Birds and Geology in Socorro

“Are you interested in a geology lesson as we drive down the freeway?” Larry, former president of New Mexico Tech and a renowned geologist, asked those riding in our car. As we traveled down Interstate 25, he animatedly pointed out the basalt flows, plateaus, granite outcroppings and layers of caliche.
Our first stop [...]

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Central New Mexico Birdathon

We were all milling around in Karen and Gary’s kitchen, snacking and watching the bird activity at their myriad feeders. It was not yet 10 a.m., the start of the birdathon, a fundraising event for Central New Mexico Audubon. There were 19 of us participating on the Thursday Birder team. The team’s goal [...]

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Birding Quarai and the South Manzano Mountains

At first it looked like a bundle of fuzz at the front edge of the niche in the old church at Quarai National Monument. Then it raised its head to reveal a Great Horned Owl fledgling. Behind it the mother owl glared in protective warning.
The first stop for the Thursday Birders [...]

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Migrating and Summer Birds at the Corrales Bosque

“We barely stepped from the car when someone pointed out a Black Phoebe,” a newcomer to the Thursday Birders regaled. “This is wonderful,” he continued enthusiastically. Usually we see individual Black Phoebes. Today they were mostly in pairs and observed all along the ditch bank.
The morning smelled freshly washed from the prior [...]

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