Red Cliffs Audubon Field Trip.

["William J. Hunter" <william4 at sisna dot com>]

Hi folks.

Here are the results of Red Cliffs Audubon's field trip last Saturday to
the "Henderson Ponds". Enjoy.

Bill


HENDERSON?S BIRD VIEWING PRESERVE
March 16, 2002

What! Cold and an inch of snow in St. George? Not for us! Red Cliffs
Audubon got out of town for their March field trip and headed to Las
Vegas and the City of Henderson?s Bird Viewing Preserve. There we were
treated to sunny skies, warm weather and lots and lots of birds.

In total we saw 53 species, 49 of those were at the preserve. The rest
were at the Ethel M Chocolates manufacturing facility. There, besides
?the most delicious chocolates in the world? is a rather extensive
cactus garden and we were in hopes that there might be a few different
birds there. But, other than 8 Northern Mockingbirds and 37 Mourning
Doves, there wasn?t anything unexpected. Probably still a little to
early in the ?Spring?.

The viewing area at the City of Henderson Wastewater Treatment Facility
encompasses over 200 acres of ponds, lagoons, and basins. The checklist
compiled by the Red Rock Audubon Society has 188 birds on it. To see
roughly 50 bird species at any one visit is rather impressive.
Especially when one of those species is the resident uncommon Common
Moorhen.

We saw a total of five separate individual Common Moorhens, two of which

swam right out in front of us and thumbed their little red shields at
us. That and seeing the two resident gnatcatchers was a great treat -
Blue-gray and Black-tailed.

Here is a list of the birds seen: Pied-billed Grebe, Eared Grebe,
Black-crowned Night Heron (1), Turkey Vulture, Green-winged Teal,
Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck,
Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Gambel?s Quail, Common Moorhen
(5), American Coot, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet,
Western Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher (4), Common Snipe, Ring-billed
Gull, Mourning Dove, White-throated Swift (11), Black Phoebe, Say?s
Phoebe, Western-Scrub jay, Common Raven, Tree Swallow, Violet-green
Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Verdin, Bewick?s
Wren, Marsh Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (2), Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
(1), American Pipit, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler
(Audubon?s), Abert?s Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow,
White-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle.