Friday afternoon I attended a Birding 101 workshop at the Bosque del Apache. Knowledgeable instructor and a beautiful day to spend a couple of hours outside.
Knowing that I am trying to learn basic birding skills, some friends, who are experienced birders, invited me to spend Saturday doing some birding and having a picnic. So yesterday morning we drove an hour and a half to the Springtime Campground in the Apache Kid Wilderness part of the Cibola National Forest. On June 15, 2020 lightning caused the Vics Peak fire in the Apache Kid Wilderness. It wasn’t contained until August 4, 2020 and burned 14,624 acres. The fire damage led to flash flooding during the monsoon season which in turn resulted in even more damage, washing out sections of road. The subsequent repairs to the road resulted in some areas where I was extremely glad to be driving a high clearance, four-wheel drive truck. (I was also happy I had taken Fix and not Mouse, as Mouse still gets carsick even on the interstate.)
It was a beautiful day just to sit at the campsite with binoculars and try to locate birds in the pine trees. We also took the dogs for a short hike and did some birding on the trail.
None of us were able to identify this, other than it appears to have been some type of trailer.
New post and sign – evidently the original burned in the fire.
View from the trail heading back to the campground for lunch. While I didn’t see every species my friends saw, I still managed to see several new birds.
Quibeyn Farm 