Beginning birding kits are available at most Albuquerque Bernalillo County public libraries, including the Cherry Hills branch at 6901 Barstow St. NE. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, there were four kits available for checkout at that location.
The kits contain a pair of Carson 8 by 21 mm binoculars, a case, a cleaning cloth, a laminated how-to guide and an additional resources card. The how-to guide and additional resources cards are in Spanish and English. The additional resources card provides QR codes to find open space locations and to help identify various bird species.
An online Bird Watching Guide for Albuquerque available at abqlibrary.org lists eights bird watching locations throughout Albuquerque. The Elena Gallegos Open Space in the far Northeast Heights is number four on the list. The guide says the 640-acre open space is home to black-chinned hummingbirds, Gambel’s quail, Woodhouse’s scrub-jays, northern mockingbirds, canyon towhees, white-crowned sparrows, and Scott’s orioles.
Bird kits can be checked out for seven days with an adult library card in good standing. Only one kit can be checked out at a time, and they must be returned to the checkout desk from the same library location they were checked out from. Kits cannot be placed on hold and are not renewable. For more information, visit abqlibrary.org/birdingkits.
