Every winter, all three species of Rosy-Finch migrate south and converge on the Sandia Crest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This amazing site hosts hundreds of these beautiful finches from November to March each year and has quickly become the worlds premier location to find these elusive mountain specialists. The Sandia Crest also has the added bonus of hosting the Sandia Rosy-Finch Project. This research project, supported by Rio Grande Bird Research Inc. and spearheaded by Raymond VanBuskirk and Michael Hilchey, is the largest winter Rosy-Finch ecology study of its kind. The tour also includes a trip to the world famous Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. “Bosque,” as the locals call it, is well known for its huge wintering Sandhill Crane and Snow Geese flocks. Bosque also offers some of the best birding in the southwest as well as some of the most breathtaking scenery! Join BRANT as we explore the snowy mountain home of the Rosy-Finches, the frozen marshes of Bosque del Apache, and the many other jewels that Central New Mexico has to offer!
5 Days & 4 Nights $1,397 (+ tax)
2016: January 13th – 17th See pricing details under the “Payments” tab
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
Transfer to hotel for check in upon arrival. The tour begins at 3:00 pm in Albuquerque. We will kick off the trip by visiting a popular birding site in the shadow of the Sandia Mountains. This mixture of pinion-juniper woodland and desert scrub and is a fantastic spot for finding some of the Southwest’s trademark species. These include Rock, Canyon and Cactus Wren, Curved-billed and Crissal Thrashers, Western Scrub-Jay, Bushtit, Juniper Titmouse, Mountain and Western Bluebird, Scaled Quail, Greater Roadrunner, Townsend’s Solitaire, and Canyon Towhee. In recent years this has been a reliable spot to find over-wintering Black-chinned Sparrows and large numbers of Rufous-crowned Sparrows. We will break for dinner at a local restaurant and return to the Nativo Lodge for an early evening social before retiring. Night in Albuquerque.
We will begin the day birding the beautiful riparian habitat found along the Rio Grande (Spanish for Big River), in the heart of Albuquerque. Here we will be treated with a mix of waterfowl including close-up views of Wood Duck, Ruddy Duck, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Pied-billed Grebe, and Hooded Merganser as well as an assortment of other birds including: Greater Roadrunner, Belted Kingfisher, Northern “Red-shafted” Flicker, Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, Eastern Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Bewick’s Wren, Yellow-rumped “Audubon’s” Warbler, Spotted Towhee, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch. This is one of the best places in the state to view Canada and Cackling Geese together, and allows for the chance to study these difficult to ID species up close and personal. After Lunch we will head south to Elephant Butte Lake. We will make a quick stop at the Sevilleta NWR for Sage Sparrow and Sage Thrasher as well as Chihuahuan Raven. Elephant Butte Lake is a large reservoir located at the north end of the Chihuahuan Desert and is a great location for waterbirds and many desert specialties as well. Targets here will include: Common and Red-breasted Mergansers, Clark’s and Western Grebes, Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants, American White Pelican, Pyrrhuloxia, Virden, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Vermilion Flycatcher, and Phainopepla. Elephant Butte is also well known as the Gull capitol of NM. We will spend some time searching through the many roosting Herring, Ring-billed, and California Gulls on the lake in hopes of finding something a bit more exciting. Bonaparte’s, Thayer’s, Mew, Lesser Black-backed, and Glaucous Gull are always a small possibility here in the winter. Dinner will be at a local restaurant in Truth or Consequences. After dinner we will look for Western Screech-Owl and Great Horned Owl along the Rio Grande before heading back to Socorro to check in to the hotel. Night in Socorro.
Today we will have a pre-dawn breakfast at the hotel before taking the short drive to Bosque del Apache NWR. Our first stop will feature thousands-upon-thousands of Snow Geese, Ross’s Geese and Sandhill Cranes as they leave their nighttime roosts to feed in the fields north of the refuge. This will be the coldest and earliest morning of the trip, but well worth the harsh conditions as the fog-lined ponds echo with the deafening noise of restless waterfowl, and the colorful morning skies become blanketed with the golden-rimmed silhouettes of thousands of cranes and geese! This spectacle, known as the “fly-out,” is a must-see and one of the highlights of our New Mexico tour! Once we’ve finished our coffee and are satisfied with our views of the fly-out we will head out to explore the rest of this magnificent refuge. Bosque del Apache features an array of wetlands, marshes, and waterways that offer some of the best birding anywhere in the middle Rio Grande Valley. The refuge is well known for its winter raptor-watching potential and, on a good day, one can expect to see Bald and Golden Eagles, Northern Harrier, Ferruginous, Red-tailed, Cooper’s, and Sharp-shinned Hawks. American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine, Prairie and Aplomado Falcons are also frequent visitors (these Aplomado Falcons are captive-bred birds that were released south of the refuge as part of a recent Peregrine Fund rehabilitation program, and are not officially countable by ABA standards). Bosque has also hosted such rarities as Rough-legged Hawk, wintering Harris’s Hawk, and White-tailed Kite. Other targets here include multiple species of waterfowl, namely: Bufflehead, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser (and sometimes Greater) Scaup, Northern Pintail, and Eared Grebe. Multiple species of sparrows, blackbirds, and finches also choose to call this refuge their winter home. The refuge has hosted a suite of winter rarities as well, including: Groove-billed Ani, Ruddy Ground-Dove, Prothonotary Warbler, and Yellow-throated Warbler, just to name a few, so, as you can see, the possibilities are endless. We will spend the afternoon searching for wintering sparrows including: Chestnut-collared, McCown’s, and Lapland (rare) Longspurs, as well as Vesper, Savannah, Brewer’s, and Chipping Sparrows. We’ll also look for other grassland species such as Prairie Falcon, Merlin, Golden Eagle, Loggerhead Shrike, Horned Lark, Eastern “Lillian’s” Meadowlark, and Sprague’s Pipit (rare). We will then head to Socorro for dinner followed by a drive back to the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque for the night.
Sunrise at Bosque del Apache NWR
We’ll have an early breakfast at the lodge this morning followed some birding in Albuquerque. After we’ve finished birding in town we will begin to make our way up the Sandia Mountains stopping at many sites en route to the Sandia Crest House. This morning we will we have a good chance at finding Pygmy Nuthatch, Cassin’s Finch, Stellar’s Jay, Red Crossbill, Red-naped and Williamson Sapsuckers, Juniper Titmouse, Townsend’s Solitaire, Mountain Chickadee, Western Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker, Evening Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak (rare), Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, and Clark’s Nutcracker. In recent winters, Band-tailed Pigeon and Northern Goshawk ave been found at middle and high elevations in the Sandia’s, but they are not present every year. Our next and final stop will be at the Sandia Crest, situated at 10,678 feet above Albuquerque and the winter home of the Black, Brown-capped and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches (including the interior and Hepburn’s subspecies). Here we will have the unique opportunity of observing all three Rosy-Finch species as they come in to feed at the feeders. BRANT guides Raymond and Michael, along with volunteers from Rio Grande Bird Research Inc., have been capturing and banding the Rosy-Finches at Sandia Crest for almost a decade in order to better understand their winter ecology. You will have the once in a lifetime experience of seeing these birds up-close, in-the-hand, as the research team captures and collects valuable data on these unique species. We will give you the run-through story of our past, present, and future research and you may even have the opportunity to release one of these birds back in to the wild. After a box lunch at the Sandia Crest, participants will have the option to go looking for the American Three-toed Woodpecker. This will be the most strenuous hike of the trip, and will likely involve walking on snow and/or ice. Participants may choose to opt out of this hike and continue to watch the Rosy-Finches at the crest house. Around mid-afternoon we will return to Albuquerque for a few hours rest at the Nativo Lodge before our final dinner of the trip. If there is interest (and energy) after dinner we will have the option of heading back up the Sandia Mountains to look for Northern Saw-Whet Owls. Night in Albuquerque.
The tour concludes this morning in Albuquerque.
Although we will typically adhere to the above itinerary, the exact schedule of the tour is liable to change depending on local conditions and of course the birds!
The CNMAS Ryan Beaulieu Memorial Education FundThrough the Central New Mexico Audubon Society, the fund provides scholarships for youth between the ages of 13 and 20, or educators of youth, to attend a specific program, camp, or course, pertaining to the candidate’s interest in the natural sciences. This project is very dear to our hearts as Ryan was a close personal friend to Lee, Raymond, and Michael and was the original Principal, along with Raymond, of the Rosy Finch Research Project. Ryan was lost to us in a tragic accident in 2005. BRANT gives dollars to the fund to keep it strong and help it grow for future youth to explore their dreams in wildlife conservation and birding. Visit the web site CNMAS Page for more information or an application for the scholarship.
Rio Grande Bird Research, Inc.Rio Grande Bird Research has been banding birds since 1979 at the Rio Grande Nature Center in Albuquerque. This project has contributed thousands of valuable bird data to the North American Bird Banding Program at the Patuxent Wildlife Laboratory. RGBR is totally operated by volunteers who give their time and energy to continue this valuable contribution to studies of dispersal and migration, behavior and social structure, life-span and survival rate, reproductive success and population growth of North American birds. The RGBR is also the organization under which the Rosy Finch Project is administered. Raymond, Michael, and Lee are all active volunteers of the group and have received numerous hours of education and mentorship in bird banding from RGBR. BRANT gives dollars to help offset the costs of seed, Rosy Finch feeders and traps, mist nets, and banding tools needed to conduct the research. Visit the RGBR website or the RGBR Facebook page for more information.