Slow Start & Sandia Crest

After a decent hotel breakfast, we met Chris Brown, our Wildside Guide to do some morning birding around Albuquerque.  The first stop was ABQ BioPark – Tingley Lagoon.  A series of ponds that are surrounded with walking paths and people fishing.  We walked along few ponds and saw lots of ducks and my first life bird a Lesser Goldfinch.  There were a number of this tiny species along the path but before we left we had a “moment” with on very close up.  I guess it was pretty rare that one of these flitty birds would sit on a tree so close to us for so long.

Northern Shoveler

Male Canvasback

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch -- first lifer, very close

American Wigeon

Female Bufflehead & Canada Goose

Immature Lesser Scaup

We stopped again at Rio Grande State Park where we saw a bunch of Cackling Geese and another Pied Billed Grebe.  The rest of the groups headed to another pond and I sat on a bench watching the birds and they saw what would have been another lifer for me (Mexican Duck).  Ah well...

Cackling Geese

Pied-billed Grebe

Female Red-winged Blackbird

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

Next stop was the train station where we picked up Darrell & Dale who had spent a few days in Santa Fe before the tour.  They jumped in and we headed for Sandia Crest in the Cibola National Forest and lunch.  Lunch was at a small Mexican café – the food was delicious and although I did not have it the Pesola was amazing. 

Bill & Heather waiting for lunch -- if you look in the back you can see some Herkimer like sculptures.

The road to Sandia Crest (home of the Rosy finches) was very windy and steep.  At a certain altitude it was snowy and not plowed for 2 lanes of traffic – maybe about 1.5 lanes.  It made for some harrying moments.  Thank goodness there wasn’t much traffic. 

Sandia Crest used to have a nice café where you could sit inside and watch the feeders while sipping your favorite hot drink.  That is no longer the case – the café has been closed for a few years.  The new protocol is you park in the lower lot and watch the feeders from there.  You can take a walk, but is was cold and icy, so I passed.  I’m told the view on the walk was amazing – did I mention it was cold and icy? 

Initially the feeder was just full of Juncos, then another lifer, a Mountain Chickadee landed.  We had a Clark’s Nutcracker land on a nearby stand of pines, then a Red Crossbill and a number of Ravens (Common & Chihuahuan).  After about an hour all three Rosy Finches Gray-crowned, Black & Brown-capped) showed up.  They hung about for about 10 minutes, then left.  We waited for @20 minutes for them to return, then headed back down the mountain (another wild ride). 

Dark-eyed Junco

Mountain Chickadee

Lodgepole Chipmunk

Chihuahuan Raven

Clark's Nutcracker

Black Rosy-finch & Hairy Woodpecker

Black Rosy-Finch

Brown-capped Rosy-finch(bottom) & Gray-headed Rosy-finch (2 on top)

Brown-capped Rosy-finch

Brown-capped Rosy-finch

Gray-headed Rosy-finch

While on the mountain we ran into a number of folks – a bunch of guys from the British Royal Air Force, one of whom was really into the birds.  Our guide pointed stuff out to him and he left more fascinated the when he came.  Also a Wildlife Biologist & her husband who lived in the area were escorting the President of the International Sandhill Crane Association.  The “President” needed the Black Rosy-finch to have all the endemics in North America.  He wasn’t there when we saw it, but a three Rosy-finches came back later and we saw it on his eBird checklist.  The Wildlife Biologist’s name was Wendy Brown – no relation to our guide Chris Brown.  She recommended to spots that Chris had never been too we visited the next day.  We were saying thank you to Wendy a lot.

We stopped at the bottom of the mountain for Darrell to take a photo of a sign and found two Mountain Bluebirds. 

Mountain Bluebird

A good selection of birds for the day and we didn’t need to go back up that mountain in the morning, because we got the Finches today.  Back to the Fork & Fig for dinner.