New Mexico's First Record of Northern Wheatear! 4-9-14

I was at work when I got a series of frantic calls from my friends telling me that there was a Northern Wheatear near Fort Sumner, NM, about 145 miles from my house. The calls poured in starting around  8:00 a.m. Well it was a frantic 5 hours - BELIEVE ME - but I was finally able to escape from work, thanks to my co-worker Patricia, around 1:20 p.m.

I raced home, changed my clothes, grabbed some stuff in case I had to stay overnight, loaded up my camera and scope and I was off by just after 2:00. I really didn't speed....too much and arived at the the wheatear site at 4:15.

The bird had been seen by many people throughout the day, but it certainly was nowhere in site when I arrived. Soon, several more birders showed up and we scoured the area. At 5:21 the wheatear popped up on a fence post and actually stayed put long enough for everyone to get great long scope views of it!

This was my 390th bird for NM and 748th for the ABA area. What a great adventure. There were lots of other cool birds in the area too like Long-billed Curlews, Merlin, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, American Avocets, and a Greater Roadrunner.

I left at sunset after getting one last long satisfying look and more pics. I took my time getting home and arrived at 9:30 p.m. Back to work the next morning :-)

Northern Wheatear near Bosque Redondo Lake Park, NM

American Avocets near sunset at Bosque Redondo Lake Park

Great-tailed Grackle at Bosque Redondo

Yellow-headed Blackbirds near Bosque Redono Lake Park