I returned home yesterday evening, and was greeted by a fresh coating of snow this morning to cover up the dirty, yucky (technical term) piles of brown snow and make everything look all pretty again. A flock of about 25 Pine Grosbeaks feeding in some crabapple trees in the Yarmouth butterfly garden- visible from our store’s window – was a nice “welcome back” as well.

New Mexico was a blast. We had lots of great birds – and great food, of course! This was my first tour with WINGS, and hopefully not my last. Gavin, my co-leader for this trip, will have a full trip report up on the WINGS website in the next couple of days, so I’ll leave it to him to summarize the trip. (I’ll post the link in my next blog entry).

We finished with 147 species or 148 species (depending on whether the turkeys at the Rio Grande Nature Center turn out to be “countable). In addition, I had one additional species – a Swamp Sparrow – that we could not refind with the group. Highlights included the aforementioned (see previous blog entry) Rufous-backed Robin and a Barnacle Goose that we successfully twitched at Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge (if accepted by the state’s records committee, this would be a First State Record. I also think it is safe to say that we are the first tour in history to record both Rufous-backed Robin (from Mexico) and Barnacle Goose (from Greenland) in the same trip!

I have still not spent a whole lot of time birding in the west, so pretty much any location west of the Mississippi has the potential to offer me a few lifer birds, and this trip definitely delivered! Pinyon Jay, Canyon Towhee, Juniper Titmouse, Crissal Thrasher, Bridled Titmouse, Rufous-backed Robin, Sage Sparrow, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Black Rosy-Finch, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, and the Barnacle Goose.

One of my big highlights – and one of the main targets of the trip as a whole – was the rosy-finch show at the Sandia Crest – all three species Black, Brown-capped, and Gray-crowned (plus the “Hepburn’s” subspecies of Gray-crowned). Also, of course, the Sandhill Crane and goose (mostly Snow, but lots of Ross’s as well) show at Bosque del Apache was a real highlight for all as well.

And of course, this wouldn’t be a Derek Lovitch birding blog without a mention of food! I gorged myself on southwestern and Mexican specialties, of course. Not including the continental breakfasts that we ate at our hotel each morning, I consumed the famous New Mexico Hatch green chilies in 8 out of 14 meals! Culinary highlights included the Green Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup at a little Mexican joint whose name I have forgotten in Old Town, Albuquerque, the famous Green Chili Cheeseburger at the Owl Bar Café in San Antonio, the Pollo Adobo with red chili sauce at The Shed in Sante Fe, and the veggie Chili Relleno and tamale at the Church Street Café in Albuquerque on our last night. The bison burger from the historic St. James Hotel in Cimarron was highlighted by the great atmosphere and history of the place, and the beer, especially the Red, from the Socorro Brewing Company was excellent.

Give me a day or two to post (LOTS of photos to sort through!) a photojournal, and I’ll have Gavin’s trip report available shortly.