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03/02/08
Rosy-Finches of New Mexico: March 2 Update
Filed under: General, Birding & Outdoors, NM & SW US, Sandia Crest
Posted by: Ken @ 8:59 pm

Waving Flag-- Rosies have returnedUpdate on the Rosy-Finches of Sandia Crest, New Mexico.  The flag is waving–
flocks of Rosy-Finches are still visiting the feeders at Sandia Crest House.

Today was cold, windy and snowy atop Sandia Crest, but the banding team captured 194 rosy-finches, of which 176 were repeats and 18 were newly banded. So far this winter, they have newly banded 445 Rosies and recaptured 573. The sixth Brown-capped Rosy-Finch from the winter of 2004-05 has been recaptured, and 5 of today’s Black Rosy-Finches were from the winter before last (2005-06).

Two of the birds recaptured today (one Black and one Brown-capped) were banded in the winter of 2005/2006, seen again during the winter of 2006/2007 and again today! To date this winter, there have been 47 recaptures from previous winters. See the updated table and link to spreadsheets showing all banding results.

When the team left, it was snowing and the road was snow-packed from the Crest down to the ski area. If you plan to visit, be sure to check road conditions via the link below.

Please be advised that the team will not be banding at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park next Saturday (March 8).  They will be banding instead at Bernardo State Game Refuge (or Ladd S Gordon Game Refuge).  This will be in conjunction with a training workshop that the NM Game & Fish Department is putting on for high school teachers.  However, they will be banding Rosy-Finches as usual on Sunday. Their full schedule is at the link below.

As we progress into March, we may note that the bills of the rosy-finches are beginning to darken. Flocks may become smaller and more restless, though snowstorms will find them crowding at the feeders as happened today.

Since I inaugurated the rosyfinch.com Web suite in 2000, quite a few things have changed, Web-wise. For the first couple of years I did all the HTML coding by hand, updating by overwriting the previous page, as a “weblog.” The ASCII updates had to be uploaded, often several times weekly, via a slow dial-up connection. The word “Blog” and the various blogging software packages came into use while I was going through all this labor, trying to keep the Web site current. With File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and a broadband connection, updating to the server was greatly facilitated.

A little over a year ago, my ISP provided user-friendly Blog software, and I began posting regularly (now over 100 entries), all the time maintaining a parallel, low-tech approach to rosy-finch.com. I finally realize that I can more easily provide time-sensitive information by utilizing a link to this Blog, without the need for repeated editing of the rosyfinch main page. This also preserves past entries, something that was not possible at rosyfinch.com. All the other links in the rosyfinch.com Web suite, such as those to the sightings log, banding records, photos and correspondence, and all the information about all-season birding in the Sandia and Manzano/Manzanita Mountains near Albuquerque will continue to be updated. Please report any bad links or glitches to me. Thanks!


Thursday Birder and Central New Mexico Audubon Society Spring Field Trips

Crest House Sighting Logs for this and prior winters

Rosy-finch and Rio Grande Nature Center banding schedule

Updated table and link to spreadsheet of all banding results

  Banding and sighting reports: CORRESPONDENCE page

ID Tips: the four rosy-finch races at Sandia Crest

Check Weather, Webcams and Road Conditions

Return to ROSYFINCH.COM

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