Pine Forest Range Species List, July 9-10

I had a couple of folks email me about the full species list for our NBC crew’s two-and-a-bit days in the Pine Forest Range, so here it is.  One of the things we were trying to concentrate on was breeding evidence, so I’ve included breeding status, when we had either probable or confirmed breeding.  We found 70 species during our surveys; 29 of these were confirmed breeders, and a further 5 were probable breeders.  Six of them were of conservation concern (there's an asterisk in the number column).

A fun time in the mountains!

Num.	Species	Breeding Status
1	Gadwall	Probable
2	Mallard	Confirmed
3	California Quail	Confirmed
4	Horned Grebe
5	Turkey Vulture
6	Northern Harrier
7	Cooper's Hawk
8	Red-tailed Hawk	Confirmed
*         9	Golden Eagle
10	American Kestrel
11	American Coot
12	Killdeer	Probable
13	Spotted Sandpiper
14	Long-tailed Jaeger
15	Mourning Dove
16	Great Horned Owl
17	Common Nighthawk
18	Common Poorwill
*       19	Calliope Hummingbird
20	Red-naped Sapsucker	Confirmed
21	Northern Flicker	Confirmed
22	Hammond's Flycatcher	Probable
23	Dusky Flycatcher	Confirmed
24	Cordilleran Flycatcher
25	Say's Phoebe
26	Warbling Vireo	Confirmed
27	Clark's Nutcracker	Confirmed
28	Common Raven
29	Tree Swallow	Confirmed
30	Violet-green Swallow	Confirmed
31	Cliff Swallow
32	Mountain Chickadee
33	Bushtit
34	Red-breasted Nuthatch
35	White-breasted Nuthatch
36	Rock Wren	Confirmed
37	Bewick's Wren
38	House Wren	Confirmed
39	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
40	Mountain Bluebird	Confirmed
41	Townsend's Solitaire
42	Swainson's Thrush	Probable
43	Hermit Thrush	Confirmed
44	American Robin	Confirmed
*       45	Sage Thrasher
46	Orange-crowned Warbler	Confirmed
*       47	Virginia's Warbler
48	MacGillivray's Warbler
49	Yellow Warbler	Confirmed
50	Yellow-rumped Warbler	Confirmed
*       51	Green-tailed Towhee	Confirmed
52	Spotted Towhee	Confirmed
53	Chipping Sparrow	Confirmed
*       54	Brewer's Sparrow	Confirmed
55	Vesper Sparrow	Confirmed
56	Lark Sparrow
57	Fox Sparrow	Confirmed
58	Song Sparrow
59	Lincoln's Sparrow
60	White-crowned Sparrow	Confirmed
61	Dark-eyed Junco	Confirmed
62	Western Tanager	Probable
63	Black-headed Grosbeak
64	Lazuli Bunting
65	Western Meadowlark	Confirmed
66	Brewer's Blackbird	Confirmed
67	Brown-headed Cowbird
68	Cassin's Finch	Confirmed
69	House Finch
70	Pine Siskin

The Nevada Bird Count is Winding Down, Part 2

As I mentioned last post, I asked my crew to share some memorable moments of the season, and here’s a continuation... 

Rayann: “ I was really looking forward to finding a Sage Grouse this season, however, no luck even with the hours of scouring sagebrush.  I also won’t ever forget the most difficult transect I did this season, PJ-Control, in the Desatoyas, followed by my most favorite/beautiful transect, MR-SmithCreek.

Rayann's Warbling Vireo nest, Smith Creek

My biggest fear of this season was getting bit by a rattlesnake, and when we were camping near Smith Creek, there was a Great Basin rattlesnake.  I was pretty paranoid sleeping there that night, and around 3 am I heard rustling in the bushes … but it was only a bunny!”

This past week, Rayann and I also had a really big surprise – up in the Pine Forest Range, foraging next to Onion Valley Reservoir, we saw a Long-tailed Jaeger!  Sadly, it is now long gone – we, along with an envious rest of the crew, scanned the area the next couple days without finding it … but wow!  My first jaeger.  I took a few extraordinarily bad photos – here they are:

Dave's area search downstream of Schurz

Dave: “The Walker River corridor near Schurz is a very birdy place. After visiting an area search site on eight separate occasions, I ended up with nearly 30 confirmed/probable breeding species.  But on my last visit to the site on July 7, I was in for a true surprise.  On a cottonwood tree no more than 15 meters from me, a perched Yellow-billed Cuckoo began singing.  What great luck!  After enjoying great views of it for over a minute, lightning struck again.   A second cuckoo flew into the tree by the first!  To brazenly steal a pun from another birder I know, this was kukukukCool! 

I'll be posting the final installment of anecdotes and other tales in a few days.  My final surveyors hung up their binoculars today, so the birding portion of Nevada Bird Count is now over until next year.   A few veg surveys left, and lots and lots of data!   Happy birding, 

-- Jen

The Nevada Bird Count is Winding Down, Part 1

It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of July already.  Most of my crew has finished up their season this afternoon, and flown off.   I have a stack of data several feet high staring at me in the eye, blowing a raspberry.  I’m giving it the side-eye today, hoping that it will magically enter and proof itself.  Tomorrow I will accept reality, and begin that less-than-exciting phase between the joys of collecting the data and the interesting analyses to figure out what all that data means.  But this evening, magic sounds like a stellar plan.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird; copyright & courtesy of Bill Schmoker

It really was a wonderful field season, and I continue to be so incredibly lucky in my field crew!  They were troopers, every one.  This year was rather tougher than usual, with some impressive topography, some (even more?) impressive (ly bad) roads, and the occasional backpacking stint, and they dealt with it all with great attitudes, strong legs, and a can-do spirit.  I asked them last night to write up a couple of notes on their field season and what stuck out to them, now that it was over.  Personally, I had a lot of wonderful moments, particularly watching territories on Warm Springs Natural Area, progressing from courtship to nest-building to incubation to keeping those darn nestlings fed!, to riding herd on a group of fledglings spreading their wings.  I think the most memorable happening though was as I was hiking up a canyon, and a gorgeous Broad-tailed Hummingbird male came by to check me out.  I paused, and he came closer. And came closer.  Closer.  Pretty soon, all I can focus on is that bright gorget.  And then came closer … whereupon he stuck his beak up my nose!  I know my face gets red when I hike, but that’s a little ridiculous! 

Sam's Zone-tailed Hawk

Sam: “Some of my favorite moments of the season were, maybe surprisingly, in the Virgin Mountains.  The Gold Butte transect where we saw the Zone-tailed Hawk pair had particularly terrible topography, but it just stands to show how you have to get out into the middle of nowhere, climb over some boulders, and get away from the highway to see the cool stuff.  Some of the most scenic parts of Nevada are only accessible by foot, and it was pretty great to get to see them…. Also, I got really good at changing flat tires this season!  The transect near Lake Mojave was great – a cool swim after a hot Mojave Scrub transect is pretty luxurious.”

Kelly:  “After a transect that required hiking 23 kilometers, we realized the road leading to the following day’s transect didn’t exist.  Feeling defeated when having to admit a 4 kilo backpacking trip wasn’t doable, it was nice being told “Relax, put your feet up, and eat some ice cream." ... There were so many days when a road didn’t exist, a hike was extremely difficult, it took 4 hours to get between transects, or you’ve had two flat tires, and you just have to laugh at the absurdity of the day. Then you get to your camping spot, it is absolutely gorgeous, and you realize you are probably one of the only people that will ever get to see that spot. When you also remember you have two Capriotti’s subs in your bag, it really feels like the happiest moment in the world.”

Sue: “My favorite memory is hard to pin down, but off the top of my head MR-Smith was a wonderland of birds, veg, and just pure enjoyment in nature … and getting paid for it!  I could say the same for a lot of other transects where I wanted the point counts to be 30 minutes long!  But one hilarious but should-have-been-terrible experience was camping next to railroad tracks, to wake up and walk to do DS-BradyCtrl.  Only ~40m max from the tracks, I could hear a train coming way off … Amtrak … An hour later – cargo train, ~98 cars.  Then, about 11 pm, I’m sort of asleep, a train is coming, the train light illuminated my tent, and the ground begins to shake, I mean really shake, “My Cousin Vinny” shaking!  It goes by, I go back to sleep.  Same thing 12 midnight, 1:30 am, 2:30 am, and about three more.  By the third passing, I just laid there and laughed out loud a hysterical, funny though, happy laugh, at the ridiculous of the situation – and actually it is a fond memory!”

To be continued …

-- Jen