Breaking Even

Spring Mountain Ranch State Park

Another spring, another trip to Las Vegas... It's a trip we take just about every year, generally more in winter than spring, yet still a lovely getaway and opportunity to see things that aren't the norm in Utah. For me, that means a variety of lovely birds that just don't appreciate the cooler, more mountainous terrain I call home, or at least not my vicinity of it. Among the species I was able to appreciate on this trip...

• Great-Tailed Grackle
• Redhead
• Ring-Necked Duck
• Double-Crested Cormorant
• Muscovy Duck
• Black Phoebe
• Mute Swan
• Abert's Towhee
• Say's Phoebe
• Verdin
• Common Gallinule
• Bewick's Wren
• Townsend's Solitaire
• Yellow Warbler

All told, there were more than 40 species I saw during roughly four hours of casual, primarily urban birding. Many of these will stretch further toward my home range as spring advances, but it was pleasant to get a preview of their breeding beauty. Others will never venture so far north, and it is up to me to strike into their range to become reacquainted. No new lifers on this trip, unfortunately, but not for lack of trying - I especially enjoyed the newest place I visited, Spring Mountain Ranch State Park - a lovely facility with an extensive picnic area with plentiful trees as well as scrub desert to explore. I had hoped that hiking through the Mojave Desert on this trip would have yielded a new desert species or two, but now I just have more reason to return.

For now, back home and back to work, I wait for spring to return to me for the next birding adventure.