January 2-3 -- A Return To Overton, Nevada And A Visit To The Overton Wildlife Management Area

I REALY have to get back to doing my blog daily -- otherwise I'll forget what day I took the photos... :o) But the first one was from last year, when I stayed in Las Vegas (aka "Lost Wages", as that's what invariably happens there) attending a class to become a "wildlife technician" for state and federal agencies like Nevada's Department of Wildlife and the national parks system. I took the class -- then got out of the city as fast as I could. I prefer smaller towns and natural areas, not the go-go city. For 56 years I'd lived in a big city ( San Pedro, with 80,000 people) that was attached to even a bigger city (Los Angeles), and I was ready for a change.  So I didn't see Viva Las Vegas, much less change my name, get a tattoo, and make myself over as "Mario" at the Wedding Chapel (much less be partnered with "Alaska" with dyed red hair).

I can see the Lost Wages' allure --- but it's not for me. So on New Year's Day, 2016, I blast my way through the city on Interstate 15 (not before seeing a billboard advertising "Bugsy Siegel Windows

and Blinds", with the tag "We'll Kill For Your Business") and not stop until I reach the turnoff for Highway 93, the route north to Great Basin Nat'l Park. Then it's on to Overton, and the RV park

where my trailer, "Discovery II", waits. I'll be posting an overview, along with a brief history, of

Overton in the next blog entry. For right, now all I'll say is it's a great little town in a beautiful setting, surrounded by the Valley of Fire, Lake Mead, and Gold Butte. But right now my focus is on the trailer. Here it is at the the RV park, in a photo taken a few days later after it rained -- 

It's a 2015 Lance 1685 travel trailer, 20 feet long, with 2 solar panels on top; those will be great for any future boondocking (staying in an area with no facilities). I check the trailer, and it seems to have weathered its 8-month stay at the RV park better than I'd expected. And the good thing about now having a house is I won't have to cram all of my worldly belongings into my trailer. After buying it, I discovered that it had less storage space than my previous Lance trailer, Discovery I. It bothered me at the time as I had to carry some of my things in the back of the truck -- but now I'm not worried. I'll just take the excess stuff back to Faranuf, and only carry what I need for, say, the week-long trips I'll be using "her" (Tundra is a "he",  Discovery is a "she") for from now on. So I get settled in, and the next day head over to one of my favorite spots here, the Overton Wildlife Management Area -- 

 

I just found out (January 7), through a Facebook photo post I did on Overton, that one of my FB correspondent's father put that sign up. The wonders of Facebook...The OWMA, as it's known, is an amazing area of 16,000-plus acres (its size depends on the level of Lake Mead, which it's connected to) of, depending on the day you go, literally anything in terms of wildlife -- or literally nothing. Today is a literally anything day -- especially for raptors. Like this Mrs. Northern Harrier -- 

And I saw this Merlin right from the get-go -- 

A Marsh Wren was doing its "liquid-y" call -- 

American Pipits were in the agricultural fields -- 

Here's another raptor -- a sub-adult Red-shouldered Hawk. I originally thought he might be a Red-tail, but his breast plumage makes him an RSH -- 

And this one. Before I investigated the swan for its ID, I thought it might be a rare Trumpeter Swan; they've been seen here in past winters. And if not a Trumpeter, perhaps a Tundra. But the bill is different than a Trumpeter's; this one is curved, while the Trumpeter's is runs straight from the forehead to the tip of the bill. And this Swan's bill is bi-colored; both Trumpeter and Tundra is not. So -- what is it? Alas, only a Mute Swan, an invasive species that was brought in from Europe to "decorate" lawns and parks in the East, and have since spread. During my investigation as to ID, I find out that there is a colony of Mutes in the St. George area, about 70 miles to the east, so it probably had flown here from there.  Still an interesting find, and I had a good lesson in Swans --

More on the town of Overton, and visits to the nearby Valley of Fire, coming up in my next blog post...