Greetings Ken:
I was looking over your
"Bird Band Cryptogram" and thought I'd e-mail you. I hope you can give us some advice.
We would like to take a long weekend and come and see these guys. We would like to come in November if that would be a time when we could see all races. If November is not good, when else might be a good time to make the trip? I am still working so I have to come around my work schedule.
Also could you tell me about the weather, would we be running into snow.
Thanks for any help--
M K
Hi, M--
All three species are usually present by mid-November, though their numbers tend to increase during the following few weeks. Attendees at the Festival of the Cranes often plan to visit Sandia Crest for the rosy-finches afterwards rather than before the Festival, and generally succeed in seeing all three species.
Snow usually brings them in greater numbers, as the birds can forage widely when the ground is bare. Still, they get accustomed to visiting the feeders, often in flocks, about every one or two hours when there is no snow cover. It can snow up at the Crest most any time from October into April, though the early snows tend to be light and melt quickly under the sun. Snow storms become more common by the middle of December through February, which coincides with the greatest abundance of rosy-finches at the feeders. The ski runs usually do not open until early to mid December. Even if it snows, the roads are usually cleared by the following day.
So, late November would not be a bad time and the risk of snow closing down the Crest House is rather minimal. Try to allow at least two if not three days so that you can acclimatize and also decrease the chance of a weather interruption. There is good birding and much better weather down in Albuquerque area-- check out the schedule of Thursday and weekend field trips in the Sandia Crest FORUM.
Good luck, and do let me know the results of your visit (or post here on the Forum).
Ken
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