Tweeters,

Those who are not enthused about North American life lists will
probably want to hit "delete".

Leora and I wondered if it was possible to see all three species of
Rosy-Finch and then find Lesser Prairie Chickens in the same day.

If you fly into Albuquerque you are very close to Sandia Crest. There
is a restaurant and gift shop at 10,700 feet that puts out bird seed
all winter. Hundreds of Rosy-Finches show up each day from November to
March.

One of the few places to view the declining, but still dancing, Lesser
Prairie Chicken is in the BLM Mescalero Sands, 200 miles to the
southeast. The chickens get pretty serious about it in April, but the
BLM biologists officially start looking for them March 8. The big
dance is early morning, but they also have another get together around
sundown.

So the plan was to drive up for Rosy-finches at 9 AM, then motor on
down east of Roswell in plenty of time to catch the evening P. Chicken
dance. That seems too easy. How about if we plan on Whiskered
Screech-Owling the next night in SE Arizona. They get vocal in April,
but it's been suggested that they will respond to a tape in mid March.
In retrospect, this may be more speculation than experience.

Did you know????

1. It has gotten so that two one way air fares are often no more than a
round trip total.

2. SW Air claims they can get you from SEATAC to ABQ in under 3 hours
for under $100.

3. Alaska Air claims they will get you from PHX to SEATAC in 2.5 hours.
In both cases, your actual results may vary.

4. Thrifty Car Rental's one way drop fee from ABQ to PHX is $90.

Did it work?

9:00 AM Wednesday finds us at Sandia Crest. Unfortunately the business
part doesn't open till 9:30. AT 9:10 Rosy Finches come in like a flock
of hungry Siskins. We can barely get a peak at them on the
restaurant's back deck, but an hour later it's Rosy Finches at 20 feet,
viewed through the restaurant's windows. Must have been about 50, with
all species present. That was easy.

Six hours later we're searching for leks marked on a BLM map and
watched the sunset from lek 22, unfortunately, the birds skipped the
evening event. We could come back at 5:30 tomorrow morning, but we did
see three flying Prairie Chickens that afternoon. This was not the
spectacular courtship we wanted to view, but with no guaranties for
next morning, we head westward.

The next evening was an owl bust. We worked two Huachuca canyons two
hours in strong winds. I think we were too early, for owls and dancing
chickens.

There were some nice consolation species however, both expected and
stumbled upon.

Bendire's Thrasher
Rufus-winged Sparrow
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Elegant Trogon
Rufous-backed Robin
Northern Jacana

We burned up more than our share of fossil fuel, but sure had fun.

Larry and Leora Schwitters
Issaquah