Day 1 of Las Vegas trip, September 3rd, 2013 part 1

Last month, I travelled to Las Vegas and birded around the area. My family had other purposes there, but I still got tons of birding done in the three days we stayed. You would think, "Oh, Las Vegas. For birds?! No, question, they'll be nothing there, but a desert full of nothingness." But, no, the Las Vegas area is not all desert, with some patches of lovely rich vegetation like the Wetlands Park ( which I will talk about in this post ), Floyd Lamb Park, and Corn Creek. There are even mountains which can be explored within a half an hour of the city. Even the deserts can be hosts to a glorious amount of species. All of these locations and habitats I explored and birded, and will be summarized in the next few posts.

Day 1, September 3rd :

There was a birding spot only ten short minutes from our hotel, so the commute was easy. The hot-spot was called Wetlands Park, and had just been restored. Me, being one of the first birders ever in the park since it's been reno'd, I had my first taste of Nevada birds.

We first checked out a part of the park called the Duck Creek trail. ( No creek in sight. ) Whatever. I started searching the marsh a few feet away from the road where we parked. I was greeted by a lifer; in the form of a Snowy Egret. Situated elegantly on a shopping cart ( yes, in the middle of the marsh ), the egret proceeded to eye me suspiciously while a few Black-necked Stilts played around below him. As nonchalantly as possible, the heron dipped his head down, and began to walk slowly along the mud :

 

Snowy Egret

The light was HORRID, but I then directed my attention to two of the lovely Black-necked Stilts on the shore and in the air, not a lifer, but a year-bird.

Black-necked Stilt flying

Then, I saw a huge brown shape moving among the reeds.......... White-faced Ibis! Lifer #2 for the afternoon. ( In the morning, I saw an Inca Dove and Lesser Goldfinches from the hotel room's window! ) Overall, White-faced Ibis was lifer #4 for the trip. After that excitement, I spotted a flycatcher that I couldn't identify at first, but after some scrutinization, the bird turned out to be an Ash-throated Flycatcher, lifer #5. In the marsh, I searched for more shorebirds, and I picked out 20 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Long-billed Dowitchers, 3 Spotted Sandpipers, and 5 Killdeer. A flock of Least Sandpipers was swirling around too. No lifers, but I was happy anyway. The adrenaline rush continued though, as I saw a black thing jump out from the top of a bull-rush and snap a bug out of the air. Waiting with baited breath for it to come up again, I knew I had seen a phoebe; hopefully a Black. Then, it came up again. Black Phoebe! Finally, I pulled myself away from the marsh, because I knew that even better birds were to come at the Wetlands Park itself.

At the entrance to the park, I began to hear tons of birds, all which I had never heard before. Hummingbirds of unknown kinds were zipping everywhere, and the Nevada heat was giving my mother and I no mercy. As I reached the edge of the vast amount of shrubs, I heard my first Gambel's Quail peeping in the brush, and there was a Verdin flitting about in one of the taller shrubs. At this time, I had my eye on some movement below a bunch of bushes; on the ground. The sound of this bird was a high piping note, reminiscent of a ground-squirrel. I crept up slowly, and finally after several minutes, the bird gave itself away. The ground-lover was an Abert's Towhee, a declining species in the southwestern desert. The LVBTLL ( Las Vegas Birding Trip Lifer List ) was now at 9. A great start, and we hadn't even reached the trail yet. On the trail, more cute little Verdins were fluttering and chattering in the bushes. Here's a shot of one of them :

Verdin

 

As we continued up the trail, a colony of Gambel's Quails was proceeding to scramble across the road in panic, obviously petrified of my presence. A call which had been confusing me was plaguing me again, but I was determined now to find it, or them. Turns out, the birds which were calling were Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, which would prove to be one of the most abundant birds of the trip.

They are notoriously hard to photograph, as they love to flit out of sight, just as you put up your camera to shoot.

 

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 

We continued around a bend, marvelling at the diverse vegetation, much dryer and different from what we have here in Kelowna, B.C., Canada. Up in the air, a Double-crested Cormorant flew past, only providing brief looks. On the right side of the trail, we noticed a beautiful pond, with human-height reeds, and a ripple in the water.......... meaning there's a bird in there!

For right now, I am oblivious to the gorgeous Black Phoebe flycatching over the pond, and the juicy migrants I can hear in the trees near-by. All I am focusing on is the ripple in the water by the reeds. I first see a bit of black emerging from around the corner, then a bit of yellow, a bit of red, THENNNN..............................

tune in next time for part two!