April 24: We didn't have directions to the Lordsburg Marsh, but figured it would be easy to find, a mistake! We could see it, but never approach it. We did find a pond near US70/NM90 and a marshy area near the waste water treatment plant and saw quite a few water birds including White-faced Ibis, Cinnamon Teal, an Osprey, one Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer with young, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, one Solitary Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, a Common Snipe and a Franklin's Gull. Next we drove to the BLM wildlife habitat area, Gila Lower Box. The drive produced a number of hawks including at least two Golden Eagles and we saw at least one Common Black-Hawk along the Gila. It was cold, windy and gray and song birds were not conspicuous, but a lot of Violet-green Swallows and a few Banks were flying along the river. In the afternoon we scanned NM 146 for Aplomado Falcon, and though unsuccessful, we saw quite a few hawks in the area.
April 25: Sunny, cold and calm to start, we wound up in Clanton Canyon in the Peloncillos in a thunder storm that produced enough hail to blanket the ground in white. We continued to dodge storms back to Animas. In the canyon we missed a lot, but did have Strickland's, Acorn, and Hairy Woodpeckers as well as Flickers in a pretty small area. We found 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch at the main campground. Along the road to the FS area, we encountered a flock of about 20 Cassin's Finches. At the Dunagan crossing of the Animas River we also found Gila and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers as well as a Zone-tailed Hawk (rather than Black?) and a Sharp- shinned. Near I-10 there was a nest of Harris's Hawk with four adults in the vicinity. In the afternoon the playa at the interstate had Killdeer, 3 Am. Avocet, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Marbled Godwit, 1 Willet, 3 Mexican form Mallards, 4 N. Shovelers and 15 Ring-billed Gulls. The pond in Lordsburg was about the same as 24th.
April 26: Still cold, clouds were heavy to the south of Lordsburg so we opted for more time along the Gila River, first visiting the Virden crossing and the village of Virden, then around to Redrock. It remained sunny along the Gila and warmed up some and the birds were active and vocal. Among the warblers was a female Black-and-white Warbler and we saw and heard several Abert's Towhees and noted that the Lesser Goldfinch were black-backed and the swallows included N. Rough-winged. In the village we found Inca Dove and a hummingbird feeder with four Black-chinned Hummingbirds (including the only male we saw on the trip.) At Redrock we knew there wasn't a lot of access, but tried it anyway and parked in the shade of a willow along the road to eat lunch. From that spot we had Wilson's Warbler, Summer Tanager, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a female Black-chinned Hummer on nest, Cardinals (have there always been Cardinals at Redrock?), Western Kingbird, Gambel's Quail, and more plus close views of a Tennessee Warbler. Elsewhere in the vicinity were Gila Woodpecker and Vermilion Flycatcher. On the drive back to Lordsburg we found a Cactus Wren carrying food to a nest in a yucca. The pond and marsh in Lordsburg produced a Great Blue Heron and a Snowy Egret and most of the previously seen water birds. We chickened out on the Lordsburg playas (from I-10 Gary exit) and the NM338 playa had little. East at NM 146, hawks were no longer present at all, but again got to enjoy Scott's Orioles.
April 27: Heading east to Carlsbad, at the I-10 ex29 ponds we found Gadwall and Ruddy Ducks
and on NM146 one Swainson's Hawk. At Holloman Lakes there were 30-40 Eared Grebes, 4
Western Grebes, 9 Snowy Plovers, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Willet, other shorebirds, ducks and
coots and about 40 Wilson's Phalaropes. Up around Cloudcroft the ground was snow covered,
but the roads dry. Though we didn't stop long anywhere, we did see birds like Western Scrub-
Jay, Say's Phoebe, Mountain Bluebird, Dark-eyed Junco, Pygmy Nuthatch and Pine Siskin. At
Brantley Lake the water was fairly high, but at one little spit there were 4 Snowy Plover, 2 Willet,
~50 Western Sandpiper, ~40 Franklin's Gulls, 16+ Ring-billed Gulls and an immature Herring
Gull. We also saw a Western Grebe and an Osprey.
**Along with the Western Sandpipers at Brantley we saw at least one peep that looked
like a Semipalmated Sandpiper: duller with short, straight, blunt bill. We weren't then aware
that they are easier to document in spring (we don't see Westerns
in spring in Ohio) and Jean wasn't eager to to so, but Dick succeeded in photographing
the bird. When the slides came back, there was an excellent shot of a definite Semipalmated
Sandpiper to make the documentation very easy.**
April 29: Morning at Rattlesnake Springs with "usual" specials Marsh Wren, Swamp Sparrow, Green Heron, Blue-winged Teal, Bell's Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Vermilion Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, Cave Swallow, etc., but we found no Orchard Orioles. Nice were Townsend's and Orange-crowned Warblers, green-backed Lesser Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Belted Kingfisher and our only empid, a calling Dusky Flycatcher. Quite surprising was an adult Zone-tailed Hawk. An afternoon stop at Six Mile Dam had no surprises, but a Townsend's Solitaire was feeding in a bush near the dam. At Lake Avalon it was very windy for a steady scope so didn't try to identify most of the ducks, but there were cormorants perched on snags in the middle of the lake where the immature birds were noticeably larger than an adult perched with them and another on another snag. We tried, but couldn't get any confirmation that they were Neotropic. There was one Eared Grebe, several American White Pelicans, a Willet, an immature Bonaparte's Gull and a male Bufflehead. At night 8 Lesser Nighthawks were visible along with the Hale-Bopp comet from the home of Jean's father.
April 30: Back to Avalon, calm and only light clouds to begin, though it became very overcast. We had better looks at one of the adult cormorants and were pretty sure it was Neotropic. Also saw 3 Pied-billed Grebes, 1 Eared Grebe, 2 Western Grebe, 1 Clark's Grebe, 6 Great Blue Heron, 6 Snowy Egrets, FINALLY, 1 adult Little Blue Heron that was perched with a Snowy then flew out of sight downstream, 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron, quite a variety of ducks, Northern Harrier, an Osprey that came and got a fish and shorebirds including 3 Marbled Godwits. Driving over to Brantley Lake, we found another 5 Osprey and in the northwest part of the lake, outside the park, found a Blue Grosbeak, but the little spit was under water and we were soon totally distracted by a suspiciously different loon which we followed to the wildlife area farther north and were able to determine was a breeding plumage Red-throated Loon. Sure this was a good find, we notified local birders and hope it was relocated! Next morning we left for Ohio.
As eastern birders, we find it difficult to know what data is really most significant and try to include anything that might be, but also the things most important to us, which may be locally very common, and most of our observations of our favorite water birds.
Check the Trip List 1997
Return to the New Mexico Page
Send comments to: Dick and Jean Hoffman at djhoff@ix.netcom.com
URL: http://www.oocities.org/Yosemite/4413/nm-97rpt.html
Get your own Free Home Page