Roger's Birding Adventures: Bird Tour to Harding and Quay Counties - Pacific Loon, California Gull, Long-billed Curlew, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Rough-legged Hawk, Greater Roadrunner, Mule Deer and more! 3-4-14

Returned to Harding County today with John Vanderhagen. We pulled out of Santa Fe at 5:30 a.m. and headed straight to Harding County - via Wagon Mound for a gas and coffee stop.

We stopped along SR120 as it winds out of the upper reaches of the Canadian River Gorge and the Ponderosa/Pinyon/Juniper ecosystem. John has great hearing and he detected a high-pitched "see see see" It is great exploring the plains of Harding County because you never know what you will find - in this case a small flock of 4 Golden-crowned Kinglets!

We skipped the magnificent Mills Canyon today and headed straight south on SR39. The goal was to head on down to Ute Lake in Quay County - a place I'd never been. We stopped to observe a flock of Pine Siskins in a lone roadside tree, a few Ferruginous Hawks, and to take a pic of a close by male pronghorn. There were only a fraction of the hundreds of Mountain Bluebirds seen the week before.

We cruised through the town of Mosquero (once again did not see a single soul) and soon were dropping down off of the Canadian Escarpment and onto the "staked plains." The view going down the steep descent is magnificent.

It was still another 30+ miles to Logan and Ute Lake. SR39 is a long lonely stretch here as it heads across endless ranch lands. We saw a few Red-tailed Hawks. Interestingly I'm yet to see a red-tail anywhere around the Roy area.

We stopped at the Gallegos Ranch. Two sisters, Carlota and Monica Fuentes Gallego (both widowed) operated the 375,000 ranch from the 1800s right into the 1900s. There was a church, saloon, school and many out buildings and houses. Many of these buildings, including the church (1914) are still there. It is amazingly picturesque nestled below a stunning bright red sandstone cliff. Gallegos is still a working ranch and is now, as back then, private. In 1890 Maria Gallegos shot the infamous bandit Black Jack Ketchem in the arm thwarting a robbery!

John came through as I drove right past a Greater Roadrunner and he called it out! I turned around and was able to get some good pics, including it running across the road!

I turned down Trigg Road, which crosses the Canadian River, but there wasn't much water. There was, however, a flock of Scaled Quail.

We checked out Logan, NM just to see what is there before heading over to the Ute Lake State Park. I purchased an annual state park pass (a bargain at $40) and we drove down to the lake. I got the scope out to look for our target bird, a Pacific Loon that had been observed here recently. There were several Common Loons and scattered Eared Grebes, but no Pacific. We stayed with and finally the Pacific came into view. We could clearly see the smaller slightly upturned bill and the diagnostic "chin strap." Before leaving I scanned a flock of nearby Ring-billed Gulls for about the tenth time and was shocked to see a non-breeding plumage California Gull.

Ute Lake is a wonderful place to go birding and I look forward to going there often. One area of the state park is known as "Rogers Area!" Not the birdiest part of the park, but there was a Double-crested Cormorant.

Back up SR39 with a detour down Mosquero Canyon Road. It is unclear how far you can go on this dirt road before hitting San Miguel County, but there is no question how beautiful it is. There are areas of cottonwoods and several stream crossings so no matter what it will be worth checking out later for migrants and nesters.

We finally made it back to Roy for lunch at Annette's Diner. We stopped briefly across the road at the general store to talk to our friend Virginia.

After a couple delicious green-chili cheeseburgers (thanks Annette!) we headed to our last formal stop of the day was at Conchita Lake about 8 miles north of town. Conchita Lake still has a little bit of water and it has been good to me so I was hopeful.

We hiked in and were happy to see lots of ducks and geese. There were canines, redheads, lesser scaup, ruddy's, wigeon, mallards, coot, geese (one Cackling), pintail, gadwall, and bufflehead - awesome! As I was scoping over the ducks I noticed a bird flying in that was clearly different. I'll say so - it was a Long-billed Curlew! It landed on the shore and I was taking lots of pics when it took off and obligingly flew right over head allowing some good flight shots. It was even calling "coooLI coooLI coooLI." To top off a great day of birding a Rough-legged Hawk flew over the pond!

I added lots of county birds today and began my exploration of Quay County.

Just before we headed back down into the gorge on 120 we came across a family of Mule Deer, a buck, doe, and two youngsters. Harding County is such a wonderful place to get images of both mammals and birds!

We got back to my house at 6:30 p.m. - tired, but happy.