Moving north from the Socorro, NM area we arrive in Santa Fe, and one of my favorite places to bird in Santa Fe is the Randall Davey Audubon Sanctuary at the end of Canyon Road.  The sanctuary has several feeders out and they attract a variety of birds, some of which I’m going to display.  These photos were taken right around Christmas when snow is almost invariably on the ground.

This first bird is a Townsend’s solitaire and I included the photo not because of its quality, but because for me it’s a fairly rare bird and I’ve never seen one in New Mexico previously.

Townsends Solitaire

This next bird is a Mountain chickadee, a bird that we have here in the Pacific Northwest but that I’ve never seen visit our yard.  I have seen one at the Reifel Refuge in British Columbia and at Washington Park here in Anacortes, and I’ve had friends who have had these birds visit their yards but I can’t seen to attract one!  They are almost always in evidence at the Randall Davey Sanctuary.

Mountain Chicadee

Now we get into the interesting aspects of bird observations at the Randall Davey Sanctuary.  There are at least four different races of Dark-eyed juncos at the sanctuary and I think I probably photographed four.  This next bird, and the one that follows it, are the Gray-headed race.

This one can be identified fairly easily by the brown patches on the shoulders and on the top of the head (if you look closely).

Dark-Eyed Junco, Gray-Headed Race

This next bird is also of the Gray-headed race as evidenced by the brown crown.

Dark-Eyed Junco, Gray-headed Race

This next bird is rather interesting.  It’s a Dark-eyed junco and it probably has to be of the Slate-colored race, but it differs significantly from Sibley’s illustration in that it has a shorter bib.

Dark-Eyed Junco, Slate-Colored Race

And here is a Dark-eyed junco of the Oregon race which is the most common junco we have in Skagit County, WA.

Dark-Eyed Junco – Oregon Race

Finally we come to what I consider a mystery junco in that the photograph, at least from my limited knowledge, doesn’t reveal enough of the bird to make a definitive determination as to its race.  It could be another Oregon junco (which would be my guess) or perhaps a Pink-sided junco,, both of which are found in this area.

And if you’re not thoroughly confused by the junco races yet, you should know that there are White-winged, Red-backed and several other variations all of which can be found in the general New Mexico area!

On the morning we left Socorro for Santa Fe I spotted this leucistic grackle in a Walmart parking lot.  Since I started this web site with a leucistic Varied thrush I had to obtain a photo for the continuity.  I didn’t have my good camera at hand, the light was too bright and the bird was walking around a parking lot, but I did obtain a few photos.  This bird should be all dark, but as you can see, part of its tail is white.

I’ll be featuring just a few more images taken at the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico, then I’ll move to Santa Fe for a couple of posts and then it will be back to Skagit County for an interesting story or two and a couple of features on some nice birds.

For now, here are some photos of some of the “quackers” I photographed at the Bosque…

Female Northern Shoveler

Male Northern Shoveler

Male Northern Pintail

Male Northern Pintail Experiencing a “Bad Hair” Day

Male Dabbling Ducks… Probably Northern Shovelors

“Quackers” can generally be divided into two groups, dabbling ducks (which don’t or can’t go underwater due to positive buoyancy) and diving ducks which dive underwater for much of their food.  Mallards, Northern pintails and Northern shovelers are examples of dabbling ducks.

Quacker! (: )

The photograph above is of a nice “quacker” but I’m unsure of the species.  Somebody out there help me!

Killdeer

So that’s it for the Bosque, but not before I showcase one more bird under a separate post.

This Eurasian Collared dove was with several others in the small community of San Antonio, NM, just outside the entrance to the Bosque del Apache NWR.

Eurasian Collared Dove

The following day this Pyrrhuloxia was at the same location.

Pyrrhuloxia, cousin to the Northern Cardinal

Western Meadowlark

This Western meadowlark was beside one of the local roads just off of the refuge.

Another Western Meadowlark

And back on the refuge, this Loggerhead shrike was in the same general area for all three days that we were there.