You would not think birding and gambling have much in common, but they mix together quite well. On a recent trip to Las Vegas we took time to do both. We rented a car and headed for Henderson, Nevada and a well hidden bird refuge. Tucked in behind the water treatment buildings is the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve.
http://www.cityofhenderson.com/parks . This small but important140 acre preserve provides a critical stop-over for migrating birds and home for hundreds of resident water fowl.
We were hoping it would provide enough variety for us to log at least 4 more birds for our life list to gain 100 different birds. The park has a small welcome/gift center where visitors must sign in and get a quick overview of the nine ponds the preserve consists of. A black-chinned hummingbird buzzed us just outside the welcome center door, an auspicious beginning to be sure. We had a great time exploring the various ponds and identified several ducks like the Northern Shoveler, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Green-wingedTeal, Bufflehead and the Ruddy duck. Of those the Green-winged Teal and the Ruddy duck were new. Further on we saw several Gambel's quail skittering across the trail and a Lesser Yellow legs shorebird wading in the shallows, both new additions to our list.
We took several pictures of birds and ducks to identify later, hoping we caught more new birds. Egrets, gulls and Black-crowned Night Herons slept or rested on small islands in the ponds. As we returned to the welcome center we caught a couple more pictures of a Eared Grebe floating low in the water and showing off her wings and a few more shots of some elusive unidentified brown birds and headed back to our hotel in Vegas.
That night we grabbed our cameras and our laptop to check out the birds we had yet to identify. After exhaustive research we added a Common Gallinule or Moorhen, a Say's Phoebe and a Great Tailed Grackle to our list. But the two highlights for me were the Olive-sided Flycatcher and the Loggerhead Shrike.
Thanks Henderson we logged more than enough birds to make 100!
We took several pictures of birds and ducks to identify later, hoping we caught more new birds. Egrets, gulls and Black-crowned Night Herons slept or rested on small islands in the ponds. As we returned to the welcome center we caught a couple more pictures of a Eared Grebe floating low in the water and showing off her wings and a few more shots of some elusive unidentified brown birds and headed back to our hotel in Vegas.
Thanks Henderson we logged more than enough birds to make 100! 