March 2025: The Month in Birds

March is, of course, the month of Spring's arrival, and the activity I got to observe in the bird world this month made that clear. 

Dancing Cranes

On the Wetlands Survey at the Rio Grande Nature Center on March 5th, we watched four cranes cross in front of us into a field. At first it looked like they were about to take off, but no. They were lifting, spreading their wings, and coming back down: It was a dance. Because Sandhill Cranes don't breed in Albuquerque, we don't get to see their courtship behaviors often, but this is the time when they heading north to their breeding grounds, so I guess they were getting ready.

More 'Springing' at Tingley

The next day, March 7, I went for a walk at Tingley Open Space. I passed a pond where Northern Shovelers were doing their circular dabbling in the water for food. But whereas just a month earlier, they were dabbling all together in a large mixed group, now instead there were several pairs spread across the pond, circling only with their mate. This is best captured in video, and I was fortunate to have captured a group dabble in late January for comparison with the paired dabbling. First video is from January, the second one from March. 

Right after videoing the Shovelers, I ran into Raymond and Lee, who pointed out some Cinnamon Teal at the other end of the pond. They are coming through in migration this time of year. I was happy to spend the rest of the morning birding with them, because I rarely get the opportunity to hang out with Raymond and benefit from his breadth of bird knowledge. We headed to the main fishing pond, where a Double-Crested Cormorant in breeding plumage was perched at the top of the trees where the Neotropic Cormorants were nesting.

The smaller Neotropic Cormorants nest in the area, and they have had a nesting roost at in the middle of the TIngley Fishing Ponds for a few years at least. Many were already sitting on their nests, their partners feeding them. The Double-Crested Cormorant would not be nesting here (they nest further north). I was curious as to whether they start nesting later than the Neotropics, since this one is obviously not yet at his summer territory. Raymond thought that this was probably an unmated bird. In the group photos, you can see the larger cormorant at the top not associated with a nest. That is the Double-Crested Cormorant.

 

 

 

 

 Canyon Wrens-Embudito Canyon

On  March 11, I walked with a friend up the wash in Embudito Canyon. Shortly after we left the wash for the rocky part of the trail, we began to hear Canyon Wrens singing and calling. We found two of them moving in and out of a crevice in the canyon wall. One would stop periodically to sing from the top of a triangular rock, bobbing up and down like a Rock Wren. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, but here is the crevice, with the rock perch in front.

I came back with another birding friend on March 28. I wanted to check and see what the Canyon Wrens might be up to. Sure enough, we began to hear Canyon Wren song as we approached the crevice, and found one perched on the same triangular rock. This time, however, the pair headed further north. One perched on a rock, bobbing and singing, before they disappeared behind the rocks.

 

With the wrens gone, we studied the crevice. There was something that looked like a nest that I don't think was there on the first visit. But would they really nest in such an exposed area at the edge of a crevice?

This was all we observed on this day, but my friend went back to the area the next day and sat watching for more than an hour. The wrens were busy on the other side of the canyon for most of her observation. After about 50 minutes, they moved near the entrance to the crevice, but now they were repeatedly flying up into an overhang near the top of the cliff. We wondered if Canyon Wrens are a species that work on multiple nests before they settle into one.

Birthday Gifts-March 21

Walking in the Tingley bosque on the morning of my birthday, I was gifted with several "firsts." First of the year Turkey Vulture and Snowy Egret, which are pretty typical to see for the first time as spring arrives. In the shallow water where the south pond overflows, I identified my first Swamp Sparrow on my own (always in the past I've been with another birder who IDd it first. No picture unfortunately.

By the fishing pond, I heard an unfamiliar sweet peeping sound, and looked around for the songbird that was producing it. I quickly found the singer, and this was no song bird! This was the first time I'd heard an Osprey's call, at least to know that's what it was. Listen to this short video to hear what a fierce Osprey sounds like.

Phainopepla at the Nature Center-March 22

My birthday weekend good fortune continued on March 22. A Phainopepla female had been found in the garden area at the Rio Grande Nature Center. These birds nest in Southern New Mexico, always in areas with lots of mistletoe. One or two appear in the Albuquerque area in migration every year, and usually do not stay long. I had often thought that the Nature Center garden would be a good place for them, with all the mistletoe in the trees. This was my opportunity to see one of these beautiful song birds in my own area for the first time, and would be new for my Bernalillo County list. 

It took over an hour for me to find the bird on this first visit, just minutes before I needed to head out for a class. Many birders had gathered to look when someone waved us all over. I got only one semi-decent photo of the bird. It was a little easier to get photos of the birders. First rare bird "party" I've attended in awhile. It reminded me of pandemic times, when it felt so celebratory to have an incidental "mass" gathering with all the birders who showed up for a rare bird sighting.

 

The bird has continued to hang out in the same area and is still there as of this writing. I've been able to see it two more times, with much closer and better views. On my third visit on April 1, I heard her calling before I saw her and got an audio recording. I also got a video of her moving around in a tree. Here is a link to my audio recording on eBird: Phainopepla Call (Recording)

Observing this bird, I got an answer to something I had wondered about. I had heard Phainopepla are only found near mistletoe, to the point that I thought that mistletoe berries are the only food they eat. However, I saw this bird foraging berries from other trees. I looked up more information.  Cornell's All About Birds website reports that Phainopepla have digestive tracts that are specialized for eating mistletoe fruit, which is their main diet, but they also eat a variety of other berries. For instance, she was foraging on these, which per iNaturalist, may be hackberries.

The Last Word

As we head out of March into April, where migration will soon be in full swing, I will leave you with a few more photos of the birds of March. See you next month!

(Adjacent) Western Bluebird male, on the Candelaria Nature Preserve.

(Below) Black-Crowned Night Heron-Tingley Ponds.

(Adjacent) Cactus Wren singing at Embudito.

(Below) Black-throated Sparrow and Crissal Thrasher at the Sevilleta Refuge. 

 

March 2025 Sketching

In March I continued with daily-ish sketching: Mostly pencil sketches of something right in front of me, and a few from photos, including a few done with colored pencil. I'll just proceed to showcase the sketches, with commentary on the process where I'm so inspired.

Colored Pencil Sketches

I was inspired to pull out the colored pencils by some colorful birds that I photographed on a visit to the Albuquerque Biopark Zoo. These first two (Sun Conures and a reclining Flamingo) I did with watercolor pencil. I'm also including here a photo of the Sun Conures so you can see just how sweet they were, possibly the happiest creatures in the zoo because they had each other. 

 

Next, I tried my Caran d'Ache colored pencils on the flamingos, mostly because I like the range of pinks that I have with them better than the watercolor pencil choices. I consider this mostly a background fail: I started with some failed dark tree silhouettes in the background and everything seemed to go bad to worse as I tried to save it (there's no getting rid of the dark markings once they are there). In the end, I do kind of like it, but miss how the flamingos looked with a light background. I thought I might do them over, but that so far hasn't happened.

Graphite Pencil Sketches

Here are a few of my favorites from my (almost daily) drawings. I continued to eschew seeking out a great subject in favor of just drawing something in front of me. This led to to a few assemblages of objects in whatever room I was in. 

Perhaps my favorite is of this curio cabinet at my friend Astri's house:  

Then there is my cat, Lolly, always a ready subject, if not so good about sitting still. 

And more than once I used my coffee break time to draw, with several resulting sketches of coffee house interiors.  This is my favorite of that "genre."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll finish off with a few from a great outdoors.  I chose the car as a subject precisely because if was a subject I wouldn't tend to gravitate towards. When I realized the driver was in the car, it challenged me to lay down the lines quickly before she drove off. Fortunately, she lingered awhile. Subjects from top to bottom: Tingley Open Space parking lot, Tree in Los Poblanos Open Space Pollinator Garden, and exterior of the Albuquerque Museum

.

Hope you enjoyed this little exhibit. (Sorry for the wonky layout--I don't seem to know how to control how it shows on the page). I'll be back shortly with bird stories and photos from the past month.

February 2025

This month's post has two major sections. The first is devoted to bird stories. In the second I share what I've been doing this month with drawing and sketching. 

Part One: The Birds

February marks the very beginning of courtship and nesting season for many of the year-round birds in Albuquerque, reflected in several of this month's observations. Some of the most interesting observations for me have been around vocalizations I had not heard or noticed before. 

A "New" Vocalization (How did I miss it?)

In January, when I was doing a bird survey with a friend in the Sandia foothills. We heard a far away "barking" vocalization that we couldn't place.  In early February I heard it again, at the Rio Grande Nature Center. Merlin IDd it as a Roadrunner, but I couldn't see the bird. 

 

 Flash ahead to February 21st, where I watched this Roadrunner climb a tree and emit the same barking sound, along with its familiar bill clacking sound. The sound I've always associated with breeding season is a dove-like song, which the male will sing from high in a tree. Is this barking sound also announcing territory and/or courtship? I don't know, but this Roadrunner did appear to be following a 2nd Roadrunner (top picture) that was on the ground, moving to a tree further to the south as she moved further south. 

On March 1, I was able to record a video of the Rio Grande Nature Center Roadrunner doing the same call. I wonder how it is that in all my years of living so close to Roadrunners, I hadn't registered this call before, and now I'm hearing it multiple times? I guess it's like when you learn a new word, and suddenly read it everywhere. 

 

 Curve-Billed Thrashers in the Hood-2/1/25 

On February 1, I was walking in the neighborhood when I passed a pair of Curve-Billed Thrashers. One was on the road, busily pecking at the asphalt. The other came out from a shrub, calling while moving closer and closer to the first. The pecking bird would move to another place on the sidewalk or ground whenever the 2nd one came close. They continued this for a long time while calling back and forth. Though I'm very familiar with Curve-Billed Thrasher calls and songs, these calls sounded different. (I wish I was able to upload an audio recording here.) This seemed likely to be early courtship behavior, and within a week, I was hearing Curve-Billed Thrasher song emanating from all the Thrasher territories I know of in my neighborhood. I didn't have my camera, so here's a quick drawing.

For some cool photos of Curve-Billed Thrasher February courtship behavior, see this earlier blog post from February 2021. Curve-Billed Thrasher Courtship Behavior

 

 

 

Tingley Bosque-2/7/25

Immature White-Crowned Sparrow.

Starting perhaps in January, the southernmost pond in Tingley Bosque Open Space has been overflowing to create some shallow water habitat to the south. This was the first day that I saw a mixed group of sparrows drinking from the shallows. Nearby a large mixed flock, White-Crowned Sparrow, Dark-Eyed Juncos, and Spotted Towhees, were scrabbling for bugs in the leaf litter, creating a most amazing sound.

At the north end of the bosque, a  Bald Eagle was sitting in a tree right by the north parking lot. After tolerating all the attention from the park visitors, the Eagle flew off towards the river.

 

 

 

 

 

Rio Grande Nature Center Wetlands Survey 

I continue to volunteer weekly doing the bird surveys at the Nature Center. Overall February was pretty quiet month, but we did get some cool ducks, including Common Goldeneye females (pictured below), Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Ruddy Ducks.

I don't always get many photos, but one Wednesday I managed to get my most darling photos ever of a male American Kestrel. 

 

 Meadowlarks at Los Poblanos Open Space-2/21/25

For many many years, the numbers of  Western Meadowlarks have been very low. My understanding was that something in the agricultural management of the place wasn't working for them. The last few years, numbers have seemed to be increasing, and this year their numbers exploded! On this day, I counted at least 60 foraging in the field in front of me. Many more were singing from other parts of the open space.  I wish I could  convey the astonishing sound of so many Meadowlarks singing at once.

Embudo Trail: 2/28/25

On the last day of the month, I visited a trail in the foothills. As I stepped out of my car, I was greeted by the loud song of the Cactus Wren, singing from a small tree at the edge of the parking lot. Further evidence that breeding season is on its way.  From top to bottom: Cactus Wren, Black-Throated Sparrow, and Canyon Towhee. 

                                                   

l

Part Two: Sketches

I hadn't been doing much drawing or painting for awhile. In the last month or so, however I attended several gatherings with my sketching group where I found myself back in the groove with graphite pencil sketching. To keep me drawing, I decided to do one sketch a day, wherever I am when I find myself with about 30 minutes to spare. The idea is to not get all caught up in trying to find a great subject, but to just draw something that is in front of me. I've been carrying my sketch book and pencils in the car when I go out, and keeping them near me at home. This has been a fantastic way to get past perfectionism and just do it.  Here are a few of my sketches from the past month. 

From Sketcher's Sessions:

Still Life Session , a Visit to the Natural History Museum, and Drawing Each Other 

From My Daily Sketch Practice

       My Living Room During a Zoom Session;  the Rio Grande Nature Center Blind           

  View From Bed with a Migraine         Drawing from a New Yorker Magazine Photo

Goodbye February: Goodbye Sandhill Cranes-see you in November!