Part 3: New Bird, New Magnet, New Mexico

We were up and checked out of our hotel early the next morning.  The weather had gotten worse during the night and our car was showing 13 degrees.  We started back to Sandia Crest for our last opportunity to see Rosy-Finches.  The streets were slick and icy and, even in town, had not been plowed.  We decided not to attempt going back up the mountain.  It was disappointing to only see one of our target birds.  Maybe next year we will try again.

Our next stop was a couple hours away. I love these giant pots that are in the median.

It’s hard to get a picture at 70 mph.

The road to Socorro was clear. We did see some snow in the fields but the weather was much better than in Albuquerque.

We arrived at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge about 10:00 am.  We have been here many times. 

The refuge is 57,331 acres and was established in 1939 to provide a critical stopover site for migrating waterfowl.  The refuge is well known for tens of thousands of cranes, geese and ducks who winter here.

Cranes, Geese and Ducks

Northern Pintail

Sandhill Crane

American Wigeon

This refuge is mostly a driving loop.  We did get out of the car a few times to walk to a viewing platform. We saw a large number of hawks, mostly Red-tailed. 

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk 

We also saw an American Kestrel, which is our smallest falcon. 

American Kestrel

We stopped at the Visitor Center on our way out. It was closed, but there were some bird feeders that had attracted a few nice birds. 

Gambel's Quail on a feed block

Pyrrhuloxia

Woodhouse'se Scrub-Jay

After a long day, we headed into Socorro to our hotel and an early dinner.

The next morning we were on the road by 6:30 am.  It was cold with a little snow but we had one stop we wanted to make before getting back to Texas.

Percha Dam State Park is a small park with 30 camping sites.  We’ve never been here before.  There were reports of some good birds being seen here so we decided to make a quick stop.

We saw more Phainopepla here than we've ever seen in any single place. This is the sole member of the Silky-Flycatcher family that occurs in the United States. They love mistletoe berries, and the trees in the park were full of mistletoe. The males are a glossy blue/black, while the females are gray. 

Phainopepla male

Phainopepla female

Phainopepla female 

After about an hour we had seen everything there was to see so we headed out. 

After six hours of driving and knowing we had another four hours to get home, we decided to stop for the night in Fort Stockton, Texas.

We have spent many nights in Fort Stockton while going back and forth to New Mexico and Arizona.  One attraction we have never stopped to find is Paisano Pete.  We headed out for an early dinner and to find “Pete.”

Paisano Pete

Built in 1979. He’s 22’ long and 11’ tall.

Paisano - Spanish for “from the same country” or “compatriot”

The next morning we were on the road by 7:30 am for a nice, relaxing drive back home.

Never miss out on future posts by following us 

Part 2: New Bird, New Magnet, New Mexico

The next morning we took our time leaving the hotel.  With a temperature of 25 degrees there wasn’t any hurry. 

We arrived at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park when they opened at 8:00 am. 

About one third of the Park grounds are open to the public. The remaining areas provide quieter habitat for wildlife.

The park is in Albuquerque at an elevation of 4,968’.  There is a $3 per car entrance fee. We saw a couple of birds right in the parking lot area. 

Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)

Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 

A couple of the constructed ponds have these nice viewing areas.

 

We were able to get great views without disturbing the wildlife.

Much of the pond surface was frozen, which gave the ducks a chance to walk around on the ice. Wood Ducks are considered by many to be the most attractive ducks in North America, and we agree!  The males are really spectacular, and the females are pretty cool in a more subdued way. 

Wood Duck - male

Wood Duck - pair

We saw some other attractive waterfowl as well. 

Ring-necked Duck

Mallard

The visitor center is very nice.  It contains interpretive exhibits about the plants, animals, geology, and hydrology of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque ecosystem.  There is a gift shop run by volunteers but they did not have magnets.

There is an observation room and lots of big windows overlooking the same three-acre pond that we could see from the outside viewing area.  

We walked around for about 3 hours before heading back to Sandia House.

The road up to Sandia Crest is quite curvy. 

We arrived around noon and the roads had been plowed and were in good condition. 

We paid our $3 fee and headed to the feeder. 

Sandia Ridge is to the right of Mark.  This is a beautiful area. 

So, did we finally see a Rosy-Finch?

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

Yes. We saw one individual of one of the three species. It was pretty disappointing to come all this way to only see one but we have tomorrow morning for another chance.

We did see a couple of other nice birds at this location. 

Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed variety)

Hairy Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Even though it was quite cold the sun was shining and there was no wind today.  We stayed on the mountain for a couple of hours before heading back to town for lunch.

While researching things to do in this area, I came across information about a large rock sculpture of a diamondback rattlesnake.  Mark plugged the coordinates into the GPS and we headed out. 

The head is over 6 feet tall.

The body is 200 feet long 

The body is a hollow cylinder 

covered in beautiful rockwork. 

The “rattles” are large boulders.

We were surprised when we reached the end of the road and a second giant rattlesnake. 

Next time:  Are we successful in seeing more Rosy-Finches?  Stay tuned.

 

New Bird, New Magnet, New Mexico

This winter we hoped to visit a couple of different states to look for winter birds. One of those states was New Mexico, but our target birds were slow to arrive, and we'd put the trip off several times. It finally looked like the birds had started to arrive and the weather was going to be pretty decent, so we decided to head on over. 

Day 1:  We had to wait for an A/C and heater checkup at the house, so we got a late start (9:30 am).

It was a long drive, but there was little traffic and the speed limit on IH-10 in West Texas is 80 mph! We didn't take the RV for this trip, so we were able to move along faster than usual. 

Seven hours later we arrived at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Roswell, NM. Bitter Lake was established in 1937 to provide winter habitat for migratory birds. 

We have been to this refuge several times but never during this time of year.

We arrived at the visitor center at 4:15 to find that it had closed at 4:00.  This is a no-fee refuge so we got on the auto tour loop and started birding. The big draw at this time of year is cranes and waterfowl. 

There were thousands of Snow Geese coming into the refuge lakes for the night. Most Snow Geese are white, but around 5% are dark.  These used to be considered a separate species and are the symbol for National Wildlife Refuges nationwide: The "Blue Goose". 

Snow Geese

Along with geese, Sandhill Cranes were also coming in for the night. 

Sandhill Cranes

As evening approached the shores of the lakes were filling up with cranes and geese, so we knew that the fly-out the next morning would be fun to watch. 

Sandhill Cranes

By 5:30 pm it was too dark to see anything but this gorgeous sunset.

We headed on to dinner and our hotel for the evening.

Day 2:  The next morning we were at the refuge by sun-up (6:30 am).  It was cold! We headed over to the area of the lake where the cranes and geese had been the previous evening. As the sun rises the birds fly off of the lake and head out to feed. 

The fly-out starts with just a few birds taking off, but eventually builds to the point where thousands of birds are taking off and heading out. 

Hundreds of geese and cranes in the air. 

Once the fly-out had finished, we explored the refuge a bit more. It was cold and windy with a little snow falling but we bundled up for a short trail hike.

There are plenty of hawks on the refuge, with one of the most common being the Northern Harrier. This used to be called the Marsh Hawk, as they really like to hunt over grassy marshes. 

Northern Harrier hunting

Northern Harrier perched

We enjoyed looks at this pretty little Scaled Quail. 

Scaled Quail

By the time we made it around the auto loop the visitor center was open.

I bought my first magnet of the year:

This refuge is also famous for having recorded over 100 dragonflies and damselflies species.

We left the refuge around 10:30 and headed to our next destination.  The roads had been plowed and sprayed with deicer.

We got to our next destination - and the focal point of the trip - around 2 pm. It was quite chilly! 

19 degrees!  Sorry about the blurry picture.

Sandia Crest is a mountain ridge that, at 10,679 feet, is the highpoint of the Sandia–Manzano Mountains.

Our main goal was to see 3 specific birds: Black Rosy-Finch, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.  They are only here during the winter. We have been watching for them to show up since November. This winter has been slow for birding in many areas. 

There was a surprising amount of snow on the ground (at least to us).

The Sandia Crest House (gift shop/visitor center) is not open in the winter but they do have someone fill the bird feeder a couple of times a week. 

Elevation 10,678

The weather was a little strange.  If it was windy the wind would blow snow out of the trees and it would get dark and foggy.

A few minutes later the wind would stop and it would be sunny and clear (but still cold!). 

We stayed around for about an hour but didn’t see any of the Rosy-Finches.  We did see a few other birds. 

Dark-eyed Junco

Steller's Jay

White-breasted Nuthatch

Our hotel was about an hour away so we decided to head on down the mountain to Albuquerque and check in, warm up, and get something to eat.

Next time: Another chance for a Rosy-Finch.  Did we get lucky?  Follow along and see what we found.

Never miss out on future posts by following us