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U.S.A. -- NEVADA
15 - 22 March 1997
by Susan Ledlow
We went camping in southeastern Nevada the week of March 15-22.
The camping and hiking were actually better than the birding, but we
did see a few things. I had never been to many of the places
before and was amazed by the scale of the landscape- lots of high
mountain ranges with huge basins of grassland in between.
Valley
of Fire State Park
Valley of Fire is beautiful - big, red sandstone formations that are
easy and lots of fun to climb. It is on the northeast edge of
Lake Mead, about an hour from Las Vegas. The campgrounds are
pretty nice. The sites are built right into the rocks. The
vegetation is all desert scrub (no trees or even large cactus) and the
elevation is about 2400 feet. We saw:
Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura
Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis
Costa's Hummingbird, Calypte costae
Say's Phoebe, Sayornis saya
Violet-green Swallow, Tachycineta thalassina
Common Raven, Corvus corax
Verdin, Auriparus flaviceps
Rock Wren, Salpinctes obsoletus
Canyon Wren, Catherpes mexicanus
Gray Vireo, Vireo vicinior
Lucy's Warbler, Vermivora luciae
House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus
White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys
House Sparrow, Passer domesticus
Overton
Wildlife Management Area
The management area is a wetlands on the northeast edge of Lake Mead,
near thetown of Overton. It D5s about an hour and a half from Las
Vegas. It's a little difficult to find and you need a four-wheel
drive to get down some of the roads. We saw:
Western Grebe, Aechmophorus occidentalis
Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis
Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus
Great Egret, Ardea alba
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos
Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
Canvasback, Aythya valisineria
Redhead, Aythya americana
Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis
Cooper D5s or Sharp-shinned Hawk (?) Accipiter sp.
American Coot, Fulica americana
Greater Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus
Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Polioptila melanura
American Robin, Turdus migratorius
Pahranagat
National Wildlife Refuge
Pahranagat consists of two small lakes and some wetlands within a high
desert grassland. It is about an hour and a half northeast of Las
Vegas. Camping is allowed along the upper lake. We saw:
Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis
Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos
Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris
Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis
Bufflehead, Bucephala albeola
Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis
American Coot, Fulica americana
American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
American Robin, Turdus migratorius
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Dendroica coronata
Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia
Echo
Canyon State Park
Echo Canyon has a nice campground next to small reservoir (about four
hours northeast of Las Vegas). There were only two other campers
there. The vegetation was mostly grassland/shrub with some
juniper and the elevation is about 5000 feet. (BTW, we had a
great view of Hale-Bopp through incredibly clear skies.)
We were very entertained by the birdlife in the campground. Two
Mountain Bluebirds spent a lot of time fluttering around and calling to
their reflections in the car windows. They seemed completely
oblivious to our presence and perched in a tree about four feet
overhead while we sat outside. (Is this normal behavior?) A
Northern Flicker was also conspicuously in residence. He called
incessantly and drummed on the metal roofs of the ramadas over the
picnic tables. We saw:
Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca
Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos
Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata
American Wigeon, Anas americana
Redhead, Aythya americana
Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris
Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis
American Coot, Fulica americana
Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus
American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana
Long or Short-billed Dowitcher (?), Limnodromus sp.
Ring-billed Gull, Larus delawarensis
California Gull, Larus californicus
Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus
Say's Phoebe, Sayornis saya
Common Raven, Corvus corax
Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides
Great
Basin National Park
This park is truly in the middle of nowhere! We only passed four
cars in the two or three hours we drove from Echo Canyon. The
park is located in eastern Nevada, right on the border with Utah,
about halfway up the state.
Vegetation is mixed pine/aspen. Elevation at the Lower Lehman
campground is 7200 feet. There was still snow on the ground, but
daytime temperatures were in the 70's. We did the tour of Lehman Caves
and some hiking, but were limited by the snow on the trails. It's
still pretty early in the season there. Only one of the three
campgrounds was open (very nice though), and there was no potable water
available. We saw:
Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus
Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri
Western Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma californica
Clark's Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana
Common Raven, Corvus corax
Mountain Chickadee, Parus gambeli
Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides
Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendi
American Robin, Turdus migratorius
Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis
Susan Ledlow
Tempe, AZ
susan.ledlow@asu.edu