Bella Vista Creek

Welcome to Bird of the Day!

You might notice some recent changes to the blog. For one, the banner image above has changed from Mustang Island on the Gulf coast to a picture of a local birding spot near my house. Likewise, I plan to focus many of the upcoming posts on birding that area. On the right hand side of the page you will also see the addition of a new gadget that lists what birds have been seen in that area in the last 30 days. Further below, there is a link to ebird for more historic information about the birds seen at Bella Vista Creek. Feel free and contact me on the blog about what you think. Click on images to enlarge. (All photos by gbmcclure)

Oct 29, 2010

The Sandias

On the last full day I was in Albuquerque, we decide to drive up the backside of the Sandia mountains to the top of the crest. In addition to birding I thought I might also get a good view of the changing fall leaves and some neat landscape photos of the Burque and the valley from the top. The following are some of my favorite.

Going Up

South from Sandia Crest

Southwest from Sandia Crest

These last two photos were taken from the deck on the backside of the restaurant and gift shop @10,500ft. To me, it feels like it hangs over the edge of the mountain. One of the neatest things that takes place on this deck is the banding of Rosy Finches. Unfortunately, I was about a week early; however, in a pine tree just next to the deck were a large group of Pine Siskins and a nearly ten Red Crossbills. Both species were more than happy to let me shoot as many photos as I wanted and the Pine Siskins even came within an arm's reach. So close that I had to back down on the zoom lens--a rarity in the bird photography world! Her are a two of the better pics, species should be obvious.

Pine Siskin

Red Crossbill (male)

Interestingly enough, the female Red Crossbill is yellow. I caught this girl in the middle of her lunch.

Red Crossbill (female) 2

Later from the same deck, a pair of Steller's Jays joined the group.This guy landed on a branch just below me and I couldn't pass up the chance to film a bird from above. I usually only get this view of sparrows!

Steller's Jay

The Birdwatcher's Companion has more information on Steller, if you are interested.

After leavin the deck we walked down a trail that follows the top of the mountain to the south. Along the path, we continuously flushed this Hermit Thrush down the trail. He was pretty content to look for food and stay about 30 yards ahead of us. Occasionally we would all stop and I would take a picture. This is about the closest and best one I got.

Hermit Thrush

By this time my legs were pretty sore from the race the day before and every step down in elevation felt pretty bad so we got back in the car and headed back to down. THe rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, yet beautiful, until the very bottom of the mountain when we got this very good look at a Western Scrub-Jay. This bird is the country relative of the Blue Jay we tend to see in town here in Texas.

Western Scrub-Jay
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 9, 2010 at 9:01 PM

    I have to add that it was a great day of birding. We also saw a golden eagle soaring off the western side of the mountains.

    Rosy finch banding over the winter when the snow is deep and the air frigid is a great experience. If you haven't made it to the top of Sandia Peak in the winter, do so.

    Great shots, Gid.

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