Brown Pelican edit Brown Pelican original I captured this image of Brown Pelican in flight at sunset near Westport WA. There were dozens of Brown Pelicans flying and landing on a rock jetty. As normal, the birds where taking on and landing into the wind and from my position I could only shoot shoot …
This year I decided to enter Focus On Nevada’s annual photography contest. I submitted several photos on the wildlife category and I won FIRST PRIZE in the Nature Category with my image of a Baird’s Sandpiper. Another one of my photos, Desert Bighorn Sheep also received Honorable Mention. https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2023-05-30/11th-annual-focus-on-nevada-photo-contest I feel very thankful to be …
Recently, I gave a webinar on how to identify some of the shorebirds that area seen in the Las Vegas area. Check out the video below for more details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1OEhFH-I3Q
There is a birding spot 1/2 mile from my house that I love, but most birders would never visit. Why? The birding area is part of the Upper Las Vegas Wash and it is very urban in every sense of the word. The water comes from street runoff and a couple water treatment …
Fox Sparrows are an uncommon sparrow in the Las Vegas area. We see a a handful each year, during migration and sometimes a few stay the winter. I took image early in the morning, just as the sun was rising. The Fox Sparrow was deep in a thickly vegetated. Luckily, I had my tripod …
Lucy’s Warbler (Leiothlypis luciae) is the first warbler heard singing around Las Vegas in the spring. In 1861, ornithologist and surgeon James Graham Cooper found Lucy’s Warbler along the lower Colorado River near Fort Mojave, Arizona—the site where present-day Arizona, California, and Nevada come together. Although many naturalists had traversed this region in previous …
A magnet is defined as something that attracts. The Las Vegas is often a magnet to birds. The natural and human maintained vegetation, the 200 million gallons of treated water flowing in the Las Vegas Wash and the shrinking, but still massive, Lake Mead provides food and water for many species of birds. During migration …
Las Vegas has the 7th busiest airport in the country. Couple that fact with the flat city with very limited vegetation and you get a LOT of noise pollution. How does this affect bird songs? Researchers have found that birds in noisy cities are very adaptable. Not only do they sing louder, but they also …
What is this bird hiding in the reeds? This bird is one of the most widespread species in North America, but many people have trouble identifying it. Why? The difficult in identifying this bird is due to sexual dimorphism. Don’t worry this is still a “G” rated post. Sexual dimorphism is when the …
What you and your camera see are not the same. When taking photos, there have been many times, what I saw with my eyes did not exactly match what my camera recorded. Usually, the camera records details I never noticed, such as a bird blinking its eye or a distracting element in the background. If …
