Great Basin Birds

Red-breasted Nuthatches were very common and friendly in the forest above 10,000 feet on Sunday morning. Several landed right next to me as they passed through the area feeding.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds got to Comins Lake just a little before I did this year. Here the sunset lights up a male near the lake.

Bushtits act like and hang out with Ruby-crowned Kinglets, combing the shrubs along Cleve Creek. It is very hard to get one to sit still for a photo.

Nestling Horned Larks beg for food out in the valley.

Again this year I spotted an Osprey in Spring Valley. Must be passing on through...

A Pied-billed Grebe patrols his part of the marsh at Comins Lake.

Marsh Wrens will sing incessantly from deep inside the bulrushes. This guy stepped out into the open for a brief second.

Western Meadowlarks didn't seem to prefer the open valley, instead they were usually on the edge of the valley where there were scattered trees.

Great Basin Birds part 1

Here is an assorted collection of bird photos from my travels in Nevada (and just across the border in Utah).

Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I hold kinglet pictures to a different standard than other bird pictures. Kinglets are shy, but they never sit still on an exposed perch. I was very happy to get one that actually captured its ruby crown.

Horned Lark
Horned Larks might be the most common bird in the valley right now. They certainly had that distinction in March and April. Now Brewer's Sparrows might have edged them out. This lark posed for me with the mountains for a backdrop.

Western Kingbird
This guy was sitting on the fence that marked the border between Nevada and Utah. I still haven't seen a kingbird entirely in Nevada. There were several in Garrison, UT, on the way back.

Western Grebe
I managed to get pretty close to a flotilla of grebes on Pruess Lake, south of Garrison, UT.

Long-billed Curlew
This was one bird species I really wanted to see while out in Nevada. One flew overhead on my first trip out, but I did not get good looks until this trip. Many were feeding in a cattle pasture near Ruby Lake. This lone bird was feeding in an upland field just outside of the national park.

Comins Lake

Comins Lake is right off of US6/50/93 outside of Ely. We would frequently stop there on the way back to town just to see what waterfowl was around. The lake always seemed good for ducks, but it was also great for many other bird species, including ones that you wouldn't necessarily think would be at a lake.

This large sandpiper landed right beside me on the beach. It took me a bit to identify him, and I might not, had he not shown his striking Willet wing pattern. I kept trying to make him into a Long-billed Dowitcher, but they are a bit smaller.



This Pied-billed Grebe popped up near me a couple times. He would disappear for long stretches. Eared Grebes were more common on the lake.

Birds I have seen at Comins Lake
___ Pied-billed Grebe
___ Eared Grebe
___ Great Blue Heron
___ Canada Goose
___ Mallard
___ Cinnamon Teal
___ Northern Shoveler
___ Gadwall
___ American Wigeon
___ Canvasback
___ Redhead
___ Ring-necked Duck
___ Lesser Scaup
___ Common Goldeneye
___ Bufflehead
___ Common Merganser
___ Ruddy Duck - males out there strutting their stuff
___ Turkey Vulture
___ Osprey
___ Northern Harrier - always hunting the lake shore
___ Swainson's Hawk
___ Red-tailed Hawk
___ Ferruginous Hawk
___ American Coot - everywhere on the lake
___ Sandhill Crane - they like the headwaters marsh/meadow
___ Willet
___ Long-billed Curlew
___ California Gull
___ Northern Flicker
___ Say's Phoebe
___ Horned Lark
___ Tree Swallow
___ Cliff Swallow
___ Common Raven
___ Marsh Wren
___ Ruby-crowned Kinglet
___ Mountain Bluebird
___ American Robin
___ Sage Thrasher
___ American Pipit
___ Yellow-rumped Warbler - seemed strange to see in the marsh
___ Vesper Sparrow
___ Sage Sparrow
___ Savannah Sparrow
___ White-crowned Sparrow
___ Dark-eyed Junco
___ Red-winged Blackbird
___ Western Meadowlark
___ Yellow-headed Blackbird

Arapaho NWR

Monday, we visited Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge in Walden, Colorado. It is a great place to see wildlife, plus the views are not too shabby either.

The island in Lake John had many American White Pelicans and assorted gulls.

Eared Grebe in breeding plummage

Western Grebe, which is much larger than the Eared Grebe.

Note the olive-yellow bill and black around the eye to distinguish from Clark's Grebe. We only saw Westerns. I love their bright red eyes.

We saw many waterfowl species at the NWR. This Northern Shoveler really caught my eye. I am only used to seeing them in winter plumage. He looks pretty sharp.

Cinnamon Teal was the one strictly western duck that I was hoping to see.

Dominican Republic Birds

Black-crowned Palm-Tanager - Common in the countryside. There is quite a variety of tanagers in the DR.

Palmchat - the national bird of the DR. These guys were fairly common, even throughout Jarabacoa. Not only are they endemic, they are the only bird in their family.

Least Grebe - This guy was swimming in the lagoon on La Isla Saona. This grebe made a Pied-billed Grebe seem to be as large as a Mallard.

Common Moorhen - in the lagoon at Saona.

Greater Antillean Grackle - Not too different from our Grackles.

Brown Booby - the birding highlight of the catamaran ride.

Gray Kingbird - the tyrant of the Dominican. These guys were the most common flycatcher. They sound like Eastern Kingbirds, too.

Tricolored Heron - This guy was hunting the area below a dam on the south coast. He was a very small heron.

A hunting technique.

Nutmeg Mannikin - at Tres Ojos.

Hispaniolan Woodpecker - They sound roughly like our Red-bellies. Very common and often in flocks. I had to work to get a picture that wasn't backlit.

Black-whiskered Vireo - I was hearing the song everywhere I went. I was sure it had to be a vireo, but I couldn't find the singer for several days.

Magnificent Frigatebird - These 'pirate birds' were everywhere along the coast.

Narrow-billed Tody - on the trail to Pico Duarte. There are two todies in the DR, the Narrow-billed in the mountains and the Broad-billed everywhere else. They are in the kingfisher family.

Broad-billed Tody - near Jarabacoa.

Bananaquit - These colorful little birds were very common, especially once their song became familiar. They are fairly tiny.

Yellow-faced Grassquit - cute, sparrow-like birds.

Antillean Mango - a very large hummingbird.

Vervain Hummingbird - the second smallest bird in the world. Very tiny, but very noisy, common, and bold.

I got to see 46 bird species in the DR. Other DR bird highlight and thoughts:

• Cattle Egret - might not be the most common bird, but surely is the most visible bird. There is always one or more flying overhead.
• Common Ground Dove - I had seen these guys in SC before, but they were in decent numbers around Jarabacoa. They are tiny, cute little doves that have nice rusty patches on their wings.
• Hispaniolan Parrot - at the headquarters for the National Park in La Ciagna, I looked up and saw a flock of parrots winging across the valley.
• Hispaniolan Lizard-cuckoo - I got to see two of these gorgeous cuckoos on the trail to Pico Duarte.
• Smooth-billed Ani - These cuckoos were decently common around Jarabacoa. Massive bills and round tails.
• Antillean Palm-swift - These small swifts were abundant, but I didn't even try to take a picture of them.
• Hispaniolan Pewee - The only other flycatcher I saw. I was a little surprised by this.
• Caribbean Martin - a pretty martin.
• Red-legged Thrush - I saw this attractive thrush about 10 times around Jarabacoa.
• Hispaniolan Spindalis - Just a brief look while driving.
• Hispaniolan Oriole - A very attractive bird.