Southwestern Birding Tales

Has it really been that long since I posted here? It has been a long, hard summer for my family in many ways, hence the lack of posting.

Birding has been fairly quiet too as we tend to hibernate during the summer here in Las Vegas. 110 degress is just a little too hot for me to be wandering around unfortunately.

We did take a little trip to Zion National Park in Utah. This wasn’t set up to be a birding trip specifically and yet Josh ended up adding three new birds to his life list;  Black-capped Chickadee, Canyon Wren and American Dipper. The American Dipper had eluded his dad and him (they actually began to call the bird the American Ripper lol) when they went camping in Great Basin National Park last summer, so it was a treat to finally see it. We had to laugh though. This bird is known for it’s diving and swimming under water in river rapids. The morning we saw this guy in the Virgin River in Zion he was content to just hop from stone to stone. Talking with a park ranger we all surmised that because of a very turbid/silty river (there had been a thunderstorm the night before and the river was very muddy) the bird was probably staying on the surface as a result. 

This past Friday we did get a chance to go to Henderson Bird Preserve. We went very early, 6:30 am, to try and beat some of the heat. A sighting there of the Thick-billed Kingbird, only the second in the state of Nevada ever, lured us out but alas we were not fortunate to see it. That’s the luck  (or not lol) of birding. We did meet up with some of our brider friends so that was a nice trade off.

Our local Audubon group’s field trips will be starting back up for the year in September and we are especially excited. Josh, along with his dad, will be leading one of them. I’m not sure which one of them is more nervous lol. 

Before that though, Josh is starting his school year off in the grandest fashion, that is for a 12 year old birder! He and his dad will be a part of a group from our Audubon club that is heading out to parts of southeastern Aizona including Madera, Ramsey and Fort Huachuca. They will be gone for four days and three nights and Josh is especially excited about flying there, an added bonus for him lol. We haven’t been to this area yet so there are many birds that he may encounter for the first time, hence his life bird list may get an extra boost from this trip.

As the weather cools we will be out and about more often. Hopefully I will be able to post more too. Until then we will wait in anticipation for the upcoming trip and enjoy our favorite black-chinned hummingbirds who come daily to out feeders. 

Last Saturday Josh had the opportunity to go “owling” with a few other birders in our Audubon group. He was excited because they were looking for the Flamulated Owl which is one species of owl he had not seen yet. I say had because yes he was lucky enough that night to have one fly over his head and he was able to get good looks at it. He also FINALLY saw his nemesis, the red-cross bill, which has been alluding him for awhile. Two life birds in one night. WOW! He is now up to 274 life birds. Life birds for him right now are few and far between because he has seen much of what we have in our area. Hence, the reason why he has lists of places his dad and I NEED to take him to go birding; places like southeast Arizona, LOTS of places in California, Texas, and of course back home to visit Cincinnati, Ohio to get all thiose east coast birds he doesn’t have since he wasn’t a birder when we lived there, all of which are just a little aways from home here in Las Vegas lol.

Now the title of the post is “A Gift”. Yes, you could consider these sightings a wonderful gift but that’s not what I was referring to. If you look close at the picture above you will see Josh is standing next to a spotting scope, something most birders yearn for, and Josh is not any different. He has been saving to get his own but these things are expensive so he has a way to go. How then is he standing next to one? Well, our favorite birder, Je Anne, has given him her old one to use until he is able to buy his own! He will then donate it to Henderson Bird Preserve where she works and we often go to bird.

When she gave it to him on Saturday my husband said Josh was ecstatic. He hugged her and kept telling her thank you. He couldn’t quite believe he was going to be able to carry this around and use it whenever he birds! The very next day his dad and I just HAD to take him out birding so he could use it.

Je Anne is not only an amazing birder, this woman knows more about birding in her little finger than I could ever acquire in a life time, she is a generous and wonderful lady also. She shares not only her knowledge but her time and yes now even her equipment. She has been a wonderful mentor to Josh and we both feel so very blessed to have her in our lives.

Joshua and I try to walk our neighborhood park and wash almost everyday usually. This will not be happening as often now that our temperatures are hitting highs of 100+ already. This morning I woke up at 5:15 am to a low temp of 78! Ughhh. But hey, we do live in the desert after all. We walked this morning fairly early, around 8am, and by the time we got back about an hour later the temp was 88 degrees. I have to laugh when the weather channel calls our temps Hot and Very Hot. 

We saw our usual great-tailed grackles, verdin, northern mocking birds, mourning and rock doves (pigeons) as well as the says phoebe, black-chinned hummingbird, and gambels quail. We did watch a raven fly over the other section of the wash. All in all it was fairly quiet.

Since I am constantly talking about “the wash” I thought I’d show you a picture of it. We usually walk along the ridge of the one side that is adjacent to the golf course. These type of washes are scattered throught Las Vegas. Here is a picture to give you an idea of what a wash looks like.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006
This afternoon Josh and I headed up the park to bird to celebrate Audubon’s birthday. I was not up for doing the whole wash so sat at a picnic table where I could see him as he hiked it. Meeting back there I knew I had missed something special as when I ask him if he had seen anything interesting and he smirked. “Just two chipping sparrows, he smiled. Agggghh! That’s what I get for being lazy. I have seen these birds before but this is the first time for them to be seen at our park! Ah well. You can check them out here to see for yourself.

April 25, 2006
Just a sampling of our bird walk this morning:

Gambel’s Quail

Anna’s Hummingbird

Apr. 24, 2006

This morning Josh and I headed up to our neighborhood park to bird as usual. No sooner had we entered the park than we caught sight of this beautiful bird, a hooded oriole. There were two of them and they are the first we have seen this season I had unfortunately neglected to bring the camera but was reminded by Josh that the important thing was to admire them NOW! lol We sat on the grass and watched for a few minutes before each of them flew off. Josh is now begging for a fruit feeder and a platform feeder on which to put grape jelly. You see these are just the things that will entice these birds that flew right INTO our neighborhood from the park. During the rest of the walk we saw these species of birds:

dusky flycatcher

gambels quail

verdin

two ravens

killdeer

anna’s and black-chinned hummingbirds

white-crowned sparrows as well as the usual house sparrows

prairie falcon

northern rough-winged swallow

as well as the usual house finch, rock pigeon, mourning dove.

Josh drew a picture of the hooded oriole in his nature journal which you can find on our nature journal page.

I have decided to have a separate blog for our birding adventures instead of just a page on the homeschooling blog. Easier to see the last posts, pics etc…. that is if I can be as diligent in posting as I hope to be.
When I get the time I will try to figure out how to import what’s on the page now.

I also want to thank Andrea for all the help she has given me lately. What a gracious and wise lady This service that she and Ron offer is truly a special one for this homeschooling family!