Friday

  Left Texas.  We made it to Las Cruces, New Mexico in Interstate 10.  Good internet and cellphone.  Starting to get caught up.   New Mexico bird list:

1 Gambel’s Quail
2 White-winged Dove
3 Mourning Dove
4 Inca Dove
5 Western Kingbird
6 Curve-billed Thrasher
7 Pyrrhuloxia
8 House Finch

  Not much of a list, but it’s always fun to get quail.  We never get tired of quail.   Now we’re in Mountain Daylight time.    

Thursday

Still at Fort Davis. Had some internet success. Got the audit software downloaded and configured correctly. I can work again.

Watching for the elusive Montezuma Quail. It really is elusive. We’ve been looking for it every chance we got for the last five years!

Got it this evening. Montezuma Quail. Life bird!

Watched an Elf Owl leave its nest last night and tonight at dusk, then listened to it call in the dark.

Wednesday

Travel day. We moved north to Fort Davis State Park. Still no cellphone or internet, but we discovered if we drove to the top of the overlook, we could send and receive. Here is my hilltop office.

Tuesday

Still at the Rio Grande campground; a triple digit furnace. Forays out into the Chisos Mountain Basin at 5,000 feet to hike. Cooler there. Only about 85. Today, the Laguna Meadows and Colima Trail for the Colima Warbler. Judy got a giant blister yesterday, so she stayed back with Annie and Eddie while Jeff, Carol and I went.

Another demanding hike. We didn’t mean to do a loop, just an out and back; get the warbler at Laguna Meadows and return. A 3 ½ mile grind to Laguna Meadows. No bird. We continued on to the Colima Trail. How could a person not get a Colima Warbler on a trail named after the bird? No bird. We did hear him three different times but couldn’t get eyeballs on him. By then we were well over halfway around the loop, so no out-and-back hike. We continued on over the Pinnacles Trail. Still no bird. We headed down.

The whole hike was wonderfully scenic. We gave the bird every opportunity, but he just didn’t take advantage of the situation and make an appearance. When we got home, I put him down on our life-list as a “heard only”. We’ll come back again some day and try to get an actual sighting.


Monday

I got the Google Map updated for our 2010 trip: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&z=7

The reason for any birder to visit Big Bend National Park is to see the Colima Warbler. It’ here in the summer, and only here. If you want the Colima Warbler on your North American Life-list, you’re coming here.

A Colima Warbler isn’t a drive-by sighting though. You have to hike a demanding trail at altitude in the heat to get it. We did a shorter hike today to check things out. Lost Mine trail, a 5 mile round trip with 1,200 feet elevation gain. Highest elevation about 6,500 feet. Judy’s knee is all better. She has full movement of her shoulder again, so off we went.

Jeff and Carol

Tomorrow, the Laguna Meadows and Colima Trails. A longer round-trip.