Exploring Ash Meadows & Death Valley

Last weekend, the Crescent Dunes field crew took a birding expedition down to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Death Valley. It was an exciting time to be out there with the wildflowers in bloom and newly arriving spring migrants, some a little ahead of schedule. One particularly lucky blossom was that of the rare Panamint Daisy, Enceliopsis covillei, which is an Inyo county endemic. It may not look like much from pictures, but as Josh indicated, the “flowers were as large as a finger-spread hand”.

One of the highlights of the trip was climbing Telescope Peak, an ascent from 8,000 to over 11,000 ft. Here the crew was able to spot Mountain Chickadees, Cassin’s Finches, Pinyon Jays, an American Kestrel, Violet-green Swallows, both Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Pygmy Nuthatches, Clark’s Nutcrackers, Pine Siskins, and a male and female Red Crossbill. The summit offered an extraordinary view of the valley. 

Jenna, Josh & Wanda on Telescope Peak

Seeing the pupfish at Ash Meadows was another high point of the trip, along with hearing a Bell’s Vireo--five days ahead of the previous earliest record! They also got to hear their first-of-season Common Poorwill, and see a variety of lizards, such as Chuckwalla and Leopard Lizards. Other species seen during the trip include: Greater Yellowlegs, American Avocets, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, Phainopepla, a Loggerhead Shrike, Sage Thrasher, Prairie Falcon, Chukar, White-throated Swifts, Anna’s Hummingbird, Western Scrub-jay, Bushtits, Varied Thrush, Lesser Goldfinch, Rock Wrens, Common Ravens, American Pipits, a Killdeer, and Lewis’s Woodpeckers.

To see more pictures, check out the GBBO Facebook Page!

-Kelly

Photos were all taken by Josh Lefever and Jenna Daub-emore – thanks for sharing them with us!

Bird adventures on Anaho Island

Cormorant nests

In January, we began our bird surveys on Anaho Island, to help document use of the island by birds other than colonial waterbirds.  Closed to the public, Anaho Island is both a National Wildlife Refuge managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and a part of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, patrolled by the Tribe’s Pyramid Lake Rangers.  It was established to protect breeding colonies of waterbirds, particularly American White Pelicans – the pelican colony there is one of the two biggest in the western United States.  For now, our surveys extend across the entire island – as the breeding colonies of pelicans, cormorants, gulls and so on, re-establish themselves in spring, our survey area will shrink to only those areas where we cannot disturb them.

We completed our first winter survey in January – though given the blue skies, warm weather, and green grass, it didn’t feel too much like winter!  We didn’t see anything unexpected on this visit, but I certainly was impressed by the sheer numbers of Rock and Canyon Wrens.  We’re definitely looking forward to documenting the changes in the bird community here across the seasons - we’ll keep you posted!

Happy birding,
Jen

The Monitor Range, July 7-8

In early July, the NBC crew and I headed to the Barley and Cottonwood Creek trailheads, for a couple of days of exploration, to wrap up the birding portion of our field season, and to prep for our habitat surveys a little downstream.  It was a beautiful area; in fact, one of my long-time surveyors said that his transect there along Cottonwood Creek might be his favorite in the state!  For such a beautiful site, sadly we have a dearth of photos, for one reason or another.  However, here are a few, along with our species list for our time there.  Species for which we obtained breeding confirmation are noted accordingly.  

 

One of my highlights of the season was up Barley Creek, in a very active and vocal MacGillivray’s Warbler territory.  I watched the male flitting low among the willows, and heard a call note low down next to me –  I peered downward to see a very young, very short-tailed MacGillivray’s Warbler fledgling about 2 feet from my right foot.  I watched it for awhile then moved on – the fledgling showed no evident stress, but the male was definitely not pleased with how close I was to his offspring!  

Hope you enjoy the list:

 

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Common Poorwill

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Red-naped Sapsucker (Confirmed Breeding)

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker (Confirmed Breeding)

Gray Flycatcher

Dusky Flycatcher (Confirmed Breeding)

Plumbeous Vireo

Warbling Vireo (Confirmed Breeding)

Western Scrub-Jay (Confirmed Breeding)

Clark’s Nutcracker

Common Raven

Violet-green Swallow

Mountain Chickadee (Confirmed Breeding)

Juniper Titmouse

Bushtit (Confirmed Breeding)

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Rock Wren (Confirmed Breeding)

Bewick’s Wren

House Wren  (Confirmed Breeding)

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Mountain Bluebird

Townsend’s Solitaire (Confirmed Breeding)

Hermit Thrush

American Robin (Confirmed Breeding)

Orange-crowned Warbler

MacGillivray’s Warbler (Confirmed Breeding)

Yellow Warbler  (Confirmed Breeding)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Confirmed Breeding)

Black-throated Gray Warbler (Confirmed Breeding)

Yellow-breasted Chat

Green-tailed Towhee (Confirmed Breeding)

Spotted Towhee (Confirmed Breeding)

Chipping Sparrow (Confirmed Breeding)

Brewer’s Sparrow

Black-throated Sparrow

Fox Sparrow (Confirmed Breeding)

Song Sparrow (Confirmed Breeding)

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak (Confirmed Breeding)

Lazuli Bunting

Western Meadowlark

Brewer’s Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Cassin’s Finch (Confirmed Breeding)

Lesser Goldfinch

Happy birding,

Jen

Pine Nut Range

The Nevada Bird Count has included several surveys in the Pine Nut Range over the past few years, and in 2014, we stepped that up quite a bit.  Most of our surveys have been/are in areas that will be undergoing (or have undergone) some pinyon-juniper treatments, along with control surveys in areas with no treatments planned.  Other transects were burned in the 2013 Bison Fire.  The goals of our surveys are to provide baseline monitoring of birds within the Pine Nuts, and to use those data to evaluate the impacts there (both short- and long-term) of treatments and fire.  

Some of these areas are in pure upland; others are along streams and drainage bottoms.  The Eldorado Canyon area is one of our survey areas (see previous post), but we’ve been covering the length of the mountain range, from the north near Dayton, all the way south to Bald Mountain.  In the process, we’ve been enjoying some great birds, beautiful views, crazy roads, and more than a few close encounters of the predator kind (mostly bears, but several mountain lions, as well).  In the case of the cats, one of those encounters was a little too close for comfort!  

What follows is not a full species list from our 2014 surveys, since our data entry/proofing process is not yet complete, but hopefully is enough to spark your interest!  For those of you that remember my request to keep your eyes and ears pricked for breeding Gray Vireos , we were sadly unsuccessful.  Maybe next year!  Please do let me know if you had better luck!

 

Chukar

Mountain Quail

California Quail

Turkey Vulture

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Golden Eagle

American Kestrel

Band-tailed Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Northern Pygmy-Owl

Common Nighthawk

Common Poorwill

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-pewee

Gray Flycatcher

Dusky Flycatcher

Western Flycatcher

Say's Phoebe

Loggerhead Shrike

Steller's Jay

Western Scrub-jay

Pinyon Jay

Common Raven

Horned Lark

Mountain Chickadee

Juniper Titmouse

Bushtit

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Rock Wren

Canyon Wren

Bewick's Wren

House Wren

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Mountain Bluebird

Townsend's Solitaire

American Robin

Orange-crowned Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Green-tailed Towhee

Spotted Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Brewer's Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Black-throated Sparrow

Sagebrush Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak

Lazuli Bunting

Western Meadowlark

Brewer's Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Cassin's Finch

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

Happy birding,

Jen

Warm Springs Natural Area Species List, September 28 - October 2

Warm Springs Natural Area, from near the entrance gate

So here’s the list of the birds recorded during my surveys at Warm Springs.  (The surveys were randomly located on the property, not designed to hit hot spots.)  I described a few of my highlights here.  The most commonly-recorded species were (in order): White-crowned Sparrow, Gambel’s Quail, House Finch, Red-winged Blackbird, Abert’s Towhee, Mourning Dove, Turkey Vulture, Western Scrub-Jay, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.  For comparison, my highlights from the 2012 surveys are here. 

1. Gambel's Quail
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Sharp-shinned Hawk
4. Red-tailed Hawk
5. American Kestrel
6. Virginia Rail
7. Eurasian Collared-Dove
8. Mourning Dove
9. Greater Roadrunner
10. Belted Kingfisher
11. Lewis's Woodpecker
12. Red-naped Sapsucker
13. Red-naped Sapsucker x Red-breasted Sapsucker
14. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
15. Northern Flicker
16. Say's Phoebe
17. Vermilion Flycatcher
18. Loggerhead Shrike
19. Cassin's Vireo
20. Western Scrub-Jay
21. Common Raven
22. Barn Swallow
23. Verdin
24. Bushtit
25. Cactus Wren
26. Rock Wren
27. Bewick's Wren
28. House Wren
29. Marsh Wren
30. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
31. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
32. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
33. Northern Mockingbird
34. Crissal Thrasher
35. European Starling
36. Phainopepla
37. Orange-crowned Warbler
38. Common Yellowthroat
39. Yellow-rumped Warbler
40. Spotted Towhee
41. Abert's Towhee
42. Brewer's Sparrow
43. Lark Sparrow
44. Unidentified “Sage” Sparrow
45. Song Sparrow
46. Lincoln's Sparrow
47. White-crowned Sparrow
48. Summer Tanager
49. Red-winged Blackbird
50. Western Meadowlark
51. House Finch
52. Lesser Goldfinch

Happy birding!

Jen

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