The Western Palm Warbler in New Mexico
The Western Palm Warbler in New Mexico
White Sands National Monument is located 18 miles southwest of Alamogordo, in Otero County, New Mexico, at, an elevation of 4000 feet. Adjoining the Sands on the east is a marsh of about 200 acres, which in this desert area attracts many birds. Here, on December 6, 1935, I saw a lone bird which I had not previously observed in this area. It was first seen on the ground, then among the tules, and later on top of a building. On the ground its appearance and actions were somewhat like those of a pipit.
The bird was collected and prepared as a study skin. It proved to be an adult female, and was later identified at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, by Dr. Joseph Grinnell, as a Western Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum palmarum). This species is found west of the Mississippi valley only as a straggler, and there appears to be no previous record of it in the State of New Mexico, The specimen is now deposited in the study-skin collection at White Sands National Monument.
A. E. Borell
National Park Service, Departmemt of the Interior, March 28, 1936
