Slaughter Canyon, photo by Jean Hoffman Slaughter Canyon, photo by Jean Hoffman
We visited Carlsbad and vicinity March 2 - 8, 1995. While we had very nice birding, we saw very little unusual. We were given directions to Six Mile Dam by Larry Gorbet and enjoyed our first visits to that site. We can't understand how we had missed it all these years! Overall, we found this time of year colder than we had expected with fewer species than hoped for, but some we just missed even though they must have been present.
We missed the rarities (Gray Silky-flycatcher in El Paso and Golden-crowned Sparrow at Hueco Tanks) and some additional birds we'd hoped for, but we saw a lot we don't see in Ohio and enjoyed the preview of spring. While there were no unusual species, we did see some birds of interest to us.
Turkey Vulture--our only observation was one the morning of 3/8 in Carlsbad. We expect some to be present in northern Ohio by this time, and were surprised at their near absence around Carlsbad. As it turned out though, this was the earliest one reported for New Mexico this spring.
Golden Eagle--one adult at what appeared to be a nest on the cliffs of the loop drive in Upper Walnut Canyon in Carlsbad Caverns NP on 3/4 was interesting to us.
Snowy Plover--two were at Laguna Grande on 3/5 which may have been a little early. One appeared fully adult while the other may have been a first spring bird. No other shorebirds were at this location.
Inca Dove--at least 5 were coming to a feeding station in a Carlsbad yard throughout our stay. We only saw our first one in se NM in 1993. For Ohioans, it is great to see three species of doves (White-winged, Mourning & Inca) in the yard at once.
Cave Swallow--three were seen at or near Rattlesnake Springs on 3/4, a warm, sunny morning, but none were seen there in cold, windy conditions on 3/7. On the latter day, it was 28º F. at 6:00am in town and we are amazed that these swallows appear so far in advance of the others as even if they can wait out the cold in a slightly warmer cave, they still have to eat!
Further notes:
We saw several species that in northern Ohio we don't expect
until mid April or later though it is apparently not uncommon to
find some in New Mexico in winter: Green Heron, Common Moorhen,
Snowy Plover, and Spotted Sandpiper. We wish there were a
publication on New Mexico birds that would give a better date
picture. In thinking about the Cave Swallows arriving so much in
advance of Cliff, etc. raises another question--if the Cliff
Swallow of the "southwest", as illustrated in the
National Geographic field guide, has a dark forehead, why do the
ones nesting along the Pecos here have cream colored foreheads
(of which we have photos)?
Common Moorhen is interesting as well as a species that only came to the Pecos Valley in relatively recent years. Has anything been written on this change? We again saw a Wild Turkey at Rattlesnake Springs. We were told last year that the turkeys have been around for quite a while, but it appears that they are really not "wild".
In Texas on the 2nd we had two interesting sightings. Along US 62-180 we had an adult Swainson's Hawk fly over the road. We thought this was a little early. And about half way between El Paso and the Guadalupe Mtns, we had a flock of ~400 Sandhill Cranes flying roughly parallel to the road, also heading east over what seemed unrelieved desert grassland with the Pecos quite distant (and a wall of weather between us and the Pecos as we were to learn when we drove into the freezing fog as we came around the Guadalupes) and we wondered where they were going in late afternoon so far from water, cropland, etc.
Check the Trip List 1995
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