new mexico

My lifer Canyon Towhee, seen at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Quick post between spurts of data coding. Will catch up on browsing later. This was my last lifer of the New Mexico trip. A common and plain bird that used to be considered just a color variant of the California Towhee, but has now been split off into a species of its own. This one popped up...

My first Canyon Towhee (lifer #473), seen on a juniper in the parking lot as soon as my mom and I exited the car at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A Sandhill Crane prepares to land and roost for the night.

A Sandhill Crane lands at one of the crane ponds at Bosque del Apache, New Mexico.

Snow Geese (Lesser) (Chen caerulescens subsp. caerulescens) LIkely with a few Rosss Geese (Chen rossii) mixed in. Photographed in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, southern Socorro County, New Mexico, USA. Straddling the Rio Grande Valley with a lot of planted corn crops with...

A Sandhill Crane flies above the New Mexico desert

Three Sandhill Cranes appear to each have an opinion which way to go after feeding in the wetland.

Common Pheasant known by most in the USA as Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus chrysomelas). There are some 31 subspecies broken into numerous groups. This one belongs to the Mongolicus group known as the White-winged Pheasants. This subspecies native range is southern Russian...

A Snow Goose settles in for the evening after a day feeding in nearby fields.

Rio Grande and valley between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico USA. Riparian in the Chihuahuan Desert. Looking north with New Mexico on the left and Texas on the right.

Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico USA en route to their feeding grounds.

A little something different today. One of my favorite landscape destinations of the American West. White Sands National Monument, New Mexico Archives

Found at the Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Santa Fe.

Another shot from wonderful Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. I think this Sandhill Crane must have gotten a late start for the feeding fields since all its crane cousins were already gone. He seemed very lonely among all these rising and landing Snow Geese.

Technically, this image is not of the quality I usually want in my keepers. However, given the circumstances, I did keep it. It was a bitterly cold morning, just after sunrise when I noticed these geese approaching and thought they would pass in close proximity to the moon. I had only about...

This is a series of three photo taken of the Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache Nat'l Wildlife Refuge early in the morning.

Landed right in front of us and worked its way through the reeds then flew off. Dad and I were lucky on this one.

Sunrise: Looking at the Guadalupe Mtns in southwest New Mexico gazing northward across creosote flats just north of Guadalupe Canyon, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA. Creosote flats at ca. 1,341 m (4,400 ft) elevation.

Merriams Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys merriami: Heteromyidae) This beautiful little rodent lives in the Sonoran Life zones in the southwestern part of the United States, Baja California and northern Mexico. It averages about 36 cm (14 in) long which about half is tail. Photographed at night at the...

Great Plains Toad [Anaxyrus (Bufo) cognatus: Bufonidae] This nocturnal toad ranges in size from 5.1-11 cm (2-4.5 in). Though opportunist feeders catching and eating moths, caterpillars, flies, beetles and other small arthropods. It has been documented that their diet consists of 47% ants and...

Picture of one of the many Cave Swallows that nest at the opening to Carlsbad Caverns.

A new Mexico Roadrunner. I watched and photographed this little bird as he waited to cross the highway, for well over 15 minutes. He would verture out only to run quickly back as a car approached. Funny bird to watch... :-)