Bushtit et al

I love songbirds, and the challenge of finding them and photographing them, but there are few of them to be found in the East during winter. This winter has discouraged wandering outdoors, which makes finding songbirds even more difficult. One of the delights of California last month, was finding different songbirds. A few examples ...

"Pacific" Bushtit

Bushtit

Bushtit

Chestnut-backed Chickadee ...

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

I was delighted to see the Varied Thrush, our most colorful thrush and only a rare vagrant in the East, but a little disappointed that none gave me good photo ops. This was the best I managed ...

Varied Thrush

I love the corvids, and especially the jays. Stellar's Jay is the Blue Jay's closest relative, with a very similar personality ...

Stellar's Jay

The Hermit Thrush is Vermont's state bird. His haunting, flute-like, and ethereal song carries through the forests in late Spring and Summer. On the breeding grounds, the Hermit Thrush is secretive and often very hard to see.

When the breeding season is over, the hormones subside and a personality change occurs. Hermit Thrushes were common, feeding in the open like a bunch of East Coast winter robins ...

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

Good Birding !!

Sandia Crest - Rosy-Finches - 2

Sandia Crest east of Albuquerque is one of two must visit winter sites in New Mexico. (The other is Bosque del Apache; I am still processing photos from Bosque, but will be posting some soon).

We drove to the summit (10,600 ft) on a Sunday morning. Only problem was that we arrived too early. The lodge did not open until 10am, so we had to spend about 20 minutes outside watching birds - (life can sometimes be difficult).

During the winter months when the Rosy-Finches are present, the Rosy-Finch Project does bird banding on Sunday, so we had a considerable additional plus to our day.

One of the banding team assesses the health of a Mountain Chickadee ...

Mountain Chickadee

A Brown-capped Rosy-Finch is about to receive a radio transmitter which will enable researchers to track its movements and where it roosts at night ...

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

Birds are not caught in mist-nets, as is typically done when banding songbirds. They are trapped in a manually triggered metal cage. This Black Rosy-Finch has already been banded. Re-trapping banded birds over years helps to determine life span, and within a single season and from year-to-year assess the health of individuals and populations.

Black Rosy-Finch

A banded Brown-capped Rosy-Finch considers whether it can grab a seed from inside the cage and get out before slow human reflexes can trip the trap.

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

Red-breasted Nuthatch wears aluminum jewelry, compliments of the bird banders ...

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Stellar's Jay begs for anthropomorphizing - intelligent, curious, cautious, sassy - but definitely gorgeous ...

Stellar's Jay

Two more photos ... just because ... Black Rosy-Finch ...

Black Rosy-Finch

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch ...

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

 Good Birding!

A New Mexico Sampler

I have just returned from ten days in New Mexico. Bosque del Apache with the Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese was terrific, as was Sandia Crest where the three rosy-finches are reliably seen during the winter. Both places are prime spots for birders, and for birders with cameras. It will still take several days to process the photos.

For now, a sampling of southwestern species - not life-list birds, but first photo ops since photography has become a part of my birding.

I had a recent column/posting on the Black-capped Chickadee. Folks in the East are familiar with the nearly identical looking Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees, but they may be surprised to learn that the closest genetic relative to the Black-capped Chickadee is the Mountain Chickadee ....

Mountain Chickadee

Mountain Chickadee

Chickadees and titmice are no longer in the same Genus, but their “tit” personality remains very similar. The interior western titmouse is the Juniper Titmouse ....

Juniper Titmouse

I love the Corvids, and the West has more than its fair share. Stellar’s Jay and Western Scrub-Jay have the same raucous personality of the eastern Blue Jay, though the Stellar’s seems more wary and less given to being in the open ....

Stellar's Jay

Western Scrub-Jay

Once know as the Western Towhee, then lumped with the Rufous-sided Towhee, it is now the Spotted Towhee  - scratching through the underbrush in “ground robin” fashion and occasionally posing in the open ....

Spotted Towhee

 .... And finally, to conclude this first New Mexico Sampler, Townsend's Solitaire ....

Townsend's Solitaire