Birding January, 1st, 2012

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

Submitted by

Darlene Feener
Pahrump, Nevada