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Dick and I visited my father in Carlsbad and spent at least a little time birding each day . We only recorded 145 species, missing some we know were present (like Cactus Wren and Great Horned Owl), but we saw many we really wanted and got quite a few shorebirds without a lot of habitat. We had three visits to each Rattlesnake Springs and Lake Avalon and also visited Six Mile Dam (south of town on the Pecos), Brantley Lake, Laguna Grande, Malaga, the "scenic drive" in CCNP in Upper Walnut Canyon and the Guadalupe Ridge area of the Lincoln NF.
April 25: We flew into El Paso and drove to Carlsbad with a brief afternoon stop at Rattlesnake Springs. It was hot and windy and we didn't see a great deal, but got to see some more western birds. After dark we could see the Lesser Nighthawks flying over the neighborhood. We saw them every evening, counting up to seven. Though they were silent, their stiff-winged fluttery flight and rounder looking wings rule out Common.
April 26: Midday we went to Lake Avalon which had a little shoreline attractive to shorebirds including 9 Marbled Godwits, a Semipalmated Plover, Western & Least Sandpipers and a Long-billed Dowitcher. We were surprised to see NO herons, but did have an Osprey and a lone Snow Goose. In town, we heard Pine Siskins (also several subsequent days) and enjoyed having three species of dove come to the feeders (White-winged, Mourning & Inca), not something we see in Ohio.
April 27: We got back to Rattlesnake Springs this morning and found numerous New Mexico birders! They had already found a Hooded Warbler which we later saw. It was actively feeding, called and sang a little, though mostly shorter phrases and softly. We missed a Field Sparrow that was found later but did see a pair of Orchard Orioles, a local specialty. We checked Laguna Grande, the salt lake, and found several Snowy Plovers and a few other shorebirds. By this time it was 99 (less than a week after Cleveland set a record for most snow in a winter.)
April 28: This morning we took the scenic drive in upper Walnut Canyon in Carlsbad Caverns NP. It was overcast and again windy. We don't often see much on the first, upper, part of the drive and this day was no exception, but we were surprised by a pair of American Avocets standing in the gravel road on that windswept ridge. We had hoped for Gray Vireo in the canyon, but found none. Possibly a little unusual there was a male Phainopepla . The canyon is always nice with all the Cave Swallows in flight. We drove east to Malaga where we often find Harris' Hawk and found a nesting pair, but not much more in that area. On the way back to town we stopped at Six Mile Dam which was quite birdy with lots of herons and cormorants, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo that perched on the dry portion of the spillway and a flock of 11 Wilson's Phalaropes that flew past.
April 29: We avoided the cold morning, not going birding until 10:30 when we went to Lake Avalon and Brantley Lake. In the afternoon we went back to Six Mile Dam, but it was much quieter. There was a single American White Pelican at Avalon, an Osprey at Brantley, Franklin's, Bonaparte's and Ring-billed Gulls, Forster's Terns, a few herons, a Marbled Godwit, 36 Wilson's Phalaropes, 5 Snow Geese, about ten N. Rough-winged, two Bank and one Tree Swallow among the numerous Cliffs and Barns.
April 30: Today we tried for Gray Flycatcher and generally higher elevation birds in the Guadalupe Mountains in the Lincoln NF on NM 137 and FR 540. We found a calling or singing Gray Flycatcher at a wash across FR 540 1.5 miles south of NM 137 and down the Soldier Spring trail from the end of the gravel road. Just past the end of the gravel road, there was a very small stock tank containing water. That brought a variety of birds, most notably a pair of Red Crossbills that perched silently before going to drink and then fly off. Several Townsend's Solitares were found nearby as well as two Western Tanagers.
May 1: Back at Rattlesnake Springs this morning, the winds seemed gale force and when a cottonwood limb crashed down while we used the rest rooms, we decided to drive out to Slaughter Canyon in hopes we would see something along the road or that the canyon would be more protected. Neither happened, but by the time we returned, the wind was not so fierce and the birds pretty active. We had a few more warblers, two male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and finally saw two of the silent empids that had been plaguing us well enough to identify them as a Willow and a Dusky. We also checked Lake Avalon where 6 Am. Avocets were standing with a Willet. A Solitary Sandpiper came by briefly and there were more Wilson's Phalaropes and Long-billed Dowitchers and an Osprey. 5 Eared Grebes remained and we saw Redheads and a Lesser Scaup.
Check the Trip List 1996
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Send comments to: Dick and Jean Hoffman at djhoff@ix.netcom.com
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