Many decades ago, a homestead was established a few miles east of Melrose, New Mexico (about a 3 hour drive southeast of Albuquerque). The owners planted trees, like cottonwoods, not indigenous to the desert grasslands of this part of the country, and over the years, they grew and created this incredible bird migrant trap:
I flew to Albuquerque yesterday to visit the trap in the hopes of seeing a rare Fan-tailed Warbler, that had been seen the previous two days. No one had seen the bird early in the morning of my flight, so I knew that the bird probably moved on. But I was heading to New Mexico and the Sandia Mountains, to track down a Flammulated Owl. But that happened later in the day (actually located over 15 in the campground areas heading up to Sandia Crest; #598 on my ABA Area Lifelist). Back to the migrant trap. When I got there, a couple guys had been birding the area pretty hard the previous several hours and there had been no sightings throughout the day. A disappointment, but I proceeded to bird the area and was really blown away by all the rarities that were there: a female Hooded Warbler, a first year male American Redstart, Blue Grosbeak, really cool. This is a very cool birding spot. The birds get lost in the middle of the desert, and then they spot this oasis and spend time there recharging for the next leg of their migratory journey.
Oh, and one more observation yesterday: in the interior of these woods, a golden-colored rattlesnake:
