Date: 6/3/25 11:40 pm From: Joel Geier <clearwater...> Subject: Sheldon / Black Rock region breeding bird survey routes
Hi folks,
It's Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) route time again. This project, currently managed nationwide by the U.S. Geological Survey, and coordinated in Nevada by Jessica Brooks with Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), is in its 60th year now. It's still the single most important source of data on land bird population trends over multiple decades, and plays a key role in decisions regarding species' status (including ESA listing and other conservation measures).
It's less well known than the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), perhaps because it's more of a solitary venture. Each route consists of 50 stops, spaced roughly half a mile apart along a 25-mile route. The idea is to count birds for 3 minutes at each stop. These routes typically start somewhere on the dark side of 5:00 AM. The majority of identifications (by far) are by ear, especially in the first part of the count when you might need a headlamp just to read your data sheet and record birds heard during the "dawn chorus."
Yesterday (June 2nd) I ran the Bald Mountain BBS route, with help on the logistics from Wil Geier and Linn Vennerholm (visiting from Sweden, some of you may have met Wil on Sheldon CBCs in years past). Today (June 3rd) I ran the Piute Meadows BBS route together with Vince Popyk, a wildlife diversity biologist who recently joined NDOW's Winnemucca office, and will be taking care of this route in future years.
The Bald Mountain route runs along Road 34A starting on the west end of the "Little Sheldon" part of Sheldon NWR. At the starting point you can sometimes hear water birds out on Calcutta Lake, north of Vya, though yesterday conditions were a little windy at the start. The route climbs quickly up the escarpment through old-growth junipers which host cavity nesters like Ash-throated Flycatcher and Juniper Titmouse (missed this year). Once up top the route continues through some amazingly healthy sagebrush/rabbitbrush/bunchgrass habitats with occasional rimrock/talus and mountain mahogany near the road, plus viewpoints of Swan Lake Reservoir and Catnip Reservoir.
This year had no major surprises. A late migrant WILSON'S WARBLER that was singing around the old Little Sheldon headquarters on June 1st must have flown out overnight, and was not detected either during the count or later in the day while we were packing up to shift to our next "base camp." I just had three "write-in" species (species not on the list of 65 most expected species): CHIPPING SPARROW which I keep finding in those old-growth junipers, DUSKY FLYCATCHER in the same habitat and also in the pines behind the old HQ, and an immature COOPER'S HAWK soaring over the Rock Springs Campground at the very last stop. The previous two years, an Orange-crowned Warbler was singing from a willow/aspen thicket across from the old HQ, so I was starting to wonder if the species was regular in that pocket of habitat, but I heard none this year.
The Piute Meadows (sic) BBS route starts on the NE edge of the Black Rock Desert, due north of Elephant Mountain, and follows Leonard Creek Road through a mix of mostly low sagebrush habitat and a few ranchsteads with some irrigated hayfields as well as heavily impacted winter feeding lots. It's a major shift from the Bald Mtn route, at much lower elevation and much more xeric. BLACK-THROATED SPARROWS are the most abundant species in the early stops, with SAGEBRUSH and LARK SPARROWS also common. Before I met up with Vince, I had a BURROWING OWL come flying in to circle around me a couple of times, and during the route we saw another one perched near what seems to be a regular spot.
On our way to and from running these routes, Wil and Linn and I enjoyed an abundance of wetland birds in the Coleman Valley and Warner Valley
