New Mexico-July 19-Day 1

My mom, dad, and I got up early in the morning on July 19 to go to my friends house. This wasn't just any old visit, this visit was going to take me 15 hours away from home for three weeks. I loaded all of my stuff into their motorhome and I said goodbye to my parents. They watched as the motor home pulled out of my friends driveway and they tried to hold in their excitement that I was going to be gone for so long!

What was I doing for three weeks at over 15 hours away from my home? I was going all the way down to Albuquerque, NM in a motor home with my two best friends and the parents of one of them. For ten days of the trip I was was going to have my strength tested in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of northeast New Mexico at the Philmont Scout Ranch with eight other boys and two adults from across the country that I had never met before. For 75 long miles through the mountains I endured the heat, the cold, and of course the wildlife all on foot and with a 50 pound pack on my back. Little did I know while traveling across Nebraska on I-80 just how amazing an adventure was awaiting me in the mountains of the southwest. So here my adventure begins.

Traveling across Nebraska on I-80 is very boring. Field after field of corn and soybeans passed by for hours on end until 5:00 that night. Eventually the corn and soybean fields began to be replaced by pastures and the scenery was a bit more interesting. While at a rest stop I photographed a windmill that was out on one of the scenic pastures that covered the hills that rose up out of the Platte River Valley. Not long after taking that picture we headed south on I-76 and made it to Colorado, which was a new state for me.

At the state welcome center I saw more Western Kingbirds than I have ever seen. They seemed to be everywhere, with one (or more!) every way you looked. They nest in my area but not in such large numbers. I looked around the rest area for birds but, as I expected, there was nothing of particular interest just a lot of common birds that I see in my own backyard. After pulling away from the rest area we kept on heading west to Fort Morgan where we stayed for the night. As you can tell the first day was pretty uneventful.

Of course there are many more exciting things ro come so check in to read about the rest on my trip in the upcoming weeks. In tomorrow's post I will see the Rocky Mountains for the first time, travel through Denver, will find a few life birds, see Pike's Peak, and be in New Mexico for the first time.

Crop Duster

A few weeks back a crop duster came to my town to spray the crops with some sort of chemical.

My dad and I went and watched it buzz over the fields. It is amazing the amount of acrobatics it takes for them to do this. Sometimes they would come freakishly close to a house while spraying the chemicals, flying straight at it and at the last second turn skyward and do this over and over again until the field was covered. I got lots of pictures and a video of this one as the pilot was doing his job. The video is not working right now but hopefully I will be able to get it to work within the next couple days. This sure beats the heck out of air shows, plus it's free!

Early Fall Migrants

Before I get started on blogging about my New Mexico trip I thought I would post on a few birds I have seen in Iowa lately.

My mom and I went looking for Buff-breasted Sandpipers around the county late this afternoon without any luck. There weren't even any at a sod farm that had over 20 of them last year. Other shorebirds are on the move as evidenced by the nine species I saw. Although the Buff-breasted Sandpipers did not show up we did find nice and unexpected birds including a Least Tern and a White-faced Ibis. Both of these birds although regular in our area are hard to come by sometimes so it was nice to see them. The ibis was located at a place called Table Marsh. While looking at 20 Great Blue Herons, 5 Great Egrets, 1 Green Heron, a few Black Terns, and a couple Snow Geese a dark bird about heron size flew out of the weeds. It then landed and I quickly identified it as an ibis. The marsh has been one of the best place to look for waterbirds recently. All of these birds were joined by a lone SANDHILL CRANE back in July. I was the first to find the crane which one other birder was able to see.

This bird was a thrill to see as this species is rare in migration through our area not to mention mid summer. Fall migration has already begun for some birds so get out and enjoy it!

Bird Photo Quiz 4 Answer

Congratulations to Bill Bossman for correctly identifying the mystery bird. This Canyon Wren was hopping around the rocks at the bottom of a canyon at Philmont Scout Ranch. We had just descended 1,000 ft down the western side of the canyon and were resting in order to regain our strength to be able to climb up 400+ ft on the east side. Although not a very hard quiz bird I couldn't resist posting the photo as a quiz because it was just looked perfect for that.

Bird Photo Quiz 4

During my trip to New Mexico I got a couple nice quiz worthy photos. Here is the first one.
Post a comment to answer. All birds are on the ABA checklist which can be accessed by going to: http://www.aba.org/checklist/abachecklist.pdf

I'm Back

After finding 26 life birds, hiking 75 miles through mountains in 10 days, climbing a 11,020 ft mountain, climbing up a 600ft tall sand dune at Great Sand Dunes NP, 4 bear sightings, and after treating someone for hypothermia I finally made it back home safely from my boyscout backpacking trip at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. As you can tell I have a lot to tell you about so check in from time to time to read all about my three week adventure!

Going to New Mexico

I was one of about 60 lucky boy scouts from across America to be chosen to participate in a leadership hike through the mountains of New Mexico. We will be hiking through the world's largest boyscout camp, called Philmont Scout Ranch, which is located near Cimarron in the state's NE quarter.


Along the way we will learn leadership skills and participate in a number of interesting activities. On average we will be hiking 7 miles a day with a 50 lb backpack on for about 10 days.


The scout ranch has lots of wilderness which means lots of birds. Being so far away from home means that there will be plenty of new birds for me. Even the common ones such as Steller's Jay and Mountain Chickadee will be life birds for me. I hope to have some photos of the birds there to show you all since I bought a small camera just for this trip. If I am luck we might stop at Rocky Mountain NP on the way back which has White-tailed Ptarmigan, Black Swift, and Brown-capped Rosy-Finch!

A couple days before and then after the actual hike itself we will be staying at a retreat house in Albuquerque that is right along the Rio Grande River which will hopefully have a couple more life birds.

Visit my blog around August 10th when I am back to hear how my trip went.

I better go since it's only about an hour before I leave for NM by motor home with my two best friends. Wish me luck!

Chuck-will's-widows

The day after the Fourth of July my mom dad went up to Yankton, SD to spend a couple days by the lake there which was formed by a dam on the Missouri River. With their being so much habitat and a large lake I always look foreword to seeing birds while I am there. A few days before we left some Chuck-will's-widows were heard at a place called Gavin's Point (left). These birds would be new for me so I was even more excited to be going.

The first day was nice and warm and a few birds were around with the best being a lone Caspian Tern. We swam and fished and before long it was starting to get dark. My dad and I drove out to the point and listened for the birds at about 9:30pm. At first it was quiet except for the noise of boaters loading their gear. At about 9:40, after the boaters left, the birds began to call. One Chuck-wills-widow was calling along with a number of the more common Whip-poor-wills. The birds often called at the same time which made it hard to tell which voice was which. The Chuck-will's-widow was life bird 312 for me.

After a successful search we headed back to the campground. The next day we got up bright and early to go to Lake Andes NWR and Fort Randall Dam but we never did make it to the refuge because my dad had to go back because of a trouble call. On the way there we did see (and hear) an Upland Sandpiper and a Loggerhead Shrike before we had to turn around.

The weekend was not over then. The same day I went canoeing with my sister who came up too and did some more swimming. Unfortunately no other good birds were really around except for a Franklin's Gull.