This Winter Is For The Birds!

It started with a drive to a place called the Monticello Box.  The road, which crossed a stream bed multiple times, was never far from the stream.  Along the edges of the stream we saw two birds, the first of which Jan identified as a Kildeer

...and the second, as a snipe.

Although I had been taken on snipe hunts in my youth (taken is sure the word for it), I had no idea that was what they looked like.

Next, I sat at my spot on the Elephant Butte Lake watching ravens and red-tailed hawks dancing and playing in the updrafts formed when winds out of the south hit the Point.

After the others headed further south, I went to Caballo Lake for a week.  All through the Monticello Box, a Great Blue Heron would take off and fly ahead of us, giving us glimpses, but never enough time to get a photo.  My frustration was eased my second day at Caballo when I found a very cooperative Great Blue Heron working the edges of one of the pools in the Rio Grande.

OK, I know gulls are not all that special as photo subjects, but I really like this shot.

Same with the pelicans.

Just outside the park, sand hill cranes were socializing and browsing in a farm field.

The real excitement came from a beautiful Bald Eagle.  He hung around most mornings.  Early in the week, he was working the water for fish.

Later, as a film of ice formed, he seemed to turn his attention to looking for ground squirrels or other small critters, spending a lot of his time looking down.

Yesterday had me laughing at the frustration of a Rough-legged hawk.  Normally a fisherman, he seemed puzzled by the hard water surface.  After a few passes he landed.  He looked through the ice.  He scratched, trying to reach through and seize whatever he was seeing below.

Finally, in frustration, he flew off and perched high on the far bank.

All in all, it is turning into a rewarding, though cold, winter in New Mexico.

(Correction, Feb 9, 2013 - I got it wrong.  I identified the rough legged hawk using an on-line bird reference.  It seems this is actually a juvenile bald eagle.)