Serious Scenary and Serious Birds at Trout Stalker Ranch - March 9, 2015

A great day was spent enjoying the beautiful snowy scenery and observing some awesome birds at Trout Stalker Ranch this past Monday.

I left Santa Fe at 6:15 with the goal of arriving at the ranch (in Chama, NM) at 9:00 a.m. It felt weird leaving so late, but I wanted to make a stop at Abiquiu Lake, which is a bit over an hour away, at dawn but with the time change that meant sleeping in an hour!

The sun was just peaking over the red rock cliffs north of Abiquiu when I arrived at 7:30 a.m. There were surprisingly few birds. Geese were honking noisily and there was a ridiculously large raft of coots in the center of a lagoon. (By the way, a dense flock of AMERICAN COOTS is appropriately called A Cover!)

I was about to leave, but decided I shouldn't be lazy and got the good old Swarovski scope out for a quick scan. My efforts were rewarded when I spotted a rare HORNED GREBE! This was a Rio Arriba County bird!

A very far off image of a Horned Grebe. See the red eye?

The drive north to Chama is really enjoyable and today was no exception. For absolute beauty it's hard to beat the view as the early morning sunlight turns the rock formations stunning patterns of red, yellow, orange, and a colors I don't even know the name of. Georgia O'Keefe knew!

It was a whole new world as I approached the northern New Mexico village of Tierra Amarillo. Suddenly there was snow everywhere and it was a winter wonderland. The majestic San Juan Mountains looming in Colorado finally had some good snow pack.

I was almost to the ranch when I came upon a large flock of WILD TURKEYS feeding alongside the highway. That is one of the beauties of birding this area - there's very little traffic to disturb wildlife. (Okay, I can't resist...a group of turkeys is known as A Rafter. You can't make it up!)

Flock of turkeys near Trout Stalker Ranch

I made the turn towards the entrance of the ranch and all I could do was to stop in the road and simply admire how beautiful everything looked with the pure snow and the mountains reaching for the sky in the distance.

Snowy field on ranch with San Juans in distance

I love the patterns in the snow. 

Snow scene surrounding entrance to Trout Stalker Ranch

After taking some snow pics and checking out a few birds I was on the ranch at 9:00 a.m. as planned. The biggest difference that I noticed from my last visit was the vastly increased number of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS. Despite the chilly temperatures and snow-covered cattails, the males were singing their hearts out!

I told ranch owner Ashlyn Perry that I would be at the ranch about 9 and was about to give her a call when I saw her walking her great dog Rowdy! We had a nice discussion about the future of birds, birders, and birding on the ranch. What a great place to have a meeting! While we talked there were LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS working some nearby trees, CANADA GEESE honking along the river, and even a GREAT BLUE HERON flying along the Rio Chamita.

Earlier, while I was working my way to my meeting place with Ashlyn, I got a wild hair (feather?) to try to get a picture of a killdeer standing in the snow. I went to the part of the ranch where I saw a couple of these hardy plovers two weeks before. Lo and behold there was a KILLDEER standing on a snow covered field. It looked like it was having fun!

Killdeer checking out the winter scene, and perhaps thinking about warmer days ahead!

For the next few hours I birded along the Chama River where it was easy to lose track of time and get lost in the absolute beauty of the ranch's riverfront. There were plenty of birds including both an adult and immature BALD EAGLE, a few AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, several CASSIN'S FINCHES, a lone DOWNY WOODPECKER, and the best bird of the morning a BROWN CREEPER, which try as I might I could not capture it in a photo!

Rio Chama on ranch

Rio Chamita on ranch

Really birdy area of ranch with large marsh and woodland

Can you guess which side of Chama River is the ranch and which side, well isn't..? Hint,  the river is reflecting the ranch!

Another one of my favorite spots on the ranch to go birding is by a cabin situated next to a large pond and the buffalo pens. Except for lots of blackbirds I didn't see many birds, but it didn't matter as I had a blast just hanging out on one of the rocking chairs on the cabin's spacious porch.

The awesome view from the porch of the cabin 

A few of the buffalo!

Okay, so now is where you'll have to bear with me. I think dippers are some of the coolest species of birds on the planet, so it is no wonder how joyful I feel when I get to play with the ones on the ranch! What a privilege to have the opportunity to not only observe, but to photograph these fascinating creatures; and photograph I did. In fact I took over 200 pics of just one bird! Normally I would control myself, but it was building a nest! It was incredible to watch as this AMERICAN DIPPER gathered moss from the river bank and took a hefty beak full to its nest site on one of the steel beams holding up one of the ranch's bridges! It repeated this moss-gathering operation over and over! So here are some of the pictures of this rarely seen activity.

A rolling dipper does gather moss!

Male dipper

Check out his footprints on the rock!

Right at home

Looking intently

Washing gunk off of the moss

Love those legs and feet

Dippers sure blend in to their environment!

Got a big load...

...which needs to be washed

A body built for water from head to that big broad tail

I can't resist the white eyelids shots

What rapids!

I tore myself away from the dippers and decided to check out the south end of the ranch. I crunched my way across the snow to the river and was delighted to see the season's first Say's Phoebe - a true sign of spring! These hardy flycatchers are a common sight throughout New Mexico and love to hang out in riparian corridors. On the way out I stopped to take another scenic pic, this one of the large main lake on the ranch, and a BALD EAGLE!

First of Season Say's Phoebe on Trout Stalker Ranch!

Frozen Lake on ranch

The always dependable bald eagle hanging out by the large lake on the ranch

I had my highest species total on this trip with 33 species. That brings the winter species count so far to 42 species, which isn't bad considering I missed the first two and a half months of winter! The results of my five bird outings on Trout Stalker Ranch:

1. Canada Goose - 24
2. Mallard - 7
3. Ring-necked Duck - 1
4. Common Goldeneye - 7
5. Common Merganser - 2
6. Wild Turkey - 14
7. Great Blue Heron - 1
8. Killdeer - 2
9. Bald Eagle - 2
10. Red-tailed Hawk - 3
11. Eurasian Collared-Dove - 1
12. Lewis's Woodpecker - 2
13. Downy Woodpecker - 1
14. Northern Flicker - 3
15. Say's Phoebe - 1
16. Pinion Jay - 3
17. Stellar's Jay - 1
18. Western Scrub-Jay - 5
19. Black-billed Magpie - 14
20. Clark's Nutcracker - 1
21. American Crow - 12
22. Common Raven - 5
23. Black-capped Chickadee - 9
24. White-breasted Nuthatch - 4
25. Brown Creeper - 1
26. American Dipper - 4
27. Western Bluebird - 2
28. Mountain Bluebird - 1
29. Townsend's Solitaire - 1
30. American Robin - 10
31. European Starling - 3
32. Song Sparrow - 1
33. American Tree Sparrow - 14
34. Harris's Sparrow - 2
35. Dark-eyed Junco - 16
36. Red-winged Blackbird - 37
37. Pine Grosbeak - 1
38. Cassin's Finch - 5
39. American Goldfinch - 2
40. Evening Grosbeak - 3
41. Pine Siskin - 44
42. House Sparrow - 3

Come on spring! I'm ready to see warblers, orioles, tanagers, and lots of other dazzlers at the ranch!

I reluctantly left the ranch around 2:00 p.m. and headed over to El Vado Lake State Park. I had never been there and was really looking forward to checking out a new New Mexico lake. It was an interesting drive across a high plateau with lots of sagebrush, though much of it has been denuded by sheep. Nonetheless there were some interesting areas along the way including a wet meadow where Highway 112 crosses the Rita de Tierra Amarilla (a small tributary of the Rio Chama). The most common birds observed were dozens of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS. 

I never made it to the main area of the state park because the road was closed for the season! Sort of a bummer, but I continued to El Vado Lake dam hoping I could get access to that portion of the lake. The good news is I could. The bad news is the lake is still mostly frozen so no waterfowl. However, the area looks like it has great potential for some awesome birding. Also, both Heron Lake and El Vado Lake State Parks are just a short distance from Chama.

A very frozen and very accessible El Vado Lake

There were lots of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS along the El Vado lakeshore, but not much else so I decided to move on to another area. 

Before heading back to Santa Fe I explored the area around Tierra Amarilla (spanish for yellow earth) which is the county seat of Rio Arriba County. There were lots of small roads radiating out through wet meadows and other interesting habitats. I will definitely be checking this fascinating and unusual place on a regular basis. The best birds were two adult BALD EAGLES on the edge of town. 

The Santo Nino Church in Tierra Amarillo, one of many interesting builings in the village

I made a quick stop back at Abiquiu Lake and found the horned grebe in the same spot where my day started early this morning.

Another super day of birding on Trout Stalker Ranch and the other really neat areas in north central New Mexico. Stay tuned for more great birds and birding from this bird rich area.