The view west from the homestead

The view west from the homestead

Sweet Chance

Sweet Chance

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Birding in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Hello all you nice bird people! We are in Tucson at a big trailer park . We just left New Mexico yesterday and are going to stay in this RV park for a couple days. In Bosque del Apache I saw a lot of interesting birds there including a Prairie Falcon and a rare Aplomado Falcon! The Aplomado was introduced near Bosque in 2006 ( a falcon project had bred them and released them in 2006 and 2007). It is an endangered species and has not been seen much at all since the 1940's. Birders are really excited whenever they see one and I have to admit I was pretty excited when I saw one sitting on a branch in a dead sycamore. I was also excited when I saw the Prairie Falcon in a distant tree. In addition to those rarities, I saw a ton of Snow Geese, Northern Pintail, Northern Shovelers, American Wigeon, American Coots, Ring-necked Pheasants, White-crowned sparrows, as well as flock of Long-billed Dowitchers. There were also Bald Eagles, a ton of Northern Harriers, Gamble's Quail, Lesser Goldfinch, Say's Phoebe, Western Meadowlark, Kestrels and Red-tailed hawks.
I went to Bosque with my dad at about 5:50AM to watch the Flyoff (the Flyoff is when the Snow Geese and Cranes fly out of their roosting spot to go and find food in other fields). We (my dad and I) stood on "The Flight Deck" where the Flyoff can be watched for about 30 minutes before all the birds took off. When you see it, it looks truly spectacular as thousands of birds take off at the same time!
Well, I hope you are all having a good time back east and keeping healthy. I'll remember to write a Bird Report soon enough. Good-bye for now all you bird people!
Cassidy

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