February 27 -- Replacing Tundra's Oxygen Sensor, and An Approaching Storm

The day began with wind. When you're living in a travel trailer (especially one that is "only" 20 feet long) you can feel, and hear, the wind rocking the trailer. And you wonder all the while if something outside will fly off...After a quick trip to Lin's, the local supermarket, for food supplies, I had a quick breakfast then went to the local Napa auto parts store to see if the oxygen sensor I'd ordered for the Tundra had arrived. It had, so I took it across to the Valley Service Center and gave it to Eric, the mechanic there, so he could install it. I'd also bought 7 quarts of synthetic oil and a filter and asked if he could change my oil and replace the filter; he could, but only on a cash basis (I was about due for an oil change, so I figured I might as well give him more business rather than driving over to a bigger town such as Henderson).  When I came back to his shop after buying the oil and filter back at the Napa store, Eric told me that the old oxygen sensor was proving difficult to remove and that he might have to drill to get it out. Few things seem to be an easy fix...I then went back to Discovery to wait for his call telling me the truck was ready for pickup, or at least give me the status of the sensor removal.  Meanwhile, the sky to the west was looking ominous, and the wind was still blowing. I took a photo at the RV park showing the clouds coming in, and that's Discovery on the right --

Eric called about 2 hours later, saying that the oxygen sensor was easier to remove than he thought, and that Tundra was ready for pickup. "Your truck is in excellent condition, and should run for a long time to come!" he said, adding that the "check engine light" was now off as he had cleared all the diagnostic codes. Hallelujah! That danged light had dogged me for nearly a year, and now it's finally taken care of. At least I hope so...I'd recommend Eric and the Valley Service Center if you ever need minor auto work done while in Overton. I had lunch, then did some laundry where I met a snow birder from McCall, Idaho by the name of Sher (I asked "is that spelled with a C?" but it's not). She and her Finnish (as in from Finland) husband have a ranch there; it's amazing how many folks staying  here at Robbins Nest RV Park for the winter own ranches. The wind had died down while I was doing laundry, so I went over to the Overton Wildlife Management Area with the cameras to check things out. What birds there were still flew away, seemingly if you even THOUGHT about looking at them --- and this is nearly a month after hunting season ended. But I got some scenics of the wildlife area; here's the spot in a dirt road leading to Honeybee Pond where you cross the dam on the Muddy River --

In this photo the truck is actually down that road and IN the river --

Here is Honeybee Pond, looking north to the Mormon Mountains (the highest point there is Mormon Peak at 7414 feet) --

This is at a point further south from Honeybee, again looking north --

As things were kind of quiet at the wildlife area, I drove to a hill to get a sunset view overlooking Honeybee Pond. The setting sun first lit up Lime Ridge to the southeast --

Then cast a golden glow to the west --

And finally, maximum sunset colors reflecting off Honeybee Pond ---

Just another day of things accomplished, and spectacles seen, in SE Nevada's Moapa Valley...

February 26 -- A Visit To The Valley Of Fire, and Overton News

A few days ago I'd promised Jim, my neighbor across from me, that we'd go to the Valley of Fire State Park as he had never been there in his nearly 2-months here in Overton. A bit of a background on Jim as he's another interesting person I've met since I first arrived in SE Nevada in the middle of January. He's from Kalispell, Montana and built his own house there (he showed photos of it on his computer -- it's IMPRESSIVE.)  He was a sheriff, things were going pretty good -- then one night he started coughing -- and had a stroke. He's now permanently partially disabled, with limited motion in his right arm and leg. As he was right-handed, he had to become a lefty. But he did that, and also drove 1000 miles from Kalispell to Overton in his Dodge Hemi truck, towing his "toy hauler" (a trailer that can be opened in the back to put things such as motorcycles inside) and ATV. He also has 2 dogs, Riley Rose and Keeper, that are his constant companions, and he says they trip him constantly, wrapping their leashes around his legs which in itself would be a trial for a healthy person, much less one who is disabled. He has an extremely positive attitude on life and the curve that was thrown at him; he's really someone to be admired. So we drove over to the Valley of Fire -- and he insisted on driving -- with Riley Rose extra-cab back seat and Keeper a mass of excitement and long hair, jumping all over the place, though he eventually quieted down and settled on my lap. Jim and I (with the dogs staying in the truck; dogs are allowed in the park, but not in the visitor center) went inside the visitor center and I must admit this was the first time I'd really paid attention to the exhibits there. Especially fascinating were the glass displays housing a tarantula, lizard, and king snake as I have still not seen any creature while hiking throughout the Valley of Fire except for Desert Bighorn Sheep, an occasional ground squirrel, and the ubiquitous Rock Wren. The sandstone rocks just outside of the visitor center were an attraction all by themselves --

And there were signs of spring, and hopefully of the desert wildflower displays to come --

I could tell Jim was mesmerized by the Valley of Fire, particularly the colorful rock formations along both sides of the 6-mile-long White Domes Scenic Byway. We were driving way below the speed limit as he was looking at everything, and constantly stick his left arm out to motion other cars to go ahead of him.  He kept repeating "Too many people!" and I could only agree. (I forgot to mention that  Jim also has slurred speech from the stroke, and has a hard time finding the right words for what he wants to say.) We had lunch at The Full Scoop, an ice cream place in Overton that also serves sandwiches, hamburgers, and salads (the only other eateries in town are MacDonald's and Sugar's, a restaurant with a sports theme), then we split up as I was expecting an oxygen sensor for Tundra's catalytic converter to be delivered to the local Napa store. (I checked, and it didn't arrive.) I took a quick trip out to the Overton Wildlife Management Area to see if the Vermilion Flycatcher was still there, but he wasn't, and except for Northern Rough-winged swallows it was pretty quiet, so I came back to Discovery and was doing some computer stuff when Jim knocked on the door and gave me a plate of mozzarella cheese bites with a slice of tomato on top of each. What a NICE neighbor...

Overton bits and pieces -- Felix and Rhoda, Canadians who have been coming to Robbin's Nest to winter for the past 7 or so years, said when they first came here, you carried a flag when you walked the 2 major crosswalks here on Moapa Valley Blvd, but that was discontinued just a few years ago. People here are still very courteous, stopping at the crosswalks even if it LOOKS as if you'll be crossing the street. And I wave to the big Police SUV -- as do many people here -- when he passes by. ..Moapa Valley with its towns of Logandale and Overton are primarily farm communities, with the water coming from the Muddy River that courses through the valley. But there's always a need for "light industry" to keep the local economy going, so there's a proposal for a small factory to be built here in town. And it will be producing -- ammunition. "I can't think of a better place for a facility like that than here in this community," said the real estate developer who is pushing for the factory.  No editorializing here, it's just an observation...

February 25 --- Tundra's " Check Engine" Light Diagnosed, And A Bike Ride On Mormon Mesa Road

This "check engine" light has been bedeviling me for nearly a year now...My 2004 Toyota Tundra has an engine logo that lights up above the steering wheel if a) the gas cap isn't on properly; b) the spark plugs needed to be replaced; c) the oxygen sensors -- I have two -- that are part of the catalytic converter system are malfunctioning; or d) the catalytic converter is shot. When the light went on before I hit the road last year, I took the truck in to the Toyota dealership In Torrance which I've always used for service and maintenance, and they said the catalytic converter needed to be replaced. Well, that would cost at least $2000, so I held off as I didn't have the money at the time, and it didn't need replacing until I had to get my next smog check, which will be in May 2014. So for the first 6 months of the trip I drove with the light on, wondering when the catalytic converter would fail entirely which would cause the truck to stop running, then when I returned to the South Bay of Los Angeles in December I took the truck in for servicing at an independently-owned repair shop as their prices would be lower than buying and having it installed at the dealership. Well, the folks at the repair shop said that the catalytic converter was fine; when they did a diagnostic, the only code that came up was for the oxygen sensor, so I breathed a sigh of relief and paid around $300 for a new sensor. Problem solved, right? Last week the "check engine" light went on AGAIN, and I was seriously thinking that Tundra was possessed by a gremlin...I found a repair shop here in Overton and had the mechanic give a quick diagnostic read (he plugged-in a handheld device to something under the dash, which then reads the diagnostic codes that are causing the light to go on) and after checking a book said an oxygen sensor was "bad" -- the repair shop in the South Bay had only replaced ONE, and I have TWO, one on each side. He (his name is Eric) was the only mechanic at all 3 shops who gave me that information, and actually went underneath the truck and pointed out the sensors to me. He said if I bought the sensor at the Napa auto parts store across the street and brought it in to him, he'd install it in about an hour -- and the total cost, with the price of the sensor, would be about $200. It took a long time, but I finally achieved a satisfying conclusion to this "debacle". AND...he said there was nothing wrong with my catalytic converter as I would have noticed it if there had been -- poor engine performance, sluggish going up hills, etc. -- and I had never experienced ANY of those symptoms. So though it took nearly a year to get resolved, it did, and satisfyingly-so, and for a lot cheaper than I was expecting. So to celebrate, I took my mountain bike out for a ride up Mormon Mesa Road, which was the original road out of, and in to, Overton and Logandale here in the Moapa Valley.  Here's a panorama view of Moapa Valley and the towns of Overton and Logandale, looking west, with the colorful and jumbled mass of rocks making up the Valley of Fire in the middle-
distance to the left of center, and the dirt road is Mormon Mesa Road --

And this is the view looking east, up Mormon Mesa Road which goes to the top of Mormon Mesa and beyond; I pushed the bike up that steep grade --- I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid --

After huffing and puffing to the top -- with a couple of guys driving ATVs roaring by going the opposite direction, kicking up dust over everything -- the road levels out and winds through high-desert. I wasn't planning on staying out for so long (this was the first time I've done a bike ride like this for about a year), so I came back down the road -- SLOWLY, walking the bike, otherwise I would have ended up face-first in the dirt with the bike wrapped around me --

I zonked-out for about an hour when I got back to the trailer, took Tundra for a wash at the automated carwash in Logandale, then had dinner at Sugar's, the only "real" restaurant in Overton (there is a MacDonald's here, and Carly's, a sit-down restaurant that closed for awhile when the cook died of a heart attack --- or so I heard -- but they're about to re-open) with my neighbors Felix and Rhoda, snow birders from near Toronto, Canada. Today I'll be going to the Valley of Fire with Jim, another neighbor, accompanied by his two dogs Keeper and Riley Rose. Jim is from Kalispell, Montana and had a stroke about 2 years ago, so he's permanently partially-paralyzed, but he still managed to drive his toy hauler and ATV the 1007 miles (I just googled the mileage) from Kalispell to Overton...

February 24 -- A Bird Count At Overton Wildlife Management Area...

I met my new "birder" friend, Norm Parrish from Alberta, Canada, at the Overton wildlife area parking lot at 7:30am for a day counting the number of bird species we see, driving the dirt roads in my 4-wheel-drive Toyota Tundra. The first place we headed to were the "ponds" (really small lakes) in the southern section, where large numbers of ducks congregate to seemingly escape the more publicly-accessible areas to the north. I took my 7D/500 f4 + 1.4x TC off the BushHawk shoulder mount so I could shoot from the driver's side window, using a Molar Bean Bag resting on the window frame to support and stabilize the camera rig. The 500 f4 and TC also act as a "telescope" that has a farther reach than out binoculars, so if there is a bird way out there that we can't quite make out, I'd take a photo, then view it on the 7D's LCD screen and enlarge it if need be to ID the bird. We followed that procedure with this duck, which from where we were looked like a brown blob, but after taking the photo we ID'd it as a female Lesser Scaup --

We next went to the road along which I'd seen the sub-adult male Vermilion Flycatcher, but we were "skunked" on that one -- and didn't see him again when we returned for a second try in the afternoon. So we headed north, and saw a Greater Roadrunner up on a branch looking very photogenic, but as happens with many birds I got the shot just as he was taking off --

Looking at the "whitewash,", that's one well-used perch! We checked out the large cottonwood trees along the wildlife area's edge for the nesting Red-tailed Hawks, and found this dark morph having an early lunch --

We stopped at Honeybee Pond at the north end of the wildlife area, and saw a Grebe that we couldn't quite call, it was either a Horned or Eared but Eared is much more common in this area. But once I took the photo with the 500mm lens we realized we had a Horned Grebe in winter plumage, and the range maps in our bird guide showed that it is found in winters in Nevada only in the extreme   southern end of the state. A nice catch! --

 The sparrows seen most this time of the year here are either White-crowned or Savannah, the latter of which can be a challenge to identify (if by myself I usually ID them as "little brown sparrows"), but Norm said this is a Savannah --

And another challenging bird for me to identify are swallows, especially when they're doing their airborne zooming. If you can find the tree where they take a break for a few minutes before zooming off again, it's easier to study their markings and color. We finally came to the conclusion that the majority of the swallows we've been seeing lately are Northern Rough-winged; here's a good shot of one at rest --

We ended the count at around 3:30pm and went to the Overton MacDonald's to combine our data and come up with a final tally. It was 60 bird species -- pretty darned good for winter! I told Norm that rain was forecast here for this coming Friday and Saturday, so we should think about going back to the wildlife area on Sunday as the storm might blow some "good" birds in. And that's exactly what we'll do...I think I can really get into this "retirement mode"! 

February 23 -- Birding With Norm Parrish In Mesquite, Nevada

6am saw me driving up the Moapa Valley road north through Overton and Logandale then heading north on Interstate 15. I was to meet Norm Parrish at the Wal-Mart in Mesquite, 30 miles north, at 7:30. The sunrise had some spectacular color; here's the view looking south towards the town of Logandale in the distance --

After having breakfast at a MacDonald's in Mesquite -- my usual oatmeal with raisins and apple bits, along with the 2 burrito meal -- I met Norm at Wal-Mart, and we headed over to a golf course that had ponds which he regularly scans for birds, along with the scrubby desert area running alongside it. A bit about Norm: he'll be turning 70, is from a small town in Alberta, Canada, and retired both from the military and teaching a class in industrial arts at a college there. Since retiring about 9 years ago his passion has been birds, and he's seen discovered a few rare ones when he started "snowbirding" in the Mesquite area since retirement -- Common Crane, a Eurasian species similar to out Sandhill Cranes, for instance, along with a Northern Parula near the city of St. George in Utah. We had first met at the Overton Wildlife Management Area when he saw me with my binoculars and 500mm lens and promised one another that we'd check out the local birds together (as two pairs of eyes can see more than one). During our walk along the edge of the golf course (we couldn't go on the golf course grounds due to "liability" issues, i.e., if we get beaned by a golf ball) we heard and saw Gambel's Quail --

And on the golf course ponds were the inevitable mass of Coots along with Ring-billed and Ruddy Ducks and a few other species, and later a small group of Canada Geese flew in. But the real catch, at least for me, was the Prairie Falcon we spotted on the way back, who was scanning the area from high atop a utility pole. He was watching us intently --

And once he decided we were too close for comfort, he took off, and I got his flight with the 7D/500f4 and 1.4xTC combo (I'd taken the BushHawk off, and was carrying it handheld) --

In these photos you can easily see what Norm calls the Prairie Falcon's "underarms",  the dark areas of the wings near the body. So now I was the proverbial "happy camper", having gotten good flight shots, and after walking back to our cars we drove back over to Wal-Mart to check out iPods for Norm as he wanted to get an iPod filled with bird calls like I have with my BirdJam iPod Nano. We then went to a restaurant in the Eureka Casino there in Mesquite and had a good lunch (always pleasant to have after a morning of birding and walking), talking about everything from Candian Prie Minister Stephen Harper to Canada's health care system (he likes it). After lunch I headed back to Overton and Discovery after making plans with Norm to go birding at the Overton wildlife area the next day (today). I relaxed, took a nap and did computer stuff for the rest of the day -- and that was it. A nice, relaxing, enjoyable day spent with good company -- I couldn't have asked for a better day...

February 22 -- Fixing Discovery's Dripping Faucet, Then A Few More Birds...

Yesterday was a day to get a few things done to my travel trailer and home on wheels, "Discovery".  First I had to do a load of laundry, and while waiting for my clothes to be dried I fell into conversation with a lady "snowbirding" from Wyoming.  Her name is Maureen ("as in Maureen O'Hara, who co-starred with John Wayne in 'The Quiet Man'" she told me) and she and her husband used to own a ranch, but sold most of the land which is now used as a wind farm and oil "fracking". It  turned out she is also what is known as a "jack Mormon", i.e. someone who left the LDS church, so we got to discussing Brigham Young, the Mountain Meadows Massacre ("it was definitely done by Mormons" she said) and how the Mormons were the original settlers of much of southern Nevada including, ironically, Las Vegas. It was a fascinating discussion, and I plan on visiting her and her husband at their RV across from me for some more conversation...Then it was time to get that darned dripping faucet fixed. I tend to be cautious when it comes to doing repair work of any kind -- I don't want to make it worse -- so I asked my friend Felix, another snow birder this time from the Ottowa area of Canada, for help as he'd made the offer the day before. He grabbed his tool kit but discovered upon opening it in my trailer that it was his tackle box instead! He rolled his eyes and said "I'll be back", but by the time he came back I'd pried the handles off and plastic fittings underneath. We took a look at the washers, expecting them to be worn, but they looked nearly brand-new, so Felix just turned them over, and when we put things back together and turned on the water -- presto! -- no more dripping faucet. The other item on my "to do" list was to put silicone sealant on the seams and screws of the area underneath the front rock guard where water had apparently gotten into. It's....interesting...that this was a problem Lance was seemingly aware of as in the 2012 trailer model they had put waterproof tape under the rock guard running all the way across; here's a photo of a newer trailer with the tape --

The area of my trailer where water seeped inside is approximately at the left end of that tape in the photo. If the tape had been in place on Discovery, the water intrusion probably never would have occurred. But it did, so I put silicone sealant on the screws and seams and once those areas have dried  I'll run clear "Gorilla" tape across the bottom of the rock guard, and hopefully that will take care of any future encounters with water coming through that area of the trailer. Isn't the Internet wonderful? I never would have known this was not a problem unique to me...So with the 2 outstanding issues with Discovery resolved, I decided to treat myself to an afternoon tootling along the roads of the wildlife area, only to find out that the "hunt retrieval club" that I had encountered the day before was still there -- and would be there until Sunday. So while it was not the best of conditions to find birds, the raptors were still around. Here's a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with a bulging crop, meaning he'd just had a meal --

I maneuvered into a better position where I had the sun at my back, and that's when he decided to take off -- 

There's a group of huge cottonwood trees on the edge of the wildlife area that has 3 nests in it, and looks like one is getting ready for use --

I call this "A Nest With A View", or a multi-family tree. ;o) And just before I left the wildlife area, I saw this American Kestrel scanning the area --

This is the first time I've seen these little falcons here, surprising as they're pretty ubiquitous in the South Bay of Los Angeles, my home base. Today the 23rd will be another day of birding, this time in the town of Mesquite, 30 miles up Interstate 15, where I'll meet another new friend, a "snowbirding" birder from Alberta who will show me the "hot spots" there... 

February 21 -- A Raptor-ous Day At The Wildlife Area

I've been getting up at around 2am these past few weeks; seems like I only need about 5 hours of sleep, then a small nap or closing of the eyes in the late afternoon. I'm glad because it gives me time in the wee hours of the morning to do computer stuff like these posts. -- ..So yesterday I woke up, made some coffee in my Brew 'n Go coffeemaker -- I drink whatever is on sale, this time it was a Western Family (i.e., generic) roast @ $5.99 -- had breakfast, then headed back to the Overton Wildlife Management Area around 7:15 am. It was partly-cloudy and cool, around 45 degrees. I headed in the direction of Honeybee Pond, at the northern end of the wildlife area, and saw the Bald Eagle once again at its usual perch, on a tree overlooking a pond. The day before I got a shot looking east, with the desert mountains as a backdrop. This time it was looking west, with the redrock of the Valley of Fire State Park for a background --

Just prior to this, I'd noticed what looked to be a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a nearby tree --

He had a sharply-defined eye and iris, a sign of a juvenile, but he has lighter plumage on the front than you ordinarily see in Red-tails. Sheri Williamson of the Southern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) said you can't go far wrong if you ID any "unusual-looking" hawk you see as a Red-tail as chances are it is, and that's the case here....Then I noticed a hawk on the same tree that the Bald Eagle was in (who by this time had flown off), and took a shot of him --

Now this fellow has more of the "traditional" juvenile Red-tailed plumage, so I'm positive of the ID. He allowed me a few shots, then went to the pond the tree was overlooking --

And I mean he REALLY went to the pond; he was in it, on a small patch of land in the center, scanning things from a pond-level view. He held that position for a few minutes, then flew off. I saw the Bald Eagle again in the afternoon further south, in an area that I used to walk around while toting the 500 f/4 lens. These past few days I've been driving the Tundra on the dirt roads winding through the wildlife area, shooting from the truck using a Molar Bean Bag on the driver's side window where I rest the "BushHawk-less" 7D and 500 lens; the bean bag stabilizes it. The only downside to that is when vehicles occasionally roar past, spewing dust all over the place, and you can't close the window in time before the interior of the truck is covered in a fine layer of dirt. But what the heck -- it's a TRUCK, not a vehicle to be babied. Meanwhile, the wildlife area is full of the signs, and sounds, of spring -- singing Red-winged Blackbirds (hundreds of them), Marsh Wrens with their "mechanical-sounding" calls, Reds-tailed Hawks near their nests -- and the day ends seeing a Phainopepla and American Robin sharing the same mesquite bush. Here are some photos of the wildlife area, to give you some idea of the different habitat to be found there, and what the surrounding area looks like --

This is at one of the ponds looking west (the Bald Eagle tree is just off to the left, out of the picture) with the red rock of the Valley of Fire in the background, and the silva plant with its white mound of silva in the center. 

This pond is further south than then one above. I've seen Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrike, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Northern Flickers, even a Brown Creeper here. And you can't beat those reflections...

This photo shows the area near the above pond, looking north to the Mormon Mountains in the distance. (Mormons created the town of Overton, as they did much of SE Nevada, and their influence is still strong; for instance, everything except for Lin's supermarket here in Overton is closed on Sunday.)  After having lunch back at the trailer I headed to the southern section of the wildlife area, hoping to see the Vermilion Flycatcher once again, but suddenly a few big trucks appeared on the dirt road behind me, spewing dust, and stopped EXACTLY where I was to park to hike the road leading to the VFC. 14,000-plus acres, and they have to stop right there...It turned out they were part of a "dog retrieval" club, where they train dogs to retrieve the birds that had been shot --- excuse me, "harvested", in the terminology used by the Nevada Dept. of Wildlife workers; makes birds sound like a field of wheat!  So the day out and about ended earlier than usual, but it was nevertheless full of 

moments and scenes to remember...

February 20 -- A Day At Overton Wildlife Management Area

The OWMA is 14,000-plus acres of wetlands, cottonwoods, tamarisk, the Muddy River, grain fields, mesquite...pretty much everything except mountain trees. The reservoir of Lake Mead used to engulf half of it, but has receded due to the ongoing drought these past years. But the land is owned by the feds as part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and leased to the state of Nevada, and managed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife. There can be lots of fingers in this pie...I decided to drive the roads in my 4-wheel-drive Toyota Tundra instead of hiking around, toting my 500 f/4 -- and I'm glad I did, as I ended up my 8-hour time there with 50 species, and went from the north end down to the southern reaches. And this way the truck acted as a "blind", so the birds weren't scared off quite as fast as if I were walking. I drove to Honeybee Pond (many of these "ponds" are more like lakes) and saw good birds there, including American Pipit along the shore --

And on the way to Honeybee Pond there was what looked to be a Red-shouldered Hawk up in a cottonwood tree with a few nests in it. I checked for a solid ID when online with Sheri Williamson, a bird expert specializing in hummingbirds, and she said the hawk was just as "richly-colored" Red-tail; you can just make out its trademark red tail under the bottom part of its folded wings  --

(BTW,  the white shadow behind it is the moon.)  Swallows were everywhere; yesterday was the first day when I've seen them in large numbers. I think there may have been Bank, Violet-Green, Tree -- and Northern Rough-winged, though the latter would be rare for the area, and I'd need confirmation

on the ID in order to record it on the bird list I submit to BirdsEye BirdLog, a  great app I have on my iPad Mini where you can record your sightings on a national database. (I'll be heading out to OWMA again today and see if I can get a better photo for ID purposes.) But as you can imagine, it's tough to photograph swallows-in-flight, especially with a big lens like the 500 f/4, but if you take enough shots  SOMEthing is bound to turn out --

Bank? Juvenile Tree? Or indeed a Rough-winged? The jury is still out...Red-winged Blackbirds were in the grasses and on the cattails, with the males singing their song that heralds spring --

Here's a female RWBB, listening nearby --

A Loggerhead Shrike was in a tree along the road --

One of the day's highlights was spotting the adult Bald Eagle in the early afternoon, on the tree where a wildlife area worker told me was his usual spot --

And what a background, with the colorful desert mountain so emblematic of the Southwest... I managed to get a little closer to the BE --

before he flew away, but as he was soaring I got a shot when ducks flew by between me and the BE --

In the afternoon I went south to two big ponds, Pintail and Wilson. I drove the road between them, which has been full of flycatching activity, with Yellow-rumped Warblers and the sub-adult Vermilion Flycatcher there -- and young VFC was still there --

But so were cattle; I guess it was an example of what is called "open range" --

I shot this thru my truck's window as I wasn't going to waste my time getting out of the truck for these bovines -- and I was pushing them down the road at the same time. The day ended near sunset with Canada Geese flying in loose formation to Pintail Pond --

It was a fabulous day to be out at the wildlife area, and I could tell that spring is here with all the activity, and the trees starting to show green. I think I'll return there today...

February 19 --- Birdy Morning and Windy Afternoon

And let's not forget the still-dripping kitchen water faucet, seems like changing the aerator in the spigot changed nothing, which means I'll  have to take apart the hot and cold handles and replace the washers. Time to go back to YouTube for the proper how-to video... I headed over to the Overton Wildlife Management Area just after 7am, this time accessing it from the north end, an area I hadn't yet explored. I parked the truck and walked over to the big "pond" there named Honeybee, and right off the bat saw female Common Goldeneyes gliding around -- until they sensed my presence and took off like a shot. (Ducks and Coots are still spooked by people, 11 days after hunting season ended). Rough-winged Swallows were skimming over the water, catching insects, and Canada Geese were, as usual, honking. A guy driving a truck with the Nevada Department of Wildlife drove up and asked me to train my 500mm lens on a bird box he'd built on a island in the pond for possible nesting use by Canada Geese; it was empty, so word hadn't gotten to the Canadas yet. We then chatted about hunting (he called it "harvesting", as if ducks were a field of wheat) and how last year 6 Tundra Swans were at the wildlife area -- then it was 5, when a hunter shot one; he was fined $600. I try not get involved in the good and bad of hunting or 2nd Amendment rights (or ATVs) as they're kind of touchy issues out here. He then mentioned the Bald Eagle seen regularly and the particular tree it was roosting in, so I walked the paths to check things out. (It wasn't there, of course.) But on my way there I saw a nice female Hooded Merganser at Honeybee Pond --

And 4 hours later I ended up with 37 bird species, including a Sora that surprisingly was out in the open. Just after seeing the Sora there occurred one of those chance meetings with people that sometimes happen. There was a fellow driving a small car on one of the berm roads and as we were the only ones out there, we met to find out what the other was doing at the wildlife area. It turns out he was a birder -- and not just ANY birder; he was the discoverer of the rare Common Crane that was seen here last year! He was a "snowbirder" from Alberta, staying in Mesquite, about 30 miles up Interstate 15, and had spent the past few winters and spring in SE Nevada. We immediately made plans to go birding together as two pair of eyes are better than one.  As I was walking back to the truck I spotted a Greater White-fronted Goose back at Honeybee Pond --

Oh, and earlier I saw a male Ring-necked Duck in breeding plumage before he once again took off like a shot --

I try to come back to the trailer by noon as the light then is pretty harsh for photographing -- and grab a bite for lunch -- and thought I might go back to the wildlife area in the late afternoon, but the wind started blowing, reaching up to 35+ mph according to Weather.com, and dirt was swirling everywhere, so I closed up the trailer so dirt wouldn't get in and (it was about 84 degrees in Discovery) turned on the air conditioning. The wind howled for the rest of the day and evening, which was fine with me as it forced me to stay inside to get much-needed work done. So today it's back to the wildlife area -- as long as there's no wind. There's a certain Bald Eagle there I'd like to get to know...