Happy New Year's Everyone. It was a fantastic day to be out birding. Today was a very fast birding trip as I had only a few hours and I realized it was going to be a very birdy day. I had already planned out ahead the night before where I would go and what I hoped to see. I reviewed my birding books and made sure all my equipment was ready to go.
At first light I was at the Mountain Falls pond to check out the ducks and other birds. My scope allowed me to see all the birds hidden in the vegetation along the side of the pond.Everytime I turned around there were different kinds of birds to study. I then visited the two different fields and one park area in Mountain Falls. From Mountain Falls, I traveled to where the Burrowing Owl's live and then on to the Master Gardener's building on Calvada and then to Willow Creek. A Coyote was rustled up while I was walking around Willow Creek near the sanitation water plant. He was trying to catch Rock Pigeon's. As he ran away from me, I waited for him to turn around and look back at me. I got some nice pictures of him. He is a well fed Coyote. Right after this I came upon a Greater Roadrunner eating the remains of a Western Meadowlark. While he was doing this the other Meadowlarks were quietly moving through the vegetation on the ground eating.
Later a Cooper's Hawk landed in a Willow tree giving me a chance to take pictures of him. When the Merlin landed in the branch on the other side, the Merlin, bounced off the branch making a shrill sound and flew up and chased the Cooper's Hawk away. It was such a contrast in size to see a Merlin sitting next to a Cooper's Hawk. I stopped by to see Richard and Carol, to visit with them and to discuss sparrow's and Burrowing Owls. Lot's of different kinds of sparrows are showing up in their yard.
I am birding in different areas of Pahrump but I always find more birds at Willow Creek.There were 53 species of birds seen from 6:28a.m. until 10:40 a.m. today January 1, 2012
Birds seen today:
Mallard Gadwall Green-winged Teal American Wigeon Northern Pintail (Only at Willow Creek pond by Richard and Carol's) Northern Shoveler ( Only at Willow Creek pond by Richard and Carol's) Canvasback ( Only at Mountain Falls pond) Redhead (Only at Mountain Falls pond) Ring-necked Duck Ruddy Duck Gambel's Quail Pied-billed Grebe Great Blue Heron Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk(Only at Willow Creek) Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin (Only at Willow Creek) American Coot Killdeer Rock Pigeons Eurasian-Collared Dove Mourning Dove Greater Roadrunner Burrowing Owl's (2) Anna's Hummingbird Ladder-backed Woodpecker Northern Flicker Black Phoebe Say's Phoebe Loggerhead Shrike Common Raven Horned Lark Verdin Mountain Bluebird (Only at Mountain Falls in the field) Northern Mockingbird Crissal Thrasher European Starling American Pipits Yellow-rumped Warbler Sage Sparrow (1) (Only at Mountain Falls in the field) Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco (3) Slate-colored and (5) Oregon Western Meadowlark Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle's (hundreds) House Finch Lesser Goldfinch House Sparrow
I have noticed in the past few weeks that the ducks seem to have favorite places. Gadwall and Northern Pintail prefer Willow Creek. Canvasback and Redhead and Goldeneyes seem to prefer Mountain...
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November 19, 2011, five us met at the Willow Creek Parking lot and birded together. It was a active day for hawks. I would like to thank Richard and Carol Cantino, Kristie Abromowitz and Debby...
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Birding today was beautiful. Hawks are being seen frequently by the people that live around Willow Creek. Two people sought me out to tell me what they had been seeing. Both of the people I talked...
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I started out early this morning and came upon an auto accident going into Pahrump. Helicopters were busy with the injured. I tried to get into birding but found it difficult to concentrate as I...
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