Black-headed Grosbeak

This morning my sister and I (grammar?) went up the mountain and clipped more thistles. I hacked away at a nine footer with at least 20 flowers for five minutes! It was at least two inches thick. Also, whenever a siskin came along to try and spread the thistle seeds, I chased them off. Usually they just stared at me like I was stupid and flew off only when I got within a few inches of them :-P. At dusk today, I went searching for Northern Pygmy-owls. It was an unsuccesful search, but I got some excellent views and photographs of a gorgeous Black-headed Grosbeak. I pished to it and it craned its neck at me, then flew away. These relatives of cardinals are not very common around here; I usually only see one each trip I take to NM, and have only seen one male. Though today was sort of humdrum, The Grosbeak made my day.

Thistles and Chickadees

Today, my grandmother, sister, and me went up the mountain with plastic bags and clippers. We were going to get rid of some of the prolific nonnative thistles, a tall, green plant with sharp spikes and purple flowers. We clipped the flowers off of the plants, and then clipped the entire plant down. The thistles here are choking out the native plants and making the local deer who eat the purple flowers sick. They only have two benefits: they provide food for the Pine Siskings and Broad-tailed and Black-chinned Hummingbirds; and two, They smell good ;). After clipping the flowers for about an hour, we went inside. I stayed on the front porch for awhile. All of a sudden a fairly large Mountain Chickadee landed on the deserted bird feeder on the porch. I watched it for awhile squeak and eat, and then it flew into a young pine. Pretty soon a second one came. No birds came back after that though. A pretty uneventful day, except for the encounter with the chickadees and doing my part to help the environment!

"Forest Desert"

This morning my grandad took me birding. To get to the site we followed a road down the middle of Ruidoso till we reached the edge of the town. We took a right turn on a road that was labeled "Lincoln National Forest access". We drove around through a neighborhood for about 15 miles and I saw Mountain and Western Buebirds, and some House Finches. At the edge of the neighboorhood, we took a road labeled "Dry Eagle Lakes". It was dirt and had not had maintenence in awhile. The terrain was a ponderosa forest that had been burned in a wildfire. All the trees were dead, and scrubby bushes were growing in their place, making the place seem more like a desert. We drove along the road, and stopped every so often to get great looks at juvenile and adult Spotted Towhees, a huge flock of Bushtits, Turkey Vultures, American Kestrels, a Lincoln's Sparrow, Pine Siskings, House Finches, and two lifers, a Cactus Wren carrying a twig (apparently to build a nest), and numerous Cassin's Kingbirds, whose plumage was worn, the yellow belly appearing more cream colored. It was a very satisfiying birding day.

Sierra Blanca

Today my granddad took me driving up the 12 mile road to the peak of Sierra Blanca, the tallest mountain in Lincoln County. It was raining most of the time, and when it stopped for a little while we hiked around. It was very lush at lower elevations, almost reminding me of the temparate rainforests of Alaska. Towards the higher elevations, The Ponderosa turned to Spruce and Fir, with large fields of flowers. I didn't see any birds but a Red-backed Junco feeding its fledgling and four Common Ravens. I also saw two House Wrens at the top, which were lifers :)

Turkey Chicks

Yesterday I was walking along the same area of the mountain where I saw the family of the Cordilleran Flycatchers and there weren't many birds out, I was just hiking around. All of a sudden I heard a rustling of leaves, and looked towards where the noise came from. I saw a tiny grouse shaped bird, and raised my binoculars. It was juvenile Turkey. I scanned around more and found five more young plus the mother. I watched them disappear into the brush. Turkeys are secretive and not very common in these parts, so I got lucky to see the babies! I didn't see any other birds that day except for a Lesser Goldfinch, Siskins, and WB and PY Nuthatches.

New Lifers

Today I birded the same location as yestderday and got two new subspecies lifers of Western Scrub Jay and Spotted Towhee. The Jay made very racous noises and followed me around from tree to tree, apparently curious about something, probably my shiny camera. The Spotted Towhee was singing about halfway up in a Pinyon tree.
This evening I saw a beautiful Interior West female Hairy Woodpecker, just pure solid black and white. I got two lifers today, a pair of Cordilleran Flycatchers flitting around on the slope of a mountain in a Juniper. They had a juvenile with more yellow on the bill and a large gape, and a raggedy look to the feathers. Then I saw a Swamp Sparrow in a clump of tall grass low in the mountains close to a grove of trees.

Birding Lincoln National Forest

I am in Ruidoso, NM, which is a town settled in Lincoln National Forest. I have been birding in the mountainous temparate Ponderosa and Juniper forests. I have seen many birds, including the Pygmy Nuthatch, Pine Siskin, Red-backed Junco, Acorn Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Stellers Jay, Grace's Warbler, and Western Bluebirds. I have also seen a flycatcher that had a very distinct vest, so It could be a Western-wood Pewee or an Olive-sided Flycatcher, but I didnt see the markings on the undertail coverts so I might never know...
The lifers I've gotten here so far are:
Red Crossbill
Rufous Hummingbird
Say's Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher.

I will post all the photographs as soon as I get home and am looking forward to getting more lifers and amazing birds :)