Dodging rain everywhere, I nonetheless had a really good morning on the eastern part of the Zuni region. I started at the Bluewater Canyon BLM area west of Bluewater Village off I-40. Access to this site (worth a visit at all seasons) is at exit 72. Head toward Bluewater Village but take the frontage road against eastbound interstate traffic about two miles. Turn left on Plano Road (if the sign is gone again look for sheet metal sculptures of Sasquatch and a mounted Native American). Go another roughly two miles-the road will turn to good gravel about half way) to the parking lot for the site on the outside of a right hand turn. Here’s what may be of wider interest:
crissal thrasher- one calling from near the canyon mouth and audible from parking area when I arrived about 06:35
Lucy’s warbler- one in willows and tamarisk just inside canyon mouth; the seems late
northern waterthrush- one between first and second crossings just before trail goes beneath an overhang, where there is one large cottonwood and several smaller ones; a second near third crossing
HOODED WARBLER- immediately before second crossing there is a weak trail that goes upstream for about 30 feet and the bird, in a female plumage, was first heard calling, a rather piercing high chip. There is a noisy tumble of water there so the loud call was helpful to me
I got chase out of the canyon by rain after crossing the creek for the fifth time (rubber knee boots might help for those unwilling to risk the crossings on mobile rocks).
The second stop was Paseo del Coyote golf course in Grants. This visit was abruptly terminated when lightning struck close from a cloud that didn’t seem to have much to it, though lightning and rain were widely visible in the middle distance. In the brief time there, by far the most interesting thing was an “oriole” rattle call coming from willows near the 7th green. It wasn’t a Bullock’s oriole- that call I heard all breeding season. Not yet in the habit of carrying electronics at all times, I had to wait until back in the car (just beating the deluge by a couple of minutes) to check recordings on my phone. The best match is Baltimore oriole. We have, to my knowledge, only one regional record for that species, a male paired with a female Bullock’s oriole that successfully fledged at least one young bird in spring 1981. But I didn’t see anything except moving vegetation.
I’m still camped at Ojo Redondo, and the drive back on Forest Road 180 was entertaining for reasons of the thunderstorm and a couple of bird encounters. A Steller’s jay was in juniper savanna between the 2nd and 3rd cattle guards after the road becomes gravel. And very close to the intersection of FR180 and FR425 I encountered a small “tornado” of swifts foraging low to the road between rain squalls. There were 5-6 Vaux’s swifts in a tight, spiraling flock about 50 feet wide and 25 to 60 feet in the air. That was the topper to a fine, wet morning.
My last stop was Bluewater Lake, which I hastily covered lest the dirt roads get too muddy to get away. The imm. common tern is still present with two Forster’s terns about three eighths of a mile up the northwestern arm from where it Ts into the north-south part of the lake.
Best,
John Trochet
Sacramento, California
currently in the Zuni Mountains area.
