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.