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...