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