Birding Socorro County

The large wings flapped gracefully as the raptor glided across the pond at Turtle Bay adjacent to the Macey Center on the New Mexico Tech campus. It landed on the top of a fir tree, where we could see that it was an Osprey, obviously on its way south. Ray Reid took this [...]

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Searching for Fall Migrants on New Mexico’s Eastern Plains

“There is a flock of Brewer’s Blackbirds at this end of the parking lot,” Rebecca shared through the two-way radios as six cars of auduboners headed out of Four Hills in search of migrants on the eastern plains. Brewer’s Blackbirds in Albuquerque let us know that birds are on the move.
The eastern [...]

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Late Summer Birding – Sulphur Canyon and Cienega Picnic Areas

As the 29 Thursday Birders piled out of our cars at the Sulphur Canyon Picnic Area in the Sandia Mountains, the trees seemed to be alive with movement. We quickly gathered in groups and gravitated towards groups of trees, binoculars already at our eyes as we walked.
“Do you think that is a Black [...]

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Embudo Canyon in Late Summer

The sun had barely peaked over the Sandia’s as the Thursday Birders gathered in the trailhead parking lot at Embudo Canyon. The early morning air was cool. While we normally head straight east into the canyon, trip leader Rebecca took us on a trail that lead north towards the base of the foothills.
We [...]

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Birding at Quarai National Monument and the Manzano Mountains

The ponderosas were alive with the buzzing of Pine Siskins as the Thursday Birders pulled up in front of the Boettcher’s home in the Manzano Mountains. We sipped coffee and stood on their deck trying to keep our eyes on their many feeders.
Pine Siskins dominated one set of feeders, which they reluctantly [...]

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Collaboration to Save the Belen Marsh

Eight members of our “Belen Marsh Task Force” gathered at the wetlands this past weekend, with Julia Dendinger, a reporter with the Valencia County News-Bulletin.
As we headed down the road towards the marsh, four Cattle Egrets rose up and flew away. At the edge of the first pond, we immediately spotted Kildeer [...]

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Three-toed Woodpeckers at Sandia Crest

As if birding at the Capulin Log wasn’t enough, some of us wanted more and drove another two and a half miles up to Sandia Crest at over 10 K feet, in search of the American Three-toed Woodpecker. Absent for several years, it had returned last summer and nested again at the crest [...]

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The Birds at Capulin Springs

No birds were at ‘the log’ when the first five of the Thursday Birders arrived at Capulin Springs. A couple of American Robins hovered close by watching us as we settled onto rocks and lawn chairs. Then, instead of coming to drink in the sun, they flew down and drank from the puddles [...]

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