This is a Gambel's Quail I spotted today at Sunset Park.Most of these birds run away when you get close to them. This guy ran right up to the car and across the road in fron of me. So close that my camera wouldn't focus on him. You can see from the next pictures what a "normal" Gambel's Quail looks like.
We went to Lake Mead again. What can I say, its free since we bought a year long pass! Right now free entertainment is a good thing! Not sure yet what these birds are.
P.S. After searching more I think they are American Avocets.
If you are ever trying to figure out what a bird is try whatbird.com
It is a great site for identifying birds.
Today they brought out the sail boats. There was about 10 of them on the lake.
It is quite difficult to identify the type of Humminbird this is. They mostly seem to have green backs. I do think this is a female, but even that could be wrong. I think it is a female because of the white spots on the tail.
She is here very often though. There are quite a few birds that hang out in our back yard. Most of whcih I am still tring to identify.
Among the many things I thought I would basically loose by moving to Las Vegas was bird watching/photography. That was a big hobby of mine back in Michigan as you can see here and here. Today I found the Henderson Bird Preserve. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. The provide you with a very nice pamplet that you can check off all of the species of birds as you see them. There are reportedly over 270 species. At 100 acres it is much smaller than Crosswinds Marsh in Michigan which comes in at over 1,000 acres, but it is still very nice indeed. It also seems to host a mcuh larger variety of birds than Crosswinds does.
This is a Black-Crowned Night Heron. I saw a couple of these birds in Michigan, mostly at Pt. Mouilee State Game Area though. They seem pretty prevailant in Nevada as I saw several types of these today.
This is a Greater Road Runner. According to the worker there, Road Runners are not the sharpest bird out there. He states that they will take off running and after about 10-15 feet, kind of forget why they were running in the first place and just kind of stop. This one seemed to follow that pattern exactly.
Among these birds here are a Snowy Egret. I thought at first they were young Great Egret but after investigating a bit more they are easly distiguished apart by the yellow feet on the Snowy_egret.
This is a Ruddy Duck. They are quite common here and in Michigan. A very pretty bird all the same.
This is a White-Faced Ibis which they do not have in Michigan. Apparently it is easily disturbed as they all jumped up and flew away shortly after my arrival.
Today we went to the Flamingo Casino to check out the bird display there. They had quite a few on display although the ones we really went to see(the parrots) they did not want you to photograph. I could have, but didn't. They charge $10 to take your picture with the parrots, all of which goes to support the parrots that were rescued from various places. Not a bad deal but we decided to save that for later.
It has been a while since I updated the blog, but its been a busy week.
Shortly after we arrived here we noticed that Tigger was limping badly. After giving it a day or two to clear up, it only got worse. We ended up taking him to Banfield Vets that is located in Petsmart. It is a very nice Vet office. I guess each Petsmart has one, or soon will. Anyway, some $300 later the vet removed several Foxtail grass seed from his right front foot. Here is a under electron microscope of it. He had several that were embedded in his foot. Apparently Foxtail is dangerous for dogs!
Soon after that, Karen became ill with what the doctor described as viral stomach flu. Needless to say by the time she got to the doctor she was severely dehydrated, her blood pressure was very low and had to be given I.V. fluids.
Thankfully, both Karen and Tigger are on the mend.
Then comes another big shock. We do not live in Las Vegas! Hell, the Las Vegas "Strip" is not even in Las Vegas! Although my mailing address is in Las Vegas we actually reside in the un-incorporated area of Clark County called Paradise Nevada, whatever that means. Paradise Nevada is also home of the famous "Las Vegas Strip".
In between Tigger's episode and Karen getting sick, we went to the Mojave National Preserve.
Here you can see the Gamble's Quail that were all over the place.
Although not a flightless bird, they very much preferred to try and escape on foot. It was quite funny to see 8-10 of them trying to run from the car as we drove down the Mojave Trail. They really didn't run, it was more of a waddle.
Although kind of difficult to tell, on the right is a Sparrow Hawk that is hanging out looking for food.
This is the Coyote we saw in the Mojave. This picture is actually a better picture of the bush in front of the coyote, than the coyote itself.
On the right is a big 'ole raven flying around very close to the ground. There is a great deal of mythology surrounding these birds, as anyone who has read Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven" knows. It is claimed that ravens are the smartest of the birds.
The trip to the Mojave was a lot of fun. It is only about 1 hour from our house and I'm sure we will be visiting there often.
Yesterday we went to Echo Bay in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Along the way we also stopped at Rattlesnake Canyon in the Recreation Area. We were primarily looking for big horn sheep, but never did spot any. We will try another day.
This is a picture of the mountains as the sun was setting on our way back home from the recreation area.
To the right is a picture of Echo Bay in Nevada.
Bye for now.....
This is the courtyard at the Trading Post Hotel. It was very beautiful and a bird watchers haven. I spoke to Tony, a Native American about 50 years old there who was raised in this place. He was telling me about remembering climbing trees and could actually point to the trees in the courtyard. He and his young son were waiting for his wife to get off work.
This is the Cameron Trading Post Hotel in Cameron Arizona. It was a very nice room with a great view. 
This is the view looking out the window about 6AM. Its breathtaking.
Some of the wildlife found in the courtyard. In addition I saw the smallest hummingbird I've ever seen before. Maybe about 1.5-2" long. He didn't want to be photographed.
The ravens out here are kinda creepy, especially if you've ever read Edgar Allen Poe's book.
This eagle had dropped some food, or spotted it in the road. We thought that truck was going to hit it.
It was really quite amazing to watch. Last we saw, he never got what he was after. Soon after this we saw a sign that said "Watch for eagles on the road"
We were supposed to get snow/sleet/freezing rain last night, but it seems we dodged that bullet.
This is Grizzly Creek in Colorado.
Well thats it for now. We are still trying to figure out where we are going from here.
I'll post more later
Rob & Karen
