Great Raptor Morning on Sangre de Christo Audubon Field Trip 1-12-14

Wind blown Ferruginous Hawk 

"Prairie" race of Merlin

I led the first annual field trip to the agricultural fields of southern Santa Fe County on Sunday, 1-12-14. The forecast was for westerly winds at 25 gusting to 40 mph! 

We got an early start and conditions were calm until exactly 10:00 a.m. when suddenly the winds started to howl. 

We stopped at the tiny village of Lamy where the target bird was a staked out slate-colored junco (rare in north central NM). We found it with no problem and everyone had a good look. 

Next we plunged about 25 miles south into the ag fields where, at our first stop, we were stunned to get great views of a dark morph rough-legged hawk circling overhead! My camera was sitting on the front seat of my car - when will I learn! In my opinion a dark morph "roughie" is one of the more stunning raptors in the world.

We continued driving down lots of lonely farm roads and were treated to wonderful views of both ferruginous and red-tailed hawks, a prairie falcon and the "prairie" race of a Merlin, an adult male northern harrier, an adult male Cooper's hawk, American kestrels, and a surprisingly out-of-place adult bald eagle! A raptor in their own right we also saw a couple loggerhead shrikes.

The forecast was pretty accurate and by 11:00 the wind was nearly unbearable. After finding a flock of sandhill cranes we decided to call it a day; and a good day it was!

1. Ferruginous Hawk - 2
2. Red-tailed Hawk - 3
3. Rough-legged Hawk - 1
4. American Kestrel - 2
5. Prairie Falcon - 1
6. Merlin - 1
7. Cooper's Hawk - 1
8. American Bald Eagle - 1
9. Sandhill Crane - 41
10. White-winged Dove - 4
11. Eurasian Collared-Dove - 7
12. Rock Pigeon - 3
13. European Starling - 50
14. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
15. Western Scrub-Jay - 3
16. Pinyon Jay - 40
17. Western Meadowlark - 1
18. Horned Lark - 100
19. Northern Flicker - 4
20. Ladder-backed Woodpecker - 2
21. Common Raven - 30
22. Chihuahuan Raven - 5
23. American Crow - 75
24. Song Sparrow - 4
25. White-crowned Sparrow - 24
26. Townsend's Solitaire - 2
27. Mountain Bluebird - 1
28. Western Bluebird - 8
29. Curve-billed Thrasher - 1
30. Canyon Towhee - 3
31. Spotted Towhee - 1
32. Brewer's Blackbird - 40
33. Red-winged Blackbird - 1
34. Dark-eyed Junco - 23
35. American Goldfinch - 4
36. House Finch - 10
37. House Sparrow - 10