Dawn Graber, co-owner with Anne Schmauss of Wild Birds Unlimited, offered these tips for people desiring closer contact with our feathered friends.

To attract birds to your home, provide them with four necessities: water, seed, housing and habitat (a place to raise their young).

Open water is a key element in the winter when other sources may freeze. Graber said many people are afraid the water will cause the birds to freeze; in fact, birds need water to clean their down feathers so they can retain heat. The high-tech solution to keeping water from freezing in the winter is a heated birdbath.

Kim Straus, a former staff member at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, simply uses a planter base that he cleans and refills. Straus said, "Since I started putting out water, I have seen birds I've never seen before."

Winter seed should be high in fat to supply energy for the birds. Black oil sunflower seeds and suet work well for this. For a wider variety of birds, place feeders at different levels: one for ground feeders like doves and sparrows, another low in a tree for species like chickadees and another higher up for birds like woodpeckers. Graber also recommends that people move feeders closer to the house during the winter or even install a pulley system to bring them close for easier refilling. Store seed in a metal can and keep no more than a two-month supply so the seed is fresh.

Instead of storing birdhouses during the winter, give them a thorough cleaning and put them back up for winter birds. One of the best long-term solutions to attracting birds is to plan your landscaping with them in mind.

"You can put out tons of different feeders, but unless you really do those bird-friendly plantings, you won't get the variety of birds," Graber said.

Evergreens are especially important for offering shelter to wintering birds.

Why go to the expense and effort of providing food and shelter for the birds?

"It's important to me to have my yard be a really calm, peaceful place. And part of making it a calming area is inviting those birds into the yard," Graber said. "A customer told me that earlier this summer about a hundred mountain bluebirds came to his backyard due to the water that he provided and the mealworms he had out. He said it was just an amazing feeling to see the sky turn blue because of all these birds. So to be able to pull something like that into your yard, it's just kind of magical. I feel like I'm a part of something larger when I can provide a place for my birds to come as well."







Feathered treasure

Even in chill of winter, there are plenty of birds to see



By Arin McKenna



Winter is here, which means most people are either ready to hit the ski slopes or to batten down the hatches and retreat to the shelter of their homes.

A middle ground exists between the exertions of skiing and hibernating like a bear until the days grow long again. The combination of mild New Mexico winters and numerous wilderness areas and wildlife refuges make this an ideal winter habitat for numerous species of birds and a nature lover's paradise. Why not join birders who come from all over the country to experience this often-overlooked asset of our state?

The most spectacular winter refuge in the state is the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge hosts as many as 14,000 sandhill cranes and 32,000 snow geese and rose geese during the winter months, as well as bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, several species of ducks and many other birds. A 15-mile driving loop accesses many viewing stations and trailheads. The refuge is only a two-and-a-half-hour drive south of Santa Fe, but plan an overnight stay in nearby Socorro in order to witness the "fly in" and "fly out."

Watching wave after wave of these magnificent birds coming to rest at dusk or erupting into the air in the soft morning light as thousands of their voices fill the air is an unforgettable experience.

The bosque hosts the Festival of the Cranes from Nov. 13-18. This yearly event draws hundreds of visitors to view the wildlife and to participate in the numerous classes, lectures and tours covering various bird-related topics as well as other aspects of New Mexico's natural history. Many of the tours access areas that are rarely open to the public. On Saturday and Sunday wildlife organizations like Hawks Aloft and the Audubon Society exhibit at the visitor center.

The Albuquerque stretch of the Rio Grande attracts most of the same birds found at Bosque del Apache, though not in such vast numbers. The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, one of the few urban wilderness areas in the country, is an excellent spot for winter birding. The park's 270 acres encompass several habitats, including woods, meadows and farmland, that attract a variety of birds. Restored wetlands and fields of grain draw overwintering birds. Viewing walls allow unobtrusive bird-watching, and easy trails give access to the bosque and the river. For those who want to stay warm while they enjoy the wildlife, the visitor center has a viewing room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a pond. The Open Space Visitor Center, located across the river from the nature center, also has an enclosed viewing area.

Experienced guides lead birding walks at the nature center on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and nature walks are also offered on Sundays (times vary with the seasons). There is a monthly Moon Walk that writer-in-residence Lou Liberty calls "a luscious, lavish auditory experience."

For nature center volunteer Sondra Williamson, winter birding in New Mexico is special because of the "rare" sightings that happen with surprising regularity here. Williamson said rarities occur all over New Mexico during migration and "there's always a chance of seeing something that no one has ever seen here before. It happens fairly often."

A phenomenon called "eruptive migration" occurs when low food supplies at the birds' normal habitats cause large flocks of species like evening grosbeaks and cedar waxwings to descend on our refuges.

In celebration of the nature center's 25-year anniversary, Liberty and artist-in-residence Margy O'Brien, both volunteers, have collaborated on a book titled Bearing Witness: 25 Years of Refuge. Liberty spent time at the refuge every day last winter in every type of weather and treasures all of it. "There's nothing like snow to bring a silence, a tranquility over the land," Liberty said.

Both women enjoy being out in a season when most people are inside and there's a better chance of unexpected encounters with wildlife, such as the day Liberty saw a cooper's hawk trying to nip the tail of a raven twice its size. The raven dropped down below the hawk, then came behind and nipped its tail instead.

You won't see cranes at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, The Nature Conservancy or the other wilderness areas surrounding Santa Fe, but many of our trails remain free of snow most of the winter and provide many birding opportunities.

Kim Straus, a former staff member at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, said, "Birds don't go away in the winter. High-altitude birds move lower down and many from northern latitudes winter down here. We also have birds that are here year-round."

Northern flickers, house finches, American robins and dark-eyed juncos are among several species commonly seen in the winter, and there's always a chance of spotting that uncommon one.

Liberty's sentiments about enjoying wildlife refuges in the winter were summed up with this advice: "Dress warmly and then go, go, go!"