Earth Team Deployed.
After starting our SLV Birdwatching Odyssey we have come in
contact with others with this shared interest.
One acquaintance asked us to become members of the Natural Resources
Conservation Service Earth Team. The Earth Team is a project that recruits
volunteer birdwatchers to do regular bird counts on agricultural land managed
under the NRCS wetland reserve program. We have been assigned 140 acres of pasture
and wetlands near the village of Lasauses.
Under clouds and rain we headed down to the area with our
niece Christa. We had a little trouble finding the pasture but some locals recognized three lost souls, seeing us in a field with a
map and pointing in three different
directions. They directed us to some stock pens back up the road.
The field is filled with grass and cattail sloughs. Trees
line the road and fences. The San Luis
Hills rise to the west above oxbows of the Rio Grande.
The field and open
water had a nice compliment of red-winged blackbirds. Tree swallows flew overhead
or sat in trees with their fledglings.
We also saw violet-green swallows.
An American goldfinch flew up
into the trees and a Wilson’s snipe winnowed above us. Eurasian collared doves
crossed the rainy sky.
It is such a beautiful place and we are thrilled to be part
of this environmental study.
On the way back home we stopped at Pike’s Stockade hoping to
see the yellow-billed cuckoo but it remained elusive. We were elated, however, to see a blue
grosbeak and a Lazuli bunting.
Also, you may remember that the last time we were birdwatching
near Pike’s Stockade we found a lost calf
and returned it to some nearby cattle.
We were pleased as we drove by the same pasture when one little calf broke
from its mother, ran to the fence and looked at our truck. We know that this is the calf we saved or at
least we want to think it so.
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