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Another Day in NM

Yestderday morning when I got up I went outside and sketched the Chickadees at the feeder. Also a Hairy Woodpecker showed up in our yard, which was a nice surprise. Later my mom took me to the library and I checked out a book called "Identify Yourself", which is a book about how to ID all the hard birds like winter loons, sparrows, etc.
Later that day, I watched a really good movie called: The Island. I thought it was really good and would reccomend it. But whats this got to do with birds???
This evening I got out and sketched a few pages of the Acorn Woopeckers and a beautiful Robin. I also found a large clump of scattered Mountain Bluebird feathers, I'm guessing the culprit was an owl, Western-screech or Northern Pygmy. I had a nice day, and am counting down to my trip to Arizona on Sunday...

Band-tailed Pigeon

Today was another rainy day, and not much happened. This afternoon my grandfather wanted to take me birding, even though it was siesta time for the birds. I decided to go with, and he drove me to a neighborhood called "Black Forest". I didn't expect to see anything, especially since he didn't want me to get out of the car and it was the middle of the afternoon.
We were passing a house on our way out, and I noticed a fairly bulky and large bird. I told my granddad to stop, and he did. There were at least 5 of the birds eating something out of a metal basin in the yard. They were Band-tailed Pigeons, beautiful gray birds with an iridescent green patch on the nape and banana yellow bill and feet. I'm guessing that it was corn in the basin, that the people were using to feed the local White-tailed Deer. I tried getting some photos, but they all turned out crappy. :(. Now my list is up to 291 birds, so I'm happy and should defenitely reach my goal of 300 by the end of the year.

PS: probably no one cares, but I got the dog crud off my shoes today ;)

The Foothills.

Well, today didn't start out too good; I put on my new skateboarding shoes and then five minutes later stepped in a pile of dog crud *-P.
My Grandad had made a deal to me the previous day that if he took me birding, I'd have to go to church with him. So I though: Oh well, thats the end of that, No way is sitting through an hour long boring service at 8:30 in the morning worth a couple of hours birding. But today he told me he'd changed his mind and I could go birding without having to go to church with him. So We left at 10:30 and went to Dry Eagle Lakes road on the way to Roswell. We had taken the same road a few days back, but had come in a different way and not finished it. This side was scrub and cedar forest. The first bird I saw was a Western Scrub-Jay, and then I heard three more. Then a bright flash of blue caught my eye: a Pinon Jay, which was a lifer for me. We kept going further into the wilderness on the VERY primitive road, and saw Cassin's Kingbird, Turkey Vultures, Spotted Towhees, Mountain Bluebirds, a Say's Phoebe, and then a flock of Southwestern Turkeys, containing 12 juveniles and 4 adults. Turkeys are the one bird my Grandad likes, so he enjoyed that. A little while later, the truck spooked a tiny sparrow off the side of the road. I instinctively followed it with my binoculars, only for it to dissapear into a bush. But then, something else caught my eye, a bird similar in size and color to a Cardinal. It had a banana-shaped toothed bill and a round head, a Hepatic Tanager, a second colorful lifer. The Hepatic Tanager is common in the arid southwestern US, and has three different forms that may be split into separate species. Only one inhabits the ABA area.
A little later on, after we had left eagle creek, We were in a nieghborhood area where I saw Cassin's Kingbird, Mountain Bluebird and Chipping Sparrow. Then we drove to the Airport because my Grandad insisted on me seeing the "metal birds". After we were finished looking at them, I stopped by a cedar bush right outside the door. There was a Male Mountain Bluebird less than two feet away from me, solid sky blue and gray. I watched him stare at me, and then he flew up to a higher branch to meet his drabber colored mate. I walked around the bush and saw a Say's Phoebe, just as tame as the Bluebird. He shortly flew off.
After Birding from 10:30 to 1:15, I am a very tired guy, but satisfied too.

Sparrows!

This evening at the track after I had finished running I got my bins and book out of the car. I went birding around the trail. It was cloudy and cool outside. I saw a small sparrow, and raised my binoculars to it. It was a Chipping Sparrow, my first for NM. It was close to me, so I watched him (her?) for awhile. Then, after a few minutes a Lincoln's Sparrow flew out and scared the Chipper off. And a second one appreared. I followed them around for awhile. Then turned back on the trail. I also saw a Hairy Woodpecker, WB, and PY Nuthatches.

Feeder

The bird-feeder on our front porch is beggining to become more popular. Today we've had three species visit it: Acorn Woodpecker, Mountain Chickadee, and Dark-eyed Junco. The window in the living room of my grandmothers house looks on to the feeder, so I can watch the birds from inside. I positioned my bins on the windowsill just right so when looked through they magnified the feeder, and I placed my camera against the lenses. Doing this, I have gotten magnified and fairly good (for me) shots of the Acorn Woodpeckers. I would post them on my blog, but I don't have the USB cable with me. Ill put all the pictures I took on when I get back from the trip.

Early Birding

This morning I woke up at 6:30 to try my luck at the crepuscular Northern Pygmy-owl. (three hours earlier than my usual waking-up time, so it wasn't very fun *-( ) I was out on the mountain by 7:15, and it was cool and dark outside. The first bird I saw was a Western Bluebird feeding its fledgling, which was amusing to watch. The other birds I saw were White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, Acorn Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Siskins, Broad-tailed Hummers, but no owl. I went inside for a little while, then came back out. In a dead tree next to the house there was a little bird at the top. I raised my bins and watched it. The angle that I was watching it from made it difficult to ID, but as I moved around to a better angle I saw it was a Western Wood-pewee, which was a lifer. I put my digital camera to my binocular lenses and snapped some zoomed in photos (sort of like digiscoping, except not as powerful magnification and a shaky image).I watched the bird for a while fly from its perch to catch unsuspecting insects and return to the perch to eat them. It was now very bright outside, and all the owls were probably hidden away by now.