It's been a while! I am still alive and trying to get out birding more - I had a birthday trip to the USA and took myself out to a couple of lovely places to birdwatch whilst I was there. First was a quick visit to the Springs Preserve - nobody I speak to in Vegas has ever been there which is baffling as it's pretty central and is absolutely gorgeous. The trails are lovely to walk or jog around and there are plenty of things for kids to get involved in.
My main target bird for Las Vegas every single time I go is Greater Roadrunner and without fail, I never see one. So when one casually strolled by in front of me, there were some select swearwords uttered - I was very excited! The Preserve was quite quiet birdwise but I spotted regular locals like Verdin, Northern Flicker and Phainopepla. I also discovered the cutest tiny fluffy things - White-tailed Antelope Squirrel I think?
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| Greater Roadrunner! |
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| Phainopepla |
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| White-tailed Antelope Squirrel |
A couple of days later I went to my absolute favourite place in Vegas - Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. It's a bit of a way off the strip but it's absolutely worth it. I meant to only spend about an hour there but ended up wandering around for over 3 and I could have easily stayed a lot longer. This was a lot more productive bird-wise, but also means a lot more birds that I am not sure of the ID of! I had a list of 35 in the end which I felt was fairly decent and a few more I couldn't ID which I've stuck up on
BirdForum if anyone wants to give it a shot.
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| Different view of Las Vegas Strip |
Plenty of ducks around, including Bufflehead, Cinnamon Teal and a lone Wood Duck, as well as a goose lifer for me, Snow Goose. A single Snowy Egret was hanging out at the edge of the path and by the time I was heading out, there were lots of raptors up and about.
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| Hummingbird |
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| Snowy Egret |
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| Northern Mockingbird |
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| Other hummingbird 😬 |
These two visits brought my life list up to 998 - really need that 2 more. Perhaps in Bulgaria or Mexico later this year, or even the ones from Vegas I couldn't ID might bring me to that elusive 1000 bird mark!
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| Verdin |
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| Ruby-crowned Kinglet (I think?) |
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