A trip update from Bob, who is currently in New Mexico co-leading a natural history tour!
Day 4-5
Over the these few days, we visited some really neat historical sites here in New Mexico. Yesterday, we did some birding at the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Here we saw a village built inside five caves. These were built 700 years ago!
Then, we traveled north to Santa Fe and to The Salinas National Monument, another amazing site, with remains of a church built in the 1300’s.
In both places, we found lots of birds, butterflies, and lizards, and even some cool snakes too – one rattler! Great stuff!
Days 6-7
On day 6 we spent most our time at the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge (no not THAT Las Vegas). Las Vegas actually means “The Meadows.” This is sort of like Plum Island, we’re we can drive through some areas and hike in others. Lots and lots of birds there, more lizards, and a four-foot bull snake! I love it out here!
On day 7, we visited Bandelier National Monument, where a settlement was established in the cliffs about 3,000 years ago by the Ancestral Pueblo People. Along with some really great birding, we visited the array of 31 buildings and we saw our first petroglyphs of the trip.
Final Day
Well, we finished up with another terrific day! After visiting the Coronado State Monument, we travelled to Petroglyphs National Monument to see some of the 24,000 drawings etched into the rocks 400-700 years ago. This image of a macaw suggests they were trading with other groups to the south. We completed the day at the Rio Grand Nature Center, where our 4th roadrunner of the day put on a great show. In our final day we went over the 150 bird species mark! We had a wonderful final dinner at Old Town in Albuquerque. After a fantastic trip we are all headed home tomorrow.
