SE New Mexico Report

April 14 - 21, 1994

Dick & Jean Hoffman

We flew into El Paso as usual, but tried a different route to Carlsbad, via Alamagordo, so that we could check on Holloman Lakes. We saw little there but had a chance to see a new road and enjoy the drive down from Cloudcroft. We also took an overnight side trip to Roswell in order to see the prairie-chickens. While we had excellent birding, we saw very little unusual except for a Yellow-throated Vireo the morning we were leaving. The biggest excitement for us this trip other than the vireo was our visit to the Lesser Prairie-Chickens at Mescalero Sands. The following were a few other sightings of interest.

Common Loon--One was at Bitter Lake NWR on 4/17 and another was at Brantley Lake on 4/18.

Osprey--seemed numerous. One was along the Rio Penasco below Cloudcroft on 4/14 when two were also seen along Brantley Lake where one was present 4/17 and two again on 4/18. At Lake Avalon, two were seen each 4/15 and 4/18 the latter date verifying that the ones at Brantley were different birds.

Gray Flycatcher--on 4/20 one was seen and heard and one or two others heard in the Guadalupe Mts. in Lincoln NF. One of these was not at the trail to Soldier Spring. We are still impressed by the reliability of this location which we believe is considerably disjunct from the birds normal range. (We also had them there at the end of June 1991 following up on the information in the bird finding guide.)

Yellow-throated Vireo--we observed one in Jean's father's backyard in Carlsbad on 4/21 for about five minutes around 7:00 AM when there was bright sun and clear sky.

• DESCRIPTION: Bird slightly smaller and more compact than nearby House Finch. Throat and breast bright, clear yellow. Belly, undertail coverts and under side of folded tail clean white. Back and wings gray with white wing bars. Head yellow-olive with yellow spectacles. Bill black and fairly thick.
• VOICE: Hoarse typical vireo song, monotonous repetition of short phrases, including one described as "three-eight" which is reminiscent of the "tow-whee" call of eastern Rufous-sided Towhee.
• BEHAVIOR: Foraging along branches high in pecan trees, picking in the young leaf clusters and frequently singing.
• SIMILAR APPEARING SPECIES WHICH ARE ELIMINATED BY information above: The song eliminates warblers such as Pine and Yellow-breasted Chat (as does plumage). No other vireo has yellow throat and breast combined with white belly and yellow spectacles, etc. Tanagers lack white belly, spectacles, etc. Combination of song and plumage totally diagnostic.
• EXPERIENCE WITH SPECIES: Yellow-throated Vireo is a fairly common breeding bird in northeast Ohio and we are very familiar with it and other vireos, warblers, tanagers, etc. We are also familiar with vireos in New Mexico, including Bell's and Solitary on this trip.

Grace's Warbler--also on 4/20, singing males were at the same two locations in the Guadalupes as the Gray Flycatchers. While probably normal, these are the first we have located in southeastern New Mexico.

Check the Trip List 1994 of 134 species.

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