New Mexico vacation

ANNOUNCEMENT

In the past two weeks I have been spammed to the point of annoyance. I have chosen, for now, to allow only blogger members of my blog to be allowed to leave comments. I apologize for this inconvenience. If you are not a blogger member and want to leave a comment you can contact me via email: marycarlson10@gmail.com.

NOW ON TO MY VACATION!

This year the annual Festival of the Cranes held at Bosque del Apache was November 17-22. My husband, Dave, and I flew from San Jose into Albuquerque on Monday, Nov 16. We arrived shortly after 11 a.m., but our baggage "missed the flight." It was a good thing that we had a few hours to spare; we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. So after filling out a missing baggage report we picked up our rental car and headed over to the Rio Grande Nature Center to see some wildlife, mostly birds, and wait for the airlines to call us about our bags. We were there less than an hour when we got the call, and so we headed back to the airport to pick up our luggage. Meanwhile, here are some photos of what we saw at the Nature Center.

As it is most everywhere else in the country and Canada there is an abundance of Canada Geese.

And there seems to be an abundance of mallards, too.

On the path/trail to the visitor center there is a bird feeder where many passerines catch a bite to eat, including Mourning Doves.

There are several white-winged doves that visit the feeder, too. At quick glance they look like mourning doves, but the white edging on their wings catches our attention. Then if you look closer you can tell the color of their eyes are different -- they have red eyes. And an even closer look you can see the dove has a dark malar spot and lacks the black spots on its back.

My next post will be Elephant Butte Lake State Park. That was our first event we attended for the Festival of the Cranes.

Backyard visitors, old and new

This entire spring and summer we have daily seen a flock of about 15 pigeons (rock pigeons) perched on the wires from early morn to dusk. They are always perched in the same spot all day long. They are of various colors, but one that really stands out is the all-white pigeon. These birds are perched a couple of yards over from our back yard and they never visit our yard. The photo below shows a crow perched amongst the pigeons. I found it quite strange and amusing. Shortly after I took this shot the crow started harassing a couple of the pigeons. Too bad that photo didn't turn out.

But I sure do get my fill of mourning doves visiting my yard. They are so good at cleaning up spilled seed on the ground. They have help, too, from the juncos and California towhees. This year I have had as many as a dozen mourning doves at one time in my yard. And this year, for the first time, I have had them visiting the feeders. Note the photos below. Can you believe what you see here? A mourning dove in my window feeder. And this has happened repeatedly for the past two weeks. I tend to think these goofy birds are juvies. When a couple of doves started to visit my platform feeder I thought it was amusing. And it was understandable that they could easily "fit" at that feeder. But once they started to figure out how to "fit" themselves into my window feeder I thought it was hilarious.

And two weeks ago I found a new visitor at my platform feeder. A black-headed grosbeak. This is a first for me. I saw a black-headed grosbeak perched on the wire above my backyard last year about this time of year, but it never came to visit the feeders. This year I had as many as four of them at one time. Again, I think these birds are juvies. They visited my yard for only a week, but it was a thrill to see a new species in my back yard. I did not see these grosbeaks all week this week, so I guess they have already migrated.

I do hope they will come back next year. I wonder what other migrants I might see yet this year. What have you seen so far now that fall is upon us?

A couple of summer visitors and a few of our year-round residents

This summer we have had a couple of visitors I don't remember seeing before in our back yard. First, on the fourth of July we were visited by this Nuttall's Woodpecker. I thought at first it was a Hairy since it looked about the same size as a Hairy. But its call was a bit different and its back was more "ladder-backed." It certainly was a moment of excitement for me when my daughter Red made me realize that it wasn't a Hairy. See Red's photo of this bird by clicking here. Also, don't forget you can click on each of these photos to see a larger view.

Here are a couple of mourning doves acting lovey-dovey. These birds are regular residents around here. I think I have about 6-8 pairs that always hang around here.

Another group of residents - lesser goldfinches. It's always fun to watch them eating the niger thistle seed. Note the one I captured flying into the feeder to the lower left of the feeder. I happened to take this photo while I was waiting for my all-time most bashful visitors to show up.

Can you imagine my excitement when I saw this bird visiting one of my hummingbird feeders? I actually squealed (according to Red). I was so excited, because it has been about 3 years since I last saw any orioles here in my back yard. I apologize for the lack of crispness in this photo, but I quickly took it from inside the house, looking through double glass panes.

Here is a better shot, taken from the back patio -- and this time I was able to get two of them at the same time! Also notice that I had pulled out my oriole feeder and hung it so that they didn't have to struggle to get their nectar from the hummingbird feeder. I've also tried jelly, but no takers. :-(

To the best of my knowledge and with Red's help we are figuring that these orioles are female and juvenile hooded orioles. There seemed to be a total of four that I have seen at one time, so I'm not sure if it could be one mama and 3 juvies, or possibly 2 mamas and 2 juvies. I never did see any males. One other reason they are most likely hooded orioles is that the Stokes and Golden field guides say their nesting habitat is palm trees, and our next door neighbor has two palm trees in their front yard. We also have other palm trees spread throughout the neighborhood. And there have been a number of times I can hear them long before I see them. Their call/song is not very melodious. Part of it is a trill, but the ending of it sounds like a squirrel when it is upset about something. It's a most unusual sound, quite distinct, that I can easily tell it is not one of my usual residents around here.

Have you had the chance to enjoy orioles this summer?