Last week was an excellent time for birding in So. NV. While cool and quite windy a couple of days, we enjoyed both the Mojave Desert birds and the rare birds, especially at Corn Creek and Lake Mead.
We were glad to see a Roadrunner at Corn Creek again, even though we saw this one in a small tree, and also several Crissal Thrashers in and around the orchard. We found the Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Tuesday, munching pomegranates along with occasional views of the Brown Thrasher doing the same. A Hooded Merganser and a Pied-billed Grebe were diving in the bathtub the whole week. Verdins, Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows were numerous, along with several Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Marsh Wren, Song Sparrow, Phainopepla, Bushtits and Western Bluebirds. Ravens entertained us with quite a repertoire of loud calls, grunts, squawks, croaks. The Red-naped Sapsucker was often seen high in its tree next to the picnic area and put on quite a display while chasing another sapsucker which showed up one day attracted to the many sap holes.
After a 4:30 AM rising to beat the crosstown commuter traffic on Hwy. 95, we waited an hour at 33 Hole at Lake Mead before the very rare Yellow-footed Gull arrived on a sandbar with pelicans and cormorants and small gulls, about 7:30AM. Its large size, dark gray wings, white head and body, heavy yellow bill, and bright yellow legs (and feet) distinguished it from the other gulls. This may be its third winter at Lake Mead. We enjoyed the sunrise and the lake getting busy with fishing boats amid the constant calls of Clark’s and Western Grebes. In a bay to the south where we were directed by birders, Dave and Jane, we found the Red-throated Loon mostly diving) and the Black-legged Kittiwake. We could see the lake surface teeming with small schools of fish being followed by very large groups of the grebes and the amazing synchronized diving of the grebe flock after this bounty.
Back at Corn Creek our last morning, we were lucky to watch a No. Mockingbird chase a Crissal Thrasher at warp speeds around the trunk of one of the pomegranate “trees” for maybe 5 minutes one morning - surprisingly, though never caught by the mockingbird, the thrasher left the battlefield for another pomegranate tree (reminded us of the roadrunner and coyote cartoons) in the orchard. While sharing birding experiences with several early morning birders, we watched a small falcon nearly catch one of the Western Meadowlarks foraging in the grass near the orchard. Closer looks later revealed the foiled attacker as a Merlin.
We returned to Reno through winds, showers and amazing cloud scapes, stopping at Atomic Creek in Beatty. We found a Hermit Thrush and several riparian birds, but not the Louisiana Waterthrush. Next time...
