Eight intrepid birders were undaunted by the awful forecast for today. In fact we all met at 5:40 a.m (yes that was my idea) in a very dark isolated parking lot west of Santa Fe.
After debating for a few moments on how to go about birding due to the rainy forecast we decided to stick to our plan and head down the Old Buckman Highway and on to the Rio Grande River riparian area and then on to Diablo Canyon.
The skies were overcast with dark rain clouds as we bumped along the 11 miles to the river on a rough dirt road.
We arrived around 6:30 and immediately headed to the river. Maybe the birds knew what was coming and decided to hunker down because it was really quiet. There were a few birds calling, but little activity.
A few sprinkles here and there reminded us what was to come. So we birded with a purpose. Our casual outing more or less became commando birding as we quickly zigged and zagged upstream through a variety of habitats.
Eventually we ran into a flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS feeding in a large tree across the river. A large flock of EVENING GROSBEAKS were heading north high overhead. We moved on. Four GADWALLS were on the river and occasionally a NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW flew by.
The sprinkles were slowly intensifying when we finally came upon a small flock of birds. The viewing conditions were abysmal and it was really tough to get on any one bird. It didn't help that nothing was staying in one place for even a few seconds. Nonetheless we observed a NASHVILLE WARBLER (rare in Santa Fe County), a quick look at a DUSKY FLYCATCHER, two ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, a couple of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, a DOWNY and LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER, a HERMIT THRUSH, a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, several SPOTTED TOWHEES, several YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, and a good number of AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES.
So not too bad, but the rain was coming and we decided it was prudent to leave the river and head back to the cars if we wanted to have time to bird Diablo Canyon, and all its specialty birds before the storm hit. It was nearly 8:00 a.m. and the forecast was for heavy rain to hit around 9:00 a.m.
We reached Diablo and proceeded to walk quickly down into the rugged canyon. We stopped briefly near the mouth of the canyon to observe a spectacular BLACK-THROATED SPARROW sitting out in the open giving everyone an awesome look. We continued walking as a ROCK WREN both sang and scolded. He wasn't happy either!
By this time the skies were leaden and looking extremely ominous, and the sprinkles kept increasing in intensity. A far off CANYON WREN called high on the volcanic cliffs as we power-walked below the towering rock walls. With the bad weather there was no sign of the ever-present White-throated Swifts that are a feature here at this time of year.
We stopped a couple times to play recordings for both Black-chinned and Rufous-crowned Sparrows, but nothing was stirring except for a couple CANYON TOWHEES.
I led everyone down to a spot which has always been great for Rufous-crowned Sparrows, but by now the rain was falling and it was pretty hopeless. It was a long miserable walk back to the cars as the heavy rain began falling at 8:55 a.m.
We drove back up the now very wet, but firm dirt road and over to the ponds at a local golf course. However, by the time we got there it was howling and pouring rain, and it was starting to snow! We're crazy birders, but not that crazy! The vote was to head over to the local community college where there are a couple water treatment ponds that you can drive right up to. The target was a Semipalmated Plover that had been seen both on the 24th and 25th.
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| This sun splashed Semipalmated Plover from Friday was nowhere to be seen today! |
The temperature had dropped from 47 degrees F at 5:30 a.m. to 34 at 10:00 a.m. The rain had completely turned to wet heavy snow and it was sticking to the ground! Hey, No problem! We all got out of the cars (we were already pretty wet) and calmly scanned the ponds. There wasn't a sign of any shorebird, but a large number of BARN SWALLOWS and one VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW were picking bugs off of the surface of the water while others were looking really miserable perched on a wire near one of the ponds. It was surrealistic watching them swirl around in the winter-like scene. One more check of the perched swallows revealed a BANK SWALLOW huddled close to the larger barns. We gave a quick look at the other pond where there was a couple MALLARDS and one adult male LESSER SCAUP.
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| Barn and one Bank Swallows in the snow! |
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| The Bank Swallow is on the wire on the right |
The snow was still coming down hard when we decided to end the field trip. Despite the terrible conditions it wasn't all bad. One day I'm going to lead this field trip when the weather is great and the migration is in full swing. That sounds nice.
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| Heavy Snow as we head into Santa Fe for more birding! |
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| Extreme Birding at Santa Fe Commuity College! |
My friend Wyatt and I headed over to a McDonalds and had a much-needed coffee while we checked the radar. It looked like there was a small window of NO PRECIP if we hustled over to Galisteo. So we did and had about 40 minutes of no rain. It was quiet down in the creek bottom, but we managed to find the EASTERN PHOEBE that has been present for over a week, and both an immature and an adult Cooper's Hawk. A PLUMBEOUS VIREO gave an unenthusiastic call once or twice and we checked out the mama GREAT HORNED OWL and her rapidly growing owlet.
Not quite ready to quite we stopped briefly at the village of Lamy, which is a short distance from Galisteo. We really were concerned about our sanity at this point as lightning was striking way too close for comfort! The only new bird for the day were a bunch of CASSIN'S FINCHES.
The following list of 60+ species is pretty impressive considering the conditions!
The list, including the birds Wyatt and I observed at Galisteo and Lamy:
- Mallard - 3
- Gadwall - 4
- Northern Shoveler - 9
- Lesser Scaup - 1
- Turkey Vulture - 1
- Cooper's Hawk - 2
- American Kestrel - 1
- Mourning Dove - 8
- White-winged Dove - 8
- Eurasian Collared-Dove - 6
- Great Horned Owl - 2
- Black-chinned Hummingbird - 6
- Broad-winged Hummingbird - 1
- Downy Woodpecker - 1
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker - 2
- Northern Flicker - 2
- Dusky Flycatcher - 1
- Black Phoebe - 3
- Eastern Pheobe - 1
- Say's Phoebe - 7
- Ash-throated Flycatcher - 4
- Plumbeous Flycatcher - 1
- Western Scrub-Jay - 1
- Pinyon Jay - 1
- Common Raven - 5
- American Crow - 6
- N. Rough-winged Swallow - 8
- Bank Swallow - 1
- Violet-green Swallow - 1
- Tree Swallow - 1
- Barn Swallow - 45
- Black-capped Chickadee - 4
- Bushtit - 7
- White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
- Bewick's Wren - 4
- Rock Wren - 1
- Canyo Wren - 1
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 2
- Western Bluebird - 6
- American Robin - 6
- Hermit Thrush - 1
- European Starling - 5
- Cedar Waxwing - 12
- Orange-crowned Warbler - 2
- Virginia's Warbler - 2
- Nashville Warbler - 1
- Yellow-rumped Warbler - 20
- Spotted Towhee - 8
- Canyon Towhee - 5
- Rufous-crowned Sparrow - 1
- Black-throated Sparrow - 5
- Chipping Sparrow - 6
- White-crowned Sparrow - 7
- Dark-eyed Junco - 1
- Red-winged Blackbird - 4
- Brewer's Blackbird - 6
- Evening Grosbeak - 25
- Cassin's Finch - 18
- House Finch - 12
- Pine Siskin - 8
- Lesser Goldfinch - 1
- American Goldfinch - 15
- House Sparrow - 4
