US-NM-Melrose+Woods


 * =Birding in New Mexico=

Roosevelt County
=Melrose Woods= Melrose, NM 88124 Melrose Woods information page Blog article about the Melrose Trap

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Melrose Woods
Coordinates: 34.4343548, -103.7991207 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Melrose Woods
The North Roosevelt Trap, also known as the Melrose Trap, and locally as Cottonwood Spring, is located 10 miles west of Melrose in Roosevelt County on the eastern high plains of New Mexico. The trap is accessed from US-60/84 between Ft. Sumner and Clovis, NM about .25 mile north of milepost 354. There is an unsigned entry gate on the highway (please keep the gate closed). The location is about a 3.5-hour drive from Albuquerque to the west, 2 hours from Roswell to the south, 0.5 hour from Clovis to the east and a little over two hours from Lubbock or Amarillo, TX to the east. Albuquerque, Amarillo, and Lubbock are the nearest major airports.

The trap consists of about 2 acres of Cottonwood and Poplar trees, up to 60 ft. tall, isolated in a very large expanse of high prairie. There is a heavy undergrowth of Poplar saplings and a cattle tank with a concrete overflow basin fed by a nearby underground spring. In about 10 years of birding there I have never seen the tank dry. The isolation of the grove (locally known as Cottonwood Spring or Cottonwood Grove) makes it a classic migrant/vagrant trap. The grove sits on New Mexico State Land Trust land and the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has negotiated entry for birders (anyone carrying binoculars) and pays the annual fee for access. From Melrose Woods information page

The Melrose Trap, a.k.a. the Melrose Migrant Trap, North Roosevelt County Migrant Trap, or Melrose Woods (titled as such for its proximity to the town of Melrose, NM), is indubitably categorized among these other legendary migrant traps, but for different reasons. The Melrose Trap constitutes a confluence of favorable factors which make it one of North America’s best migrant traps. Located more or less in the middle interior of the continent, it regularly produces western, central, and eastern migrants. Of particular interest to local New Mexico birders is its tendency to produce rare eastern vagrants more than any other spot in New Mexico. The Melrose Trap is located in the eastern portion of New Mexico, just about on the western edge of the migration routes of many eastern US species. This unique geographic location, occasionally aided by a strong easterly wind, can and has produced many of the eastern species that do not normally occur in New Mexico. From Blog article about the Melrose Traip



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media type="custom" key="29432757" || L268207 US US-NM US-NM-041 34.4343548 -103.7991207 Melrose Woods