Brigantine 5/18--Black Skimmer, Marsh Wren

Ruddy Turnstones (mostly)

I'd heard Brig was loaded with shorebirds and so it was, all except for Whimbrels, which I couldn't find.

The tide seemed to be relatively high when I got there, but plenty of mud was exposed for sandpipers. There were lots of Ruddy Turnstones in breeding plumage--always good lookers--plus even more Dunlins in their finery, red backs and black patches on the belly.

Dunlins

While I was on the drive I met another birder with whom I'd recently been on a trip with. He was walking the drive, something I'd like to do someday, but the conditions have to be right. It is 8 miles around and in the summer, with no shade available and the vicious green-head flies, it would be impossible. Sunday, actually, would have been a perfect day to walk the circuit, but the idea didn't even occur to me until I met Robert.

The disadvantage of walking, from a birding standpoint, is that you either have to lug the spotting scope or resign yourself to missing a lot of birds (or mooch off other's scope views). I told Robert that if he got tired and wanted a ride he was welcome to come in my car. By the time he & I met again at the observation tower (around where the turnstone and Dunlins could be scoped) I think he saw the advantages of 4 wheel transportation, so we rode together the rest of the way. Walking the wildlife drive is one of the few things I can think of that I'd like to do "while I can still do it." We'll see.

Black Skimmers

On the north dike we came across my first year birds of the day, 3 Black Skimmers--always a favorite in the Zirlin household.

They were in the area where terns and gulls like to hang out. I was looking for a Caspian Tern for Robert. I've seen them there the last few times I've been to Brig. Naturally, when you really want them, they aren't there.

Injured Snow Goose

Our only "rarity" of the day was a sad one: a Snow Goose with an injured wing has been stranded on the north dike since early spring. So far it has managed to avoid predation. How long it can continue avoiding eagles and hawks is an open question.

Instead of doing a 2nd loop as I usually do when I'm with Shari or a group, I decided to walk around the area, looking for passerines. I walked a little on the short Akers trail, walked around the picnic and children's area, went down the stairs onto part of what I think is the Songbird trail, walked down to the Gull Pond and after walking back from there wound up at the Leeds Eco-trail. I was picking quite a few birds all along the way, nothing new, until I reached the very end of the Leeds Trail at the gazebo where I heard the gurgling song of the Marsh Wren. I was happy to just hear the song when first one, then another sprang out of the reeds, tail pointed up, then dove back down. When they fly up, they look like they're bouncing off a hidden trampoline in the phragmites.

My list. I can't help but note that in one day I saw/heard just 20% fewer species than I did in more than a week in NM.
64 species
Snow Goose  1     
Canada Goose  75
Mute Swan  4
Gadwall  1
American Black Duck  25
Mallard  5
Double-crested Cormorant  20
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  30
Snowy Egret  10
Glossy Ibis  8
Turkey Vulture  2
Osprey  10
Bald Eagle  1     Gull Pond
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
American Oystercatcher  3
Black-bellied Plover  5
Semipalmated Plover  20
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Willet  35
Ruddy Turnstone  25
Dunlin  200
Least Sandpiper  3
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1000
Short-billed Dowitcher  50
Laughing Gull  25
Herring Gull  5
Gull-billed Tern  1
Forster's Tern  50
Black Skimmer  3
Mourning Dove  1
Chimney Swift  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard
Northern Flicker  1     Heard
Peregrine Falcon  2
Great Crested Flycatcher  1     Heard, Songbird trail
Eastern Kingbird  3
White-eyed Vireo  1     Heard, upland portion
Blue Jay  1     Heard, picnic tables
American Crow  1     Heard
Fish Crow  5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Purple Martin  15
Tree Swallow  10
Barn Swallow  20
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  2     Heard
Marsh Wren  2
Carolina Wren  1     Heard, Songbird trail
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  6
Common Yellowthroat  20
Yellow Warbler  3
Eastern Towhee  2     Heard
Chipping Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  2     M&F
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Boat-tailed Grackle  3
Brown-headed Cowbird  3
House Finch  2
American Goldfinch  2
House Sparrow  5

Patriot Lake 5/18--Black-bellied Whistling Duck

While we were in NM, I received a number of text alerts regarding rare visitors from the south at a little "lake" (pond is more accurate) in Galloway Township, about 5 minutes away from Brig. Not life birds, not even birds to add to the NJ list (one spent a good part of the summer a couple of years ago at Brig), but interesting birds to see any time you can. I told Shari that if they stuck around, we'd go look for them on Sunday, the day after we got back. They stuck around, but Shari was too tired to go get another bird, so I drove by myself down there, found the park with minimal trouble, and found the ducks with absolutely no trouble. They are extremely tame and unconcerned about joggers, dog walkers, or birders. I parked the car, located the lake by seeing a fountain spraying water high in the air, walked over a small hill, and there they were. They spent the first ten minutes I was there with their heads tucked in. While I waited for them to at least look around, I found a few more birds, including a Spotted Sandpiper. Eventually, the ducks became alert, looked around, I snapped another photo, and was off to make the rounds at Brig.
14 species
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  4    
Canada Goose  10
Mallard  2
Turkey Vulture  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Laughing Gull  5
Ring-billed Gull  2
Eastern Kingbird  1
Fish Crow  1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Purple Martin  10
Tree Swallow  1
Gray Catbird  1
House Sparrow  5

New Mexico Index & Trip List

Fanciest personhole covers in the US

DFW
Santa Fe
Randall Davey Audubon Center 5/10
Santa Fe Canyon Preserve
Leonora Curtin Wetlands Preserve
Santa Fe River Park 5/12
Turquoise Trail
Interlude: Snow & Hail
Bandelier National Monument
La Cueva Valley
Pecos
Santa Fe NF
Randall Davey Audubon Center 5/16
Santa Fe River Park 5/17

Species     First Sighting

Mallard     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Turkey Vulture     Cerillos

Sharp-shinned Hawk     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Cooper's Hawk     Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve

Northern Goshawk     Santa Fe NF

Red-tailed Hawk     Canyon Rd

American Coot     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Killdeer     Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve

Rock Pigeon     Delgado St

Eurasian Collared-Dove     Santa Fe River Park

White-winged Dove     Madrid

Mourning Dove     Delgado St

White-throated Swift     Bandelier NM -- Main Loop Trail

Black-chinned Hummingbird     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Broad-tailed Hummingbird     Delgado St

Acorn Woodpecker     Bandelier Entrance Rd

WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER     Santa Fe NF

Hairy Woodpecker     Cibola NF -- Sandia Crest

Northern Flicker     Santa Fe River Park

Gray Flycatcher     Bandelier NM--Falls Trail

Black Phoebe     Cerillos

Western Kingbird     Cerillos

Plumbeous Vireo     Cibola NF -- Sandia Crest Rd.

Warbling Vireo     Santa Fe River Park

PINYON JAY     Pecos

Steller's Jay     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Western Scrub-Jay     Randall Davey Audubon Center

BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE     Santa Fe River Park

American Crow     Santa Fe River Park

Common Raven     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Tree Swallow     Cerillos

Violet-green Swallow     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Barn Swallow     Cerillos

Cliff Swallow     Cerillos

Black-capped Chickadee     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Mountain Chickadee     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Juniper Titmouse     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Bushtit     Delgado St

Red-breasted Nuthatch     Cibola NF -- Sandia Crest

White-breasted Nuthatch     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Pygmy Nuthatch     Santa Fe NF

Brown Creeper     Santa Fe NF

Rock Wren     Bandelier NM--Falls Trail

House Wren     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

AMERICAN DIPPER     Santa Fe NF

Golden-crowned Kinglet     Santa Fe NF

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     Bandelier NM--Falls Trail

Western Bluebird     Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve

MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD     Cerillos

Townsend's Solitaire     Santa Fe NF

Hermit Thrush     Cibola NF -- Nine Mile Picnic Site

American Robin     Santa Fe River Park

European Starling     Santa Fe River Park

Orange-crowned Warbler     Santa Fe NF

Virginia's Warbler     La Cueva Valley

MacGillivray's Warbler     Bandelier NM--Falls Trail

Yellow Warbler     Cerillos

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Cibola NF -- Sandia Crest

Black-throated Gray Warbler     La Cueva Valley

Wilson's Warbler     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Green-tailed Towhee     Santa Fe NF

Spotted Towhee     Delgado St

Canyon Towhee     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Chipping Sparrow     Bandelier Entrance Rd

Song Sparrow     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

White-throated Sparrow     Cibola NF -- Sandia Crest Rd.

White-crowned Sparrow     Cerillos

Dark-eyed Junco     Santa Fe NF

Hepatic Tanager     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Western Tanager     Santa Fe River Park

Black-headed Grosbeak     Randall Davey Audubon Center

Red-winged Blackbird     Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

Brewer's Blackbird     Pecos

Brown-headed Cowbird     Randall Davey Audubon Center

House Finch     Santa Fe River Park

Pine Siskin     Delgado St Feeder

Lesser Goldfinch     Cerillos

EVENING GROSBEAK     Delgado St

House Sparrow     Santa Fe River Park

DFW 5/8--Great-tailed Grackle

I am not a happy traveler. Even the smoothest of trips leaves me with frayed nerves and a head cold. This was not the smoothest of the trips. Changing planes rarely is--either the connection is too tight or you're left waiting forever for the next flight.

Toward the end of the bumpy ride from Newark to Dallas-Fort Worth, the flight attendant announced the gates for connecting flight. Albuquerque was not on the list. When we deplaned we found out why: Flight Cancelled. We made our way to a customer service desk where we were put on stand-by for the next flight, which was about an hour and half later and given boarding passes for the flight after that, sometime in the late afternoon. Our luggage was lucky; it made on to the next flight. We sat down to wait while the chaos swirled around us, but once we figured out that we were numbers 44 & 45 on the stand-by list, we looked up the gate where the flight we had boarding passes for would be and took the Skytrain to another end of the airport. We hunkered down there, but I could see that since the flights that were going out of that gate were all delayed, they weren't going to be able to get our flight off from there, so I consulted the board and sure enough, without telling us, they had changed the gate. Off we went down another soul-less corridor to arrive at our new gate with presumably a half hour to spare before boarding. But that flight didn't board on time. Reason: American Airlines couldn't cobble together enough crew to get the flight off the ground. What was the most amazing to me was that American Airlines is honest enough to admit their level of incompetency instead of making some bland excuse like equipment problems or radar predictions. So, about 2 hours after we were scheduled to board our already very late flight, a rather frazzled-looking flight attendant showed up and we were off to Albuquerque.

And as Paul McCartney once sang: "On the way the paper bag was on my knee/Man I had a dreadful flight."

We wound up in Albuquerque about 5 hours later than scheduled, miraculously retrieved our bag (which was not "locked up" as they said it would be at DFW, but was out mingling with all the other suitcases with no parents), got our rental car and drove the 66 miles to Santa Fe, arriving just after dark.

The only saving grace of the day was seeing two Great-tailed Grackles on the tarmac as we taxied from one side of DFW to the other.

Santa Fe 5/9--Eurasian Collared-Dove, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Bushtit, Spotted Towhee, Pine Siskin, EVENING GROSBEAK

Shari very wisely booked us into a great hotel, The Inn on the Alameda. One of its main advantages was that it is across the street from the Santa Fe River Park. I thought the Santa Fe River, like many "rivers" I've seen out west, would be little more than a dry ditch, but there was a steady flow of water through it. In the east we'd probably be generous and call it a creek. Still, water attracts birds and it was a good place for me to take my morning exercise.

Almost the first bird I saw out the door on Friday morning was a lifer: BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE. What a magnificent street bird. I saw a silhouette of a bird fly by with white wing patches and a long streaming tail and new immediately it could be nothing else. Later, Shari took this photo of one perched on a wall near the park.

Photos: Shari Zirlin

After I went back to the hotel room and told Shari of my finds in the park, she grabbed her camera and came out with me. We found a house with a few active feeders and Shari motioned me over to look at one, where I got my 2nd lifer of the day, one that I dearly wanted, EVENING GROSBEAK. (Shari had already seen one in Central Park a couple of years ago.) Evening Grosbeaks are an irruptive species in New Mexico and we were lucky that this year was an irruptive one.

There are two hummingbirds common to northern NM this time of year and I had a difficult time telling them apart--at first I thought this was a Black-chinned Hummingbird. Looking at Shari's photo I see that it is instead, a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. I found the best way to tell them apart was by behavior. Black-chinned pump their tails when hovering, while Broad-tailed make a zipping sound as they fly.
Santa Fe River Park

8 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove  1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)  1
BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE  2
American Crow  3
American Robin  1
European Starling  5
House Finch  5
House Sparrow  5

Delgado St
12 species
Rock Pigeon  30
Mourning Dove  1    Heard
Broad-tailed Hummingbird  1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)  1
Black-billed Magpie  3
American Crow  2
Bushtit  2
European Starling  2
Spotted Towhee  2
House Finch  10
Pine Siskin 2
EVENING GROSBEAK  2    
House Sparrow  2

Randall Davey Audubon Center 5/10--Black-chinned Hummingbird, Steller's Jay, Western Scrub-Jay, Violet-green Swallow, Mountain Chickadee, Black-headed Grosbeak

Photos: Shari Zirlin

When I was researching spots to bird, I couldn't really find any areas that had really big day lists, the kind you can tick off at a place like Brigantine. There are lots of birds in New Mexico, but they're spread out by elevation. And since there is a lot more New Mexico geography than in New Jersey, getting to a "migrant trap" could be a long dusty drive with no guarantees. The best ideas that I could find happened to be next to each other and not too far from our hotel, about 20 minutes up a narrow road that turns to a good dirt road for the last mile.

The first one, the Randall Davey Audubon Center, is the former home of an apparently successful Western artist who left his property (which was originally Santa Fe's first sawmill) to the NM Audubon Society. I know there are a few different habitats within it. To our eastern eyes, it was trail up a dusty hillside and then into some woods, where the trail got steeper and rockier. We did, however, manage to pick up some good year birds, though nothing we hadn't already seen before on previous western trips. The feeders were covered in Pine Siskins--you go all year without seeing one then suddenly, there are a couple of dozen.

On the trail

18 species
Mourning Dove  1    Heard
Black-chinned Hummingbird  3
Broad-tailed Hummingbird  3
Steller's Jay  1
Western Scrub-Jay  1
Black-billed Magpie  1
Common Raven  2
Violet-green Swallow  5
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Mountain Chickadee  2
Bushtit  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
House Wren  1
Spotted Towhee  5
Black-headed Grosbeak  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
House Finch  5
Pine Siskin  25

Santa Fe Canyon Preserve 5/10--Juniper Titmouse, Wilson's Warbler, Canyon Towhee

Photos: Shari Zirlin
(click photo to read sign)

Next to the Audubon Society, my favorite non-profit organization is the Nature Conservancy. I like their approach: Instead of moaning and groaning about how land should be protected or conserved, instead of trying to convince government, businesses, and private landowners to act responsibly, they instead just buy the land and set it aside. It is like thumbing nose at those you know would just love to have the land for a golf course/business park/housing development/nuclear dump.

I didn't know the Conservancy had a sense of humor too.

The Santa Fe Canyon Preserve is adjacent to the Davey property. It is the site of the original dams and reservoirs for Santa Fe and where the Santa Fe River is still somewhat controlled. Two Mile Pond is what is left of the original reservoir. It looks to likely habitat for shorebirds and ducks. American Coots were a surprise. The only ducks were Mallards. Red-winged Blackbirds were also in evidence.

We took the "muddy" portion of the trail on the way in. It wasn't muddy at all. While on the dried mud saw a flash of yellow jump up out of bush and when we were able to relocate it, Shari identified a Wilson's Warbler. I remember in California She was really good at finding Wilson's Warblers.

Black-headed Grosbeak

All along the trail we heard a song like a robin's. Robin are in NM, but the songs we were hearing were those of  Black-headed Grosbeaks. The description of the song is "like a robin with a cold." I think that's how they identify Scarlet Tanagers around here, while the grosbeak's cousin, the Rose-breasted, supposedly sounds like a robin on steroids.

It wasn't until we were back at the parking lot that we snagged our next two year birds. Shari found a titmouse in a bush and dismissed it until I told her that
A) Tufted Titmouse is not in NM and
B) Juniper Titmouse (which this was) is a life bird for her. (I previously had it in another life when I visited southern NM)

We were just about ready to go when I wandered over to a tree where I had seen movement in the low branches. The bird jumped around quite a bit, then dropped to the ground. It had the silhouette and long tail of a towhee, but it wasn't the very common Spotted Towhee. The rufous cap, dark spot on the breast, and rufous vent cinched the i.d.: Canyon Towhee.

So while we didn't get a huge list, between the two spots I thought we did respectably.

13 species
Mallard  3
American Coot  2
Western Scrub-Jay  1
Violet-green Swallow  3
Juniper Titmouse  1
Bushtit  4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Wilson's Warbler  1
Spotted Towhee  4
Canyon Towhee  1
Song Sparrow  1    Heard
Black-headed Grosbeak  2
Red-winged Blackbird  5