferruginous Hawk – juvenile

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!

Vermillion Flycatcher

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

Field Crescent

Mylitta Crescent

Checkered White

Western Pine Elfin

Spring Azure

Rocky Mountain Duskywing

Western-Tailed Blue

Pearl Crescent

Hmmmmm…not sure what this one is

Cloudless Sulphur

Reakirt’s Blue

Common Checkered Skipper

Purplish Copper

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

Evening Grosbeak

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.

Pretty red butt bee among the daisies

Loving my new camera – took this hand held

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.

Batman fly 🙂

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.

Cliff Swallow

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.

Western Tanager

Northern Flicker

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Cordilleran Flycatcher

Hermit Thrush

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

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

Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

First off, let me just say, I LOVE my new camera! I’m definitely still in the learning phase, but it’s performance is superior to my old setup. It’s a joy to use, and I’m very happy with my images.

Not too long ago, we had a spring storm blow through and it dumped 12 inches of snow at my house. The birds were not very happy about this event, and neither were my plants.

Bleeding Hearts

A Cooper’s Hawk was hanging out at my bird feeder hoping for a meal.

Cooper’s Hawk

The hummingbirds were happy I had feeders out for them.

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird

I think the only one happy with the snow was Scarlett 🙂

My sweet Miss Scarlett

Thankfully the snow melted the very next day, and the temperatures returned to the mid to high 70s right away. I got to go out hiking several times this week. I visited Tingley Beach a couple days after the spring storm. The Rio Grande was raging and flooded most of the bosque trails. But it was worth trudging through it to see some new spring birds.

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Green Heron

Baby Mallard

Summer Tanager

I have lived in the Albuquerque area for over 20 years. And during that time, I have never visited Sandia Lakes or Shady Lakes (they are next door to each other). So one day I decided to check out the lakes.

Sandia Lakes was very nice. Beautiful lawns and cottonwood trees and three separate lakes.

Sandia Lakes with the Sandia Mountains in the background

The first bird I saw was a Lark Sparrow (first one I’ve seen this year). He was singing way up high in a tree. Then I saw several Canada Geese with their babies.

Canada Geese

While watching the geese, I saw something that looked different. I quickly realized it was a Western Grebe. We don’t see them often in our area, so it was a real treat.

Western Grebe

I saw a pair of Say’s Phoebes busily hunting for bugs. I soon saw why they were so frantic to find bugs. They had three babies squeezed into a tiny nest.

Say’s Phoebes

I saw lots of Black Phoebes as well. They are such beautiful birds

Black Phoebe

While walking around the lake, an Osprey flew overhead. I thought to myself that he might be part of a nesting pair. This was confirmed recently by my friend Joe. I’m definitely going to have to check out their nesting progress.

Osprey

I came across a pair of Black-Capped Chickadees that were acting very agitated. I never did figure out what they were so upset about.

Black-Capped Chickadee

As I was walking through the grass between lakes, I saw a Killdeer doing its “I’m injured, follow me” routine. So I knew there must be a baby nearby. It was acting pretty desperate, so I thought it must be very close.

Killdeer trying to lure me away from its baby

When I looked down, I realized it was only a foot away. I almost stepped on it! Yikes! It never did move. I took a quick pic and then quickly moved away. Soon I heard the baby calling for its parents. It was nice to see them all reunite and be assured all was fine.

baby Killdeer

I then headed over to Shady Lakes. What a beautiful place! It has several ponds all covered in beautiful lily pads and lined with irises. The ponds are stocked with different varieties of fish. But I was there for the birds.

Shady Lakes

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw a Black-Crowned Night Heron sitting beautifully on an old log. I then realized there were several of them gathered there. Fabulous! They are used to people so they let me get pretty close.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

I walked around the ponds and admired all the beautiful blooming lilies and irises.

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I noticed a moth feeding among the irises. These moths often get called hummingbirds by people when they don’t look too closely.

White-Lined Sphinx Moth

The turtles were enjoying those big lily pads!

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My last hike was up to the Cienega picnic area. The forest service blocks the road for cars until mid-May. So you have to hike along the road to get to the upper picnic area. My goal was to try and find the Northern Pygmy Owl that has been seen nesting there. Now I have made this hike several times both last spring and this spring with no luck seeing that owl. Well, this time I was successful! This is a lifer bird for me!

He was calling repeatedly on a lower branch in the aspen tree where he’s been seen nesting. All the songbirds in the area were very agitated and were trying to scare him away. It was a wonderful sighting!

For those of you not familiar with this owl. He’s very small, only 6 inches from its head to the end of its tail. So you can see why he’s so difficult to find.

Northern Pygmy Owl

I decided to hike over to Bill Spring since I was in the area. A Hermit Thrush was enjoying a bath. And a baby was in a tree nearby.

Hermit Thrush

A Western Tanager (my first of the year), briefly showed himself deep in the trees near the spring.

Western Tanager

I hadn’t been at the spring long when a Cooper’s Hawk flew in chasing a chickadee. After that, the birds were scarce. So I started hiking back to my car. I saw lots of Black-Headed Grosbeak singing and squabbling in the trees. I’m guessing they were vying for the attention of the females.

Black-Headed Grosbeak

I’m thrilled spring is here. I’m looking forward to getting out again and seeing what other beautiful spring birds have arrived. 🙂

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Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Days 4 & 5

Our last two days in southeastern Arizona were spent in the Greaterville and Sierra Vista areas.

We spent one whole day exploring the mountain area near Greaterville. Tim was determined to find some gold on this trip. This area was known for some good gold in the early 1900s. Tim spent the day in the bottom of an arroyo. While he did that, I explored the hills around him.

Tim metal detecting

Nearby there was a small pond. It really seemed to attract the birds. There were a pair of Killdeer on the shore. And several Acorn Woodpeckers were hanging out there too. There were some large trees at one end of the pond, and I scared a Great Horned Owl out of them when I walked under the branches. He flew too far away to follow for a photo.

Acorn Woodpecker

Killdeer

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Cordilleran Flycatcher

There was a very tame Mockingbird hanging out by our vehicle.

Northern Mockingbird

I kept hearing birdsong I didn’t recognize. When I finally saw the bird that was singing, I got very excited. It was a Bridled Titmouse, a new bird for me!

Bridled Titmouse

While watching this beautiful Titmouse, a band of Bushtits came through. I got a nice photo of a male Bushtit before they moved on.

Flying overhead was a gorgeous Red-Tailed Hawk.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Tim spent hours digging holes in that arroyo. And it paid off! He found several pieces of gold.

Tim’s nuggets

On our way back to our hotel, I spotted something in the dim evening light. I made Tim turn around so I could see if my guess was right. I thought I saw a Great Horned Owl sitting on the ground. And I was right!

Great Horned Owl

The next morning we were to head home. We got an early start, so I asked Tim if we could spend about 30 minutes at a B&B in the area. This particular B&B had had sightings of the Lucifer Hummingbird.

The yard of this B&B was full of birds. I could see why too. She had so many different types of food for the birds as well as several water sources. I hadn’t been there 5 minutes when the Lucifer Hummingbird showed up. Sadly, he landed on a feeder right above my head. I managed to get one terrible photo before he flew off. And I never saw him again while I was there. 😦 But I was still excited. Such a beautiful bird! And a lifer for me!

Lucifer Hummingbird

But I wasn’t to be disappointed at the short view of the Lucifer Hummingbird. Because right after seeing him, I saw the Magnificent Hummingbird. And boy was he truly magnificent and a lifer for me!

Magnificent Hummingbird

Another lifer quickly showed up to feed on the grand buffet. A Mexican Jay!

Mexican Jay

There were lots of other birds in that small yard. A very shy Scott’s Oriole came to feed on an orange. And several Yellow-Rumped Warblers came for the suet.

Acorn Woodpecker

Gila Woodpecker

Scott’s Oriole

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

House Finch

Green-Tailed Towhee

Sadly, we couldn’t stay long at the B&B. I could have easily spent an entire morning sitting in my chair there with my camera glued to my face! LOL!

On the way home Scarlett needed a potty break. So we stopped in at Steins, New Mexico. It’s a neat old ghost town. It was closed to tours, but I was still able to enjoy looking at the old buildings from outside the fence. It is a nicely preserved town.

Tim spotted what looked to be an old still for making moonshine.

While photographing Steins, the train came through 🙂

We had a wonderful long weekend exploring southeastern Arizona. I hope we get to go back again someday! Looks like Scarlett had a great time too. She snoozed the whole way home.

Scarlett was one tired dog!

Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Day 3

Our third day in Southeastern Arizona brought us to Patagonia, AZ. A premier birding spot! I made big plans for some great birding opportunities.

We stayed at a B&B just outside of Patagonia. They had so many birds there. I could easily have spent a whole morning just sitting on the patio. I got a couple new birds there in just the few minutes I spent on the patio. I saw my first Broad-Billed Hummingbird – gorgeous! And I saw a very shy Hooded Oriole.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Hooded Oriole

Here’s some of the other birds I saw that morning before we headed to our other destinations.

Say’s Phoebe

Northern Cardinal

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Gila Woodpecker

House Finch

Acorn Woodpecker

Ladder-Backed Woodpecker

We stopped at a local coffee shop before heading out. I just had to snap a quick pic of these beautiful black labs. 🙂

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Our first stop was at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. This was a former home of birding enthusiasts. Now it is managed by the Tucson Audubon Society. It has been opened to the public and designed for optimal hummingbird viewing. I had hoped to see the Violet-Crowned Hummingbird, but I guess I was a little early in the season for this sighting. I did see lots of Broad-Billed Hummingbirds.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

There were a few other variety of hummingbirds present as well. However, they were females and I’m terrible at identifying most of the female hummingbird species.

One of my favorite photos I took there was of this Gambel’s Quail.

Gambel’s Quail

While I was photographing birds, Tim spotted this gopher busily cleaning out his den.

Gopher

From there we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park.

Kelly and Tim

We stopped in at the visitor’s center first. Lots of birds on the feeders there!

Northern Cardinal

Chipping Sparrow

House Finch

Red-Winged Blackbirds

Great-Tailed Grackle

Inca Dove

While at the visitor’s center, we heard about a 1-hour boat birding tour. It was only $5! So of course Tim and I signed up! While waiting for the boat, I saw this Broad-Billed Hummingbird collecting tidbits for her nest.

I then followed her and saw where she landed. She found a good hiding spot. I had a lot of difficulty just getting this photo of her.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Soon we were on our boat ride. This was Scarlett’s first time on a boat! She wasn’t sure what to think of it, until we let her get right up front where she could see out. Then she loved it!

Lots of great bird sightings from the boat. It was difficult getting sharp photos while moving. But I’m pretty pleased with most of my photos.

Eared Grebe

Double-Crested Cormorant

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Green Heron

Great Egret with Neotropic and Double-Crested Cormorants

Neotropic Cormorant

Pied-Billed Grebe

American Coot – looking warily at Scarlett 🙂

Green-Winged Teal

I was very excited to get a new bird on the boat ride. A Greater Scaup!

Greater Scaup

The bird guides were quite excited to spot a Hooded Merganser female. Evidently they are a rare visitor to the lake.

Hooded Merganser

Coming back to the visitor’s center, I got this nice shot of a foot bridge in front of the marina. I really liked this bridge.

The bird guides told us of a path along the lake that is good for birding. So we quickly headed over there before the day grew too late. As we started the path, an Osprey flew overhead.

Osprey

This was a fabulous path. Birds everywhere! Tim was a great spotter for me. He saw many more birds before me. I told him I was going to take him along more often! Here’s photos of the many birds we saw.

Vermillion Flycatcher

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Yellow Warbler

Black-Throated Gray Warbler

Hermit Thrush

Cinnamon Teal

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Tim spotted a Leopard Frog sunning himself in the shallows.

Leopard Frog

We saw lots of butterflies along the trail. Hopefully I named these correctly. Thanks to Joe on my previous post.

American Snout

Sleepy Duskywing

Golden-Headed Scallopwing

Pipevine Swallowtail

Texan Crescent

There was a bird feeder station set up on the trail. The feeders were getting quite a few visitors, including a big squirrel.

Rock Squirrel

Lesser Goldfinch

White-Crowned Sparrow

Just before getting in our car after walking the trail, we saw the Osprey fly over again. This time he had a fish!

Osprey

It was a fabulous birding day! Lots of beautiful birds with a couple of lifers, a day spent at the lake and a wonderful time with my husband and dog. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Birding in Southeast Arizona – Day 2

Our first full day was to be spent in the hills around Arivaca, AZ. Tim planned on prospecting for gold while I searched for birds. The area is very arid with rolling hills.

This day was also Scarlett’s 2nd Birthday! 🙂

Happy Birthday Scarlett!

On the way to the hills, we passed through the small town of Arivaca. Among the tall trees around town, vultures were warming themselves up for a day of soaring. I was happily surprised to see both Black and Turkey Vultures.

Turkey Vulture on the left. Black Vulture on the right.

We finally made it to the hills. The views were expansive.

Hills around Arivaca, AZ

As soon as I got out of the truck, I heard birdsong everywhere. I thought to myself, “this is going to be a good day!” 🙂

On my list of birds to find, was the Rufous-Winged Sparrow. As we were driving along the road to our destination, I figured I better play its song so I knew what to look for. We had the windows down in the truck. When I played the recording of the birdsong, we heard one reply outside the window. Bingo!!! I was gonna see this new bird for me! And almost as soon as I started exploring around the truck, I saw one singing in a large bush.

Rufous-Winged Sparrow

I had a great time hiking the area. I saw so many birds. As barren as the place looked, it was really full of life.

Black-Throated Sparrow

Phainopepla

Pyrrhuloxia

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Verdin with soft stuff to line its nest 🙂

One bird I saw and heard everywhere was the Lucy’s Warbler. But it was a challenge trying to get a photograph of this quick, tiny bird!

Lucy’s Warbler

Another bird I heard often was the Bewick’s Wren. But in this part of the country, it’s song is way more simplified than where I live. So it took me a while to realize it was the same species.

Bewick’s Wren

I saw a few butterflies that day as well. Most of them were new butterflies for me. My friend Joe will hopefully tell me if I’ve incorrectly identified any.

Empress Leilia

Dotted Roadside Skipper

Marine Blue

Pahaska Skipper

Mormon Metalmark

Desert Checkered Skipper

Common Streaky Skipper

Tiny Checkerspot

Pacuvius Duskywing

Near the end of the day, we decided to move to a different area so Tim could explore a different gold claim. I was surprised at how the area offered different birds even though we only drove a few miles.

Bell’s Vireo

Cassin’s Vireo

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Juvenile Golden Eagle

Canyon Towhee

American Crow

We had a wonderful day together. The weather was gorgeous, the birds plentiful and fun times exploring. More fun ahead!

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!

	1nmbirder on Rocky Mountain National Park…
	kathydoremus on Rocky Mountain National Park…
	1nmbirder on Rocky Mountain National Park…
	kathydoremus on Rocky Mountain National Park…
	1nmbirder on Rocky Mountain National Park…

New Mexico Birder

Birding & Photography in New Mexico & the Southwest

Category Archives: hawk

Rocky Mountain National Park – Day 1

Birds, Butterflies, Bees and more

Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Days 4 & 5

Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Day 3

Birding in Southeast Arizona – Day 2

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike