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September/October/November 2003
Vol. 32 No. 4
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Table Of Contents (Please let the whole page load before clicking on the links.)

Central New Mexico Audubon Society
Sneak Preview: Audubon Birding Academy 2004
CNMAS Field Reports
Fall Audubon Programs
A New Subscription Option - Save the Trees!

Thursday Morning Birding Group
CNMAS Field Trip Schedule
Celebrating Birds - Wednesday Morning Bird Walks
Trail Days At Bosque del Apache
Festival of the Cranes Call For Volunteers

National Wildlife Refuge Bulletin Board - Centennial Celebration
      Bosque del Apache NWR Centennial Education & Exploration Series
      Wings of Morning
      Sevilleta NWR
      Festival of the Cranes

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Central New Mexico Audubon Society

Our missions: “To appreciate, experience, and conserve birds, other wildlife and their habitats. To encourage and support environmental education in New Mexico.”

The Central New Mexico Audubon Society (CNMAS) is one of 510 National Audubon chapters in the Americas. New Mexico has four chapters covering different regions of the state as well as a State Council that brings together all its chapters to share information and energies. In addition, the Randall Davey Audubon Center, on Upper Canyon Road in Santa Fe, has acres of mountain habitat for hiking and birding, as well as educational programs and summer camps for children, educational programs and special events for adults, and a visitor center and nature store that are open daily.

The CNMAS region covers the Middle Rio Grande Valley and its surrounding environments: the cities of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, including West Mesa and South Valley communities; towns of Bernalillio, Placitas, Corrales, Ranchos del Albuquerque, Los Lunas and Belen (including all bosque communities); all Tijeras Canyon, East Mountain communities and unincorporated areas; and mountain ranges of the Sandias and Manzanos, and regions east. The area also includes Indian Pueblos such as Sandia and Isleta, and many old acequias and drainages.

From desert, to river valley, to mountain top, the CNMAS area encompasses many habitats for wildlife.

Your participation is needed to ensure that the natural areas of our CNMAS region as well as those of the state and nation are preserved for wildlife and our future generations. One way to participate is to join your local Audubon chapter (see the coupon here). Your money goes toward supporting conservation, education, and activism efforts locally and nationally.

Conservation efforts include:

Helping identify areas of the state important to bird populations
Supporting organizations involved in focused work, such as HawkWatch International (raptors)
“Adopting” our local area National Wildlife Refuges

Education efforts include:

Field trips
Birding Academy, and evening programs
Grants to young birders, students, educators, and organizations for various projects and programs
Fund bus trips to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for school children
Audubon Adventures educational kits for classrooms

Activism efforts include:

Support for New Mexico herps legislation
Support for other state and national legislative efforts protecting the environment
Alerting our citizens to harmful legislation and actions

CNMAS Member Benefits Include:

• CNMAS field trips (upwards of 30 a year are offered, including overnight trips and 5 local Christmas Bird Counts)
• Thursday Birder field trips via their e-mail list if requested
• Other monthly CNMAS evening programs (September through April) and special events

• 3 two-hour sessions covering many birding and related topics presented by experts and enthusiasts

• Slide library
• Video library
• Print/Book library

• CNMAS Librarian - catalog and maintain print library
• CNMAS Recording/Corresponding Secretary
• CNMAS Vice-President
• CNMAS Grant Writer
• CNMAS Field Trip Leader
• “Bird Helpers” for various projects
• Partners in Flight Representative
• East Mountain Birding Group organizer, a la Thursday Birders Group
• Festival of the Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR
• Rio Grande Nature Center Festivals: Winter Bird & Bat, Herbfest and Summer Wings

For more information about CNMAS visit our website at http://newmexicoaudubon.org/cnmas/ or please call Beth Hurst-Waitz at (505) 898-8514. The National Audubon website is at http://audubon.org/ The Randall Davey Audubon Center can be reached at (505) 983-4609, newmexico@audubon.org

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CNMAS Field Trip Reports

by Sei Tokuda

Saturday-Sunday, April 19-20: Roswell and Carlsbad areas
Sixteen birders made this trip on a rather windy weekend.

Friday-Sunday, April 25-27: Great Bend, KS
Thirteen CNMAS members, including teenagers Raymond VanBuskirk and Michael Hilchey, attended the Wings N Wetland Festival. It was a well-planned event with guided bird tours to the Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera Wildlife Refuges. The youngsters tallied over 160 species with at least 50 lifers for Michael Hilchey. The outstanding sightings included Least Grebe, mating ritual of Western Grebes, Upland Sandpipers, Field, Grasshopper and Harris’s Sparrows. As a bonus, Raymond won a special door prize of a knapsack loaded with goodies from the Nature Conservancy.

Saturday-Sunday, June 28-29: Las Vegas and Maxwell NWR
There were on 5 birders on this trip. It was rather windy but at least 10 degrees cooler than Albuquerque. Although the species count was just over 40, we saw a number of chicks in their nests. They included Swainson’s Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Barn Swallow, and Cassin’s, Eastern and Western Kingbirds. We also had wonderful close-up looks at a pair of Great Horned Owls. As a side bonus we had very close up views of bison and Prong-horned antelopes.

Sunday, August 3: Bandelier NP and Jemez Falls
Eight birders were on this trip. It was a very slow birding with only 30 species seen. We did not see our target birds, the Three-toed Woodpecker and the Black Swift.

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Fall Audubon Programs

Welcome back from Summer! We invite anyone interested in birds and birding, nature and the environment, to join us for the resumption of our free fall programs beginning in September. CNMAS members, bring a guest! Meetings are at St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church, northwest corner of Jefferson & Copper NE, just a block north of Central and about 7 blocks west of San Mateo. Meetings start at 7:15PM. Come early to socialize, enjoy light refreshments, and share your favorite news about birds with others.

Dr. J. David Ligon, UNM professor and ornithologist, gives an illustrated talk about Cooperative Breeding in an African bird, the Green Woodhoopoe, that he and his wife Sandy studied in Kenya for several years. Many kinds of birds are characterized by this complex social system called ‘cooperative breeding’ (CB), most readily seen in the feeding of nestlings by all members of a social group, including the parents, near and distant relatives, and even unrelated birds. Dr. Ligon is a spirited and entertaining speaker, and his talk will take us from the tropics of Kenya to right here in New Mexico, where CB occurs regularly in Harris’s Hawk, Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, and Bushtit.

Pam Flowers will give a presentation about a 2500 mile, solo, dog sled expedition that she and her dogs completed across Arctic America. It is the longest solo dog sled trek by a woman in recorded history. Their journey took her across the northern edge of the Arctic NWR in Alaska. You likely know that ANWR was saved again by a vote of 48 to 52 in the Senate a few months ago. Pam’s presentation is a narrated slide show that is inspirational, educational, fun and funny and is suitable for people of all ages, including children. This will be a great family night program. Pam will also have her book Alone Across the Arctic available for purchase.

Bill Howe will talk about birds seen while conducting Breeding Bird Surveys, Christmas Bird Counts and special trips to the Janos area. This is a unique area just a few miles south of the New Mexico border in Chihuahua, Mexico, and is home to the largest extant prairie-dog town remaining in the world.

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A New Subscription Option - Save the Trees!

We’re working on an option for you to save paper and cut CNMAS mailing costs. We will soon be making the Burrowing Owl newsletter available via our website as a PDF download (get Acrobat Reader to open the pdf - www.adobe.com/reader/). If you would like to sign up for this option let us know - send your requests to Ed Dover at edover@juno.com. Give your name, address and email address. New members can fill in the membership coupon here (PDF download).

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Thursday Morning Birding Group

Weekly birding outings every Thursday. Meeting time and location, as well as duration, vary. Call Margaret Wallen at 341-0928 for details of outings. Send an e-mail to Les Hawkins at leshawknm@aol.com to get on the TBer's e-list of scheduled trip announcements.

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CNMAS Field Trip Schedule

http://www.newmexicoaudubon.org/cnmas/trips.html

Saturday, September 6: Albuquerque area
This will be a half-day trip to an Albuquerque site not yet determined. Please meet at 7AM at the UNM Physics Department Parking lot (NE corner of Lomas and Yale Blvd.). Call Sei at 266-2480 for details.

Sunday, September 14: Tent Rocks (Kasha-Katuwe)
All-day fall migration trip to Tent Rocks (Kasha-Katuwe) National Monument near Cochiti with Hart Schwarz. Meet at 8AM in the UNM Physics Department parking lot (NE corner of Lomas and Yale). We will carpool, but those who drive will have to pay a $5.00 user fee. Dress for the season, wear hiking boots for a two to three-mile hike, and bring water and lunch. We should be back in Albuquerque by 5PM. Call Hart for details, 346-3870.

Saturday-Sunday, September 27-28: Fort Sumner Area
Meet at 6AM in the Four Hills Shopping Center at Central and Tramway across from the Travelodge Motel. The first stop will be at Sumner Lake and the campground. Bring lunch for a picnic at Bosque Redondo Park. Two trips will be made to the Melrose migrant trap, 22 miles east of Fort Sumner; once in the afternoon and again the next morning. The group will head back to Albuquerque around 10:30AM. Call Rebecca Gracey at 242-3821 for information about car-pooling and motel reservations.

Saturday, October 4: Albuquerque area
This trip to an undetermined site within 50 miles of the city will last until 2 or 3PM. Please meet at 7AM at the UNM Physics Department Parking lot (NE corner of Lomas and Yale Blvd.). Call Art Arenholz at 298-1724 for details.

Saturday-Sunday, November 1-2: Trail Days at Bosque del Apache (see article on this page for details)

Sunday, November 8: Las Vegas NWR
The back roads of the Las Vegas NWR are open on Sundays during the month of November. We will take this route as part of our activities for the day. The trip will end sometime in mid-afternoon. Bring lunch, snacks and water and dress appropriately for cold and unpredictable weather. Meet at 8AM at the Far North Shopping Center behind the Village Inn (NE corner of Academy and San Mateo NE). Call Sei at 266-2480 for details.

Saturday-Sunday, November 22-23: CNMAS at Festival of the Cranes (see article on this page for details)

Saturday, December 6: Bosque del Apache NWR
Art Arenholz will lead this trip which should end late in the afternoon. The Bald Eagle numbers should be increasing and there is a good likelihood that there will be several different morphs of Red-tail Hawks. Bring lunch, snacks and water and dress appropriately for cold and unpredictable weather. Meet at 8AM at the UNM Physics Department parking lot (NE corner of Lomas and Yale NE). Call Art at 298-1724 for details.

Saturday, January 3, 2004: Bosque del Apache NWR
This will be a repeat of the December 6th trip. Same place, same time. Call Art for details.

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Celebrating Birds
Wednesday Morning Bird Walks
Come see what’s flying in the Sandia Mountains!

by Ken Schneider

Celebrating Birds is sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service to promote conservation and enjoyment of wild birds and their habitats on your National Forests. Meet at 8:30AM as shown below, or call the Sandia Ranger station at 281-3304 for more info. Hikes are free, though there is a parking fee of $3.00 per vehicle at Forest Service trailheads and picnic areas along the Scenic Byway. Visit our website “Birding in the Sandias” at http://home.att.net/~kschneider/sandia.html

September 10: Capulin Spring Picnic Area. Meet at the first parking lot at entrance.
September 17: Cienega Picnic Area. Meet at the Nature Trail Parking lot.
September 24: Sandia Crest Upper Parking Lot.
October 1: Capulin Spring Picnic Area. Meet at the first parking lot at entrance.
October 8: Cienega Picnic Area. Meet at the Nature Trail Parking lot.

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Trail Days At Bosque del Apache
Saturday-Sunday, November 1-2

Auduboners, come join the New Mexico Volunteers For The Outdoors for just one day or both, when they meet at Bosque del Apache to maintain trails at one of our premier wildlife refuges. Trail work and pruning amidst fall splendor... and birds galore! (Work one day, go birding the next!) Contact Leonard Padilla, 835-3161, lpadilla@sdc.org - they’ll provide Saturday dinner, but you have to register!

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Festival of the Cranes
Call For Volunteers

CNMAS and the New Mexico Audubon Council need YOU to help us as we enjoy birdwatching and share our scopes, smiles, and love of birding and Bosque del Apache with others. Please volunteer for a two-hour shift on Saturday, November 22 and/or Sunday, November 23. Contact Jeff Myers at jmyers@peacocklaw.com or at 998-1502 to sign up to help. You can choose your site: Our chapter site at the Phil Norton Commemorative Photography Blind (funded by Central New Mexico Audubon) or at the State Audubon Council tent, which will once again be on the two-way middle road (so we’ll see lots more birds this year!) We really need your help, as this is one of the major ways we show our support for the National Refuge System in general, and Bosque del Apache NWR in particular.

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National Wildlife Refuge Bulletin Board - Centennial Celebration

Bosque del Apache NWR
Centennial Education & Exploration Series

Saturday, September 20: Star Party
Meet at the Visitor Center at Bosque del Apache 7PM for A Star Party with Amy Estelle. Scope out the birds earlier, then scope out the stars after dark!

Saturday, October 11: Butterfly Workshop
Bosque del Apache NWR presents A Butterfly Workshop with Steve Cary and Nancy Daniel at the Visitor Center, 1-4PM

(For more information: (505)838-2120 or (505)835-1828).

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Wings of Morning

Limited Edition Commemorative Plate
Honoring the 2003 Centennial of the National Refuge Wildlife System
Only 1000 will be produced!

$45, including shipping

Designed by acclaimed Bosque del Apache artist Skeeter Leard, each 8-inch plate is individually numbered.

Proceeds go to Friends of the Bosque del Apache Educational Wing Building Fund.

To order yours, fill out the order form (PDF download).
To order by credit card, call (505) 838-2120.

Make payable to: Friends of the Bosque del Apache, PO Box 340, San Antonio, NM 87832.

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Sevilleta NWR

The Centennial Celebration Series offers the public a unique opportunity to visit the Refuge’s back-country areas while being escorted by expert guides in a variety of fields. Series field trips are offered to the public free of charge, but reservations are required and space is limited on some trips. For information and reservations call Kim King-Wrenn (505)864-4021.

September 13 - Wildflower Field Trip
October 11 - Annual Open House (see above)
November 8 - West Side Birding Field Trip
December 27 - Sevilleta’s 30th Birthday Celebration

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Festival of the Cranes

Tuesday-Sunday, November 18-23

This is the 16th year that the City of Socorro, NM and the Bosque del Apache NWR will be celebrating the return of the cranes with this Festival.

Education is an important part of the mission of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Throughout the year the Bosque is host to meetings, seminars, international film crews, tours, visits by groups of school children.

There are four major components to the Festival: tours, lectures, exhibits and the Refuge. The Friends of the Bosque website has full details on these and other events.

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