The goal was to find a gull, any gull! Amazingly we came upon a RING-BILLED GULL at sloppy area near a cattle water tank. Also at this spot was a BLACK PHOEBE. Pretty good, two year birds in one stop!
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| Ring-billed Gull over ag field in southern Santa Fe County |
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| Handsome adult Ring-billed Gull - rare, but regular in Santa Fe County |
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| Not the best picture of my FOS Black Phoebe |
Those would be the only new year birds of the day, but it was a great day with lots of birds. The LONG-BILLED CURLEW was practically standing in the same exact spot and there were at least 3 nearby BURROWING OWLS.
In case you are wondering I did check the Ferruginous Hawk nest and the amazingly beautiful dark morph was sitting on the nest!
It was fun to drive around and listening to all the song - LONG-BILLED THRASHERS, WESTERN MEADOWLARKS, SAY'S PHOEBES, and LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES.
Other migrants arriving included a female NORTHERN HARRIER, several KILLDEERS, and a flock of 12 SAVANNAH SPARROWS.
After cruising the fields we decided (well I decided and Carol was a good sport) to cut through the scenic San Pedro and Oritz Mountains and over to the far west side of Santa Fe County and check out some golf course ponds. It's always fun to drive up the Turquoise Trail and through eclectic village of Madrid which is very popular with tourists.
I did a power hike of several of the ponds and it was obvious that the puddle ducks were clearing out. However, there were still a fair number of birds which included a few GADWALL, 30+ AMERICAN WIGEON, 5 RUDDY DUCKS, 10 RING-BILLED DUCKS, 8 BUFFLEHEAD, 4 COMMON MERGANSER, 6 MALLARDS, 6 GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 9 REDHEADS, and 4 LESSER SCAUP.
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| Male Gadwall on one of the west side golf course ponds. |
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