Last Day in Vegas

My last day in Vegas was all mine to go to the hottest local birding spot called Henderson Bird Viewing Area (pretty explicit huh). This is a waste water treatment plant which has big open water impoundments which attract lots of birds. I never imagined that I would see so many waterbirds in a desert but there they were. Ruddy Ducks

Ruddy Duck

 And Northern Shovelers

Northern Shoveler

And lots of grebes of all types including Eared Grebe

Eared Grebe

And Horned Grebes. There were 3 albinos in the group. This one is partially albino

Leucistic Horned Grebe

 And this one is almost all white when it is supposed to be black and white.

Leucistic Horned Grebe

And then there were the waders. American Avocets were kind of expected. I've seen them in water oasis in the desert before.

American Avocet

But I've never seen them swimming around in a flock and going butt to the air dunking for food.

Swimming Avocets

There was also one lone Black-necked Stilt in the park.

Black-necked Stilt

And one White-faced Ibis.

White-faced Ibis

Shorebirds found refuge here too including this Killdeer who wouldn't shut up the whole time I was there.

Killdeer

And this Greater Yellowlegs. Check out the cracked earth in the background.

Greater Yellowlegs

I was pleasantly surprised to find this Pectoral Sandpiper.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The bird that was most expected was Western Sandpiper. I saw a few but this one really caught my eye. He has something around his bill which he struggled to get off. He finally did.

Western Sandpiper

And then, there was the Life Bird. I stumbled on finding the Crissal Thrasher. They are so shy and stay hidden in the desert scrub. I heard something on the edge of the park and turned to see the Thrasher's iconic curved bill and red butt before it disappeared into the desert again.

More Costa's Hummingbirds were at this park so I took the opportunity to photograph this male. He mostly sat on a branch in the shade of the trees so you couldn't really see his bright purple gorget feathers.

Costa's Hummingbird

But occasionally, the light would catch him just right to reveal the iridescent feathers.

Iridescent Purple

This guy was molting. You can see where he is missing feathers under his chin and around his eye.

Molting Costa's

I love this shot. He stretched out just before giving his iconic call again.

Costa's Hummingbird

Alas, I has to leave to catch my flight home. An exhausting trip overall but ended on an up note.

More Desert Birding Equals 4 Life Birds

I scheduled my trip so that I had free time on Friday and Saturday to go birding. The reason was to explore Nevada's birding locations but also to see if I could score a few life birds. I was going to rent a car and head out to explore but my boss actually gave me his rental which saved me a bunch of time (and money). I started out super early on Friday and headed northwest to the mountains in search of Townsend's Solitaire. I didn't really pay attention to the map and didn't realize how high up I was going until the sign said "Elevation 8452 ft". Suffice it to say that I didn't realize how cold it would be either - um 35 degrees and me with no jacket. Despite freezing and not being able to catch my breath in the high altitude, I managed to find not one, but 6 Townsend's Solitaires. Life Bird! Again, heard them before I saw them. This is the typical pose - right on top of the tree.

Townsend's Solitaire

One of the birds did come down a little bit. Notice the big white eye ring which is the best field mark.

Townsend's Solitaire

I only saw a few other birds at the top of the mountains including this Mountain Chickadee.

Mountain Chickadee

And of course, this Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler. Boy, you can find these birds literally anywhere.

Audubon's Warbler

After heading down the mountain, I still has some time before my first meeting of the day so I headed over to another city park - Floyd Lamb - which was on the way back to the city. I'm glad I did. I met alot of birders there. They were all looking for a Canada Warbler which showed up a few days before. Canadas are eastern warblers. We have them here in PA and NJ in spring and they even nest in our area. When they show up out west, its big news. We didn't find the Canada warbler but I got 2 more life birds. The first was Gray Flycatcher. This bird is not much to look at which is probably why I don't have it on my list yet. This trip, I really studied and was able to find the bird.

Gray Flycatcher

The other lifer was Costa's Hummingbird. Once again, the voice gave it away. This photo is a female. Wait til you see the male (next post)

Costa's Hummingbird - female

And once again, an unexpected sighting - a Brown Pelican in the middle of the desert.

Brown Pelican

I met a woman from Texas named Missy who was birding there too. We ended up birding together for most of the day which was really great. After a few hours of working, I met up with Missy again at Desert Park where we found a few birds but really not much to write about other than this interesting Leopard Lizard. Check out those spots.

From there, we made our way to another mountain park in search of Crissal Thrasher. We busted there too but got these views. We saw a Coyote and an Osprey. This Jackrabbit was HUGE.

Jackrabbit

And so was this view of Red Rocks.

Red Rocks

Thus ended Friday with 3 Life Birds in the bag. With that, I headed back to the Vegas Strip and literally collapsed in the bed.

From the Mountains to the Desert

My month of travel continued by flying from Denver to Las Vegas for another work event. I arrived and headed out to a park near the airport for an hour before heading to our newest office. This was a weird experience for sure. Sunset Park is a city park with ball fields and swingsets and a concrete pond smack in the middle. The pond attracts a variety of birds since it is an oasis of water in the middle of the desert. Some birds were expected including this Verdin.

Verdin

And this Wilson's Warbler. I saw a bunch of these on the trip.

Wilson's Warbler

I also expect to see alot of hummingbirds when I'm out west. The problem is that I have a hard time making an ID when they are molting like this one. Don't worry. I sent the photo to Harvey. He'll identify it for sure.

Unidentified Hummingbird

What I don't expect to see in the desert are Ross' Geese. There were 2 at the park. Wandering around the picnic pavilions with the other domestic geese and ducks. Weird. Ross' geese are pretty adorable no matter where you see them.

Ross' Goose

Here was another weird sighting. I was walking along the path and started seeing dirt flying. And then this little critter popped out. Its a Pocket Gopher. Here he is pushing the dirt out of his hole.

Pocket Gopher

Then, I headed to work and dinner with my coworkers and out to Freemont Street which is the absolute weirdest thing I've ever seen. The photos and videos that I took are not fit for this blog. Let's just say that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" and leave it at that.