Migration

It’s that time of year again!  Kelly, Dave and I arrived at Warm Springs Natural Area to do some migration surveys – along with some habitat surveys.  It’s been a great week and a half of birding, and a good opportunity to get up close and personal with mesquites and quailbush.  Plus: adventure!  We were down there during an impressive cloudburst – one gauge in Moapa evidently reported more than 3 and a half inches of rain in 90 minutes.  Fortunately we weren’t in the field at the time, and were able to view the flooding from the top of a tall hill!  Deeply impressive rainfall … followed by impressively deep gloopy mud.

Where's Dave?

Oh, there he is: tunneling through the quailbush!

The most common of our migrants were Warbling Vireos (by a lot!), Orange-crowned Warblers, Western Tanagers, and Wilson’s Warblers.  My most memorable sightings were the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher female feeding her two very noisy fledglings low down in a honey mesquite; the Baltimore Oriole male flitting from cottonwood to palm; and the shock of having a flock of Pinyon Jays calling overhead, flying north.  Here’s the overall species list so far – more surveys to come! 

Gambel's Quail

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Virginia Rail

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Mourning Dove

Greater Roadrunner

Belted Kingfisher

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ants re-building tunnels, post-flood

Western Wood-Pewee

Gray Flycatcher

Black Phoebe

Say's Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Western Kingbird

Loggerhead Shrike

Bell's Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Western Scrub-Jay

Pinyon Jay

Common Raven

Barn Swallow

Verdin

Bewick's Wren

House Wren

Marsh Wren

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Northern Mockingbird

Crissal Thrasher

Phainopepla

Orange-crowned Warbler

Lucy's Warbler

Nashville Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

Green-tailed Towhee

Abert's Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Brewer's Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Summer Tanager

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak

Red-winged Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Bullock's Oriole

Baltimore Oriole

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch