2 days in Albuquerque - Tuesday 1st March

We'd heard a lot from a number of sources that when in New Mexico, you must visit Santa Fe. Well, we were disappointed. OK, it's a city built of houses that clearly have to conform to a look and feel (think fake adobe housing in various shades of sand or sandstone) and yes it has trails and lots of artists, but it's a city still and sprawling at that. We headed for the Audubon reserve for a mooch around there.

Lots of common birds were frequenting the feeders including Red-winged Blackbird, American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco and House Finch. Also present Pine Siskins:



Spotted Towhees:




Though these weren't on the feeders. Also a Dusky Flycatcher, if I'm correct, with this species it is migrating very early:






And Bushtits:



It was very cold again first thing and the trails were somewhat ice-laden, so we couldn't really explore much of the area. Also, frustratingly, once back in the car, we had excellent views of Western Scrub Jays, a Curve-billed Thrasher and a new species for us, Canyon Towhee, but the camera was locked in the boot as we re moving between locations. We parked-up and tried to relocate the birds but to no avail. Back to Plan B, brunch. We stopped at a gas station, filled-up and asked for advice on where to eat. The best place for breakfast in town apparently, is Harry's Roadhouse, so we went there. The food was indeed very good, the coffee fantastic and the pricing the best we'd encountered thus far. A fab feed of reliably vegetarian food and thoroughly pleasing after the bitterly cold morning.

So back then to Albuquerque and a quick visit to the Nature Centre again, before heading off. I photographed a Lesser Scaup drake:




And the Cackling Geese:



How these are still treated as Canada Geese is beyond me, they are so obviously different!

Last stop before the main flight home was Dallas Forth Worth, where we got to watch the sunset and some lucky people on their way home too:



We both really enjoyed the trip and would recommend New Mexico generally and Albuquerque specifically as a place to visit to bird or otherwise.