We went to the Ryerson Conservation Area today, which is northwest of Chicago. We hadn’t been here in a couple of years, but this is where we spotted some of our first warblers when we were beginning birders. They’ve built a new visitors center since our last visit, and that’s where we saw the best bird of the day: a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. It was a lifer for both of us. Not a single warbler was seen, though an Eastern Bluebird was a nice surprise. We then headed back to Chicago to check out the Magic Hedge, where there were plenty of warblers. Always dependable, the Hedge.
another reason to hate cbg
I received a letter from the Chicago Botanic Garden about my membership. It started like this:
Dear Scrubb,
We’ve noticed that your Garden membership has expired.
Thirty years ago, who would have thought swampy land and foggy lagoons would become the Chicago Botanic Garden we see today? Our members did.
This shows how ignorant the CBG management is. They think wetlands ought to be improved. It’s the kind of mentality people had 100 years ago, the kind of mentality that has led to the disappearance of wetlands today. What a bunch of ecological philistines.
some count, some don’t
Not legal
Today was our last full day in New Mexico, so we decided to do some local birding in Albuquerque. We saw birds at the inn where we were staying, a place called Los Poblanos. It’s one of the nicest places we’ve been at, I think, and it comes with its own flock of noisy peacocks. There were two males and two females, and one of the males was all white. It was spooky to see his ghostlike form roosting in the trees at night. The other male was the noisy one, and he always squawked back at the beeping of the car’s lock. They were the most spectacular birds of the trip, but, unfortunately, not countable.
migrating south with some other locals
Our bladders braved it
Today was dedicated to birding. We took a longish (100 miles) trip south to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. On the way there, we we pulled into a rest area with the rattler sign on the left. I love snake signage. You just wonder, though, if they could have put the rest area somewhere else. Bosque is one of the big birding hotspots in New Mexico, mostly, I think, because it has so much water. People here get excited about birds that are common up north, and they’re especially proud of their Sandhill Cranes. But for us, the big draw was the local birds. If we want cranes, we can just drive a few hours to Indiana and see literally thousands. So whenever anyone here got excited about some crane sighting, we just thought, meh.
recalculating
We toured Santa Fe yesterday, but did no birding. Today we headed out north to Bandelier National Monument to visit the Pueblo ruins and, yes, do some birding. We concentrated on the ruins on our first go through, though we still carried our bins. The last stop on the tourist trail is Alcove House, which you get to by climbing a series of long ladders. They warn you it’s not for everyone, and since Pole is acrophobic, she decided to sit it out. I bravely went up the first ladder on my own, but it was pretty spooky; the ladders are long and crooked. I hate to admit it, but I chickened out and went back down, which was even scarier than going up. Most humiliating of all were the little kids who passed me up. A birder, you say, afraid of death? Go figure.