Date: 8/29/25 1:29 pm From: <trochetj...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] CWNM: Zuni region birds the last two days
Dear Birders,
I usually spend just a few hours at Ramah Lake (accessed from the parking lot for the Ramah Mormon Pioneer Trail at the end of Lake Road in the town of Ramah) and call it good. But today has been exceptional. Since before sunrise there’s been a succession of interesting encounters. Foremost among the is finding western grebes breeding. My highest count on a scan was 19. One pair had two small chicks and three other adults were accompanied by large ones. This is just the second such regional occurrence known to me. Dave Cleary found them nesting at Nutria Lake #2 at Zuni Pueblo roughly about 1990 for the first.
Other highlights include a common gallinule in an offshore smartweed patch near the north shore, a Neotropic cormorant with four double-crested cormorants on an emergent rock near the northwest side of the lake about 500 meters from the dam, a female wood duck next to the southeast shore about halfway between the dam and the north end, three ring-necked ducks and a nice mix of dabblers (oversummered? already returning?), two red-necked phalaropes, and many mostly modest mixed flocks of migrant passerines, all common western migrants so far as I could tell.
Yesterday was more a hiking day than a birding one. One of my destinations in the Zunis was a place called Red Wall Canyon. It has, or had anyway, an internet page that showcases its beauty. The highlight was finding there an adult and two juvenile Lincoln sparrows. This mountain range is really marginal for breeding by this species. Another wood duck was at the south arm of Bluewater Lake.
