You know it
is spring time in the Valley when a warm dry wind starts to blow, but not hard
enough to keep a couple of steely-eyed birdwatchers inside. We left home about 6 p.m. and headed to Home
Lake. We had consulted our field guides and were hoping to see a green-winged
teal and a pied-billed grebe. Our
expectations were rewarded at Home Lake.
In addition to our green-winged teal and
pied-billed grebe, we also saw American coots, common mergansers, gadwalls, red
heads, cinnamon teals and northern shovelers. We identified a lesser yellowleg
and several killdeer wading along the south shore. The teal, grebe and
yellowleg were new birds for our one-year count.
We then
headed to MVNWR at the Rio Grande County Road 3/7 entrance and counted 30 or so
sandhill cranes at the center pivot.
We drove to
the auto loop as the sun set and watched the truly wonderful sight of the
cranes coming in to roost. The number of
sandhill cranes dropping out of the orange sky was reduced from our previous
visits, but still we watched huge flocks coming in until it became too dark to
see anymore.
As we left
the refuge under the now starry sky we knew that with the coming spring migration
our 2012 SLV Birdwatching Adventure is just beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment