I did a backpacking trip through Guadalupe Mountains National Park Oct.
15-18, from Pine Springs to Dog Canyon and back. I got about 60 bird
species in the park; some photos are here:
https://medium.com/@RealDJRinger/25-photos-that-show-guadalupe-mountains-national-park-and-its-birds-in-autumn-glory-3bd161329dfa
Highlights included regional specialties like Juniper Titmouse (at both Dog
Canyon and Frijole Spring), Steller's Jay, Pygmy Nuthatch, Common Poorwill
(hunting insects at dusk in the Dog Canyon campground), Phainopepla,
Black-chinned Sparrow, and four junco subspecies. The "rarest" bird I saw
in the park may have been a solitary American Coot in the tiny pond at
Manzanita Spring.
Most neotrops were gone, but I did have a Hammond's Flycatcher in The Bowl,
one Orange-crowned Warbler, and several Townsend's and Audubon's warblers.
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25562698>
Much to my surprise, eBird contained only one other October record of Pygmy
Nuthatch for the entire state of Texas (a historical Davis Mountains record
from 1969).
Elsewhere in the region, the salt basin west of the Guadalupes was flooded
from heavy early October rains and held a few dabbling ducks and two
avocets. Several hundred Sandhill Cranes fed near Dell City. And at Rio
Bosque Wetlands Park in El Paso, 10-15 percent of the White-crowned
Sparrows seemed to be western oriantha birds, and I found a Slate-colored
Junco: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25536194
David
David J. Ringer
New York, NY
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