A Short Hike to End of Day With at Red Springs Desert Oasis

Date: December 29, 2020

Place: Red Springs Desert Oasis, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.146576, -115.419131

Length: 1.1 mile

Level: easy

The day of our 2020 desert trip to Las Vegas that we dedicated to birding started with a very nice birding walk at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, which was followed with another nice walk but with fewer birds at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. We had about an hour of sunlight left so we went to the Red Springs Desert Oasis park, which was on our way back to our lodge. The sun hasn't set yet but it was already low enough to hide behind the low butte west of the parking area. 

There were three trailheads at the parking lot and we took the south loop trail where the boardwalk was, which was also the main trail of the park. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 

The boardwalk encircles a botanical area watered by the springs. The entire place looked dry - I guess the springs were not flowing at the time of our visit. 

I focused my attention on the surrounding views. The geology of the area was fabulous and we had a very nice view of the red Aztec sandstone layer that make the Calico Hills. Interpretive signs similar to those we've seen in the Red Rock Canyon national Conservation Area explained some of the area's geology. 

Another interpretive sign informed us about the mutualistic connection between the mistletoe plant and the phainopepla bird - the phainopepla relies on the mistletoe berries for food and the mistletoe needs to go through the bird's digestive tract in order to germinate. I read this and all the other signs with great interest but then I had to hasten to catch up with my family further up the trail. 

There weren't too many birds active there at the time, and the birds we did see were pretty common ones, such as the white-crowned sparrow. 

White-crowned Sparrow

We got closer to the rocky hill. The rock there was not the red Aztec sandstone - it had a pinkish color. It looked tempting to climb but I didn't see anyone climbing there.  

Below the rocky slopes were tall bushes that looked dry but perhaps were in their winter look. Clamps of mistletoe adorned these bushes. The mistletoe looked very much alive. Some little red berries were still hanging on the mistletoe stems. 

Sure enough, just as the interpretive sign that I saw earlier on the trail said, a phainopepla bird was sitting there in that bush, perched very close to the mistletoe. We didn't actually see her eating the berries though. 

Phainopepla, female

Another interpretive sign told us of the native people of this area, describing a bit their ancient ways of life, now completely extinct. Near the trail was a large boulder with a few petroglyphs and at least one modern graffiti. The sight of this boulder enticed a debate among us - wether the ancient petroglyphs were a form of graffiti, and if so, is modern graffiti a form of cultural expression that should be appreciated as petroglyphs are. My personal take on that question is that it depends. Petroglyphs may have been a form of graffiti but now some of the very few remains of an ancient culture we know very little about. Moreover, the petroglyphs aren't numerous and they don't take anything from the grandness of the surrounding natural beauty. Modern graffiti can be very much a form of cultural expression, but it should stay where it belongs - in the cities which is where this modern culture that forms the graffiti is. In nature, (as well as on many human-made settings) modern time graffiti is ugly and vandalistic, not to mention that most times it is completely meaningless. In short, while there might not be a philosophical difference between them, I'd take ancient petroglyphs any time over modern graffiti. 

During most of the time of our hike we were in the shade of the sandstone hill on our west. During that same time however, the sun was getting lower and the light was slowly waning. It was getting harder to distinguish details on the rocky slopes. 

The mockingbird was easy enough to see though, as it stood alone and in full view on top of one of the bare bushes near the hill. 

Northern Mockingbird

Another series of interpretive signs informed us of how the Red Springs were formed and the kind of vegetation and wildlife it supports. Since everything around us looked dry I could only conclude that the long drought had affected the flow of these springs. 

When we took the eastern part of the loop trail we finally got out of the hill's shadow and into the sunshine. Ahead of us stretched the mild alluvial slope deposited there by countless of flush floods coming down the mountain washes.  

From that part of the trail we had another, higher view of the red rock layer in the distance to the north of us. 

From that same view point I took some close-up shots of those red hills, one of which i used as a header photo for this blogpost. The close-up image with which I finish this post however, is that of that nice Mohave yucca in the foreground.  

Mohave Yucca, Yucca schidigera

This was the last hike we did that day. It was a short one, and we didn't see many birds, but it was a nice one to end our day with. 

 

 

More Desert and Less Desert Birds at Springs Mountain Ranch State Park

Date: December 29, 2020

Place: Springs Mountain Ranch State Park, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.069823, -115.458869

Length: 1.8 miles 

Level: easy

The forth day of our 2020 family winter trip was dedicated to birding walks. After having a nice morning birding walk at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Pappa Quail directed us to the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park where he hoped we would see more birds. Spring Mountains are the mountains northwest of Las Vegas - we've seen them earlier that day from the refuge - they had some snow up on the peaks. 

As was the case with the Desert NWR, this place too used to be a functional ranch before it was turned over to the state to become a state park. We drove in directly to where the old ranch house was on a narrow road flanked with white low fences and a number of tall ash trees.  

Ranch Access Road

The building was closed. The parking lot was empty and there were no others there except us. The only reception we had was a sole roadrunner on the low cut and almost completely dry lawn. We were perfectly happy with this reception.

Greater Roadrunner

In a few moments we figured where we wanted to hike, got our stuff out of the car and started down the trail. 

Our walk as captured by my GPS

The trail started in the large ash grove. An interpretive sign informed us that this grove was the only grove of naturally growing Arizona ash trees in the state of Nevada, and that their presence indicates the presence of underground water close to the surface. 

Arizona Ash, Fraxinus velutina

The ash are deciduous trees so naturally they were bare of leaves during our wintery visit. This of course, made it easier for us to see the birds that were active in their branches. 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The presence of underground water did good for other plants as well. I don't know if the cholla cactus has deep enough roots but the cholla that we saw there were large and very healthy looking. 

Buckthorn Cholla, Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa

As we distanced ourselves from the ranch house and the ash grove the vegetation became much lower, and the already familiar community of small shrubs and yucca plants covered the low hills. An interpretive sign encouraged us to look for blooming annuals but of course we saw none - it was not the season for it. 

Trail

The trail brought us close to the creek. I didn't expect to see any surface water flowing but to my surprise there was some trickle flow in the creek. I noticed other hikers down by the water. It wasn't a warm day by any means, but people did enjoy the close contact with rare water in the vast arid desert space.

Creek

The trail crossed the creek and bent sharply to the southwest. Ahead of us were the foothills of the Spring Mountains, and the aztec sandstone layers were visible at the bottom of the hills. I hardly noticed them though - ahead of me was an unexpected sight -a Joshua tree. Joshua trees are a feature of the Mojave desert, not of the Great Basin desert which was where we were a. I guess this tree didn't get the memo. 

Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia

Further down the trail opened up a loop and as we curved around it we got a nice view of the mountains on the northeast which were much lower and more arid than the Spring Mountains. Directly before us however, was another area of trees and other tall riparian vegetation. 

Some of the trees we saw there were live oak trees. Many of the oak trunks were covered with little holes - the work of sapsuckers, which are a type of woodpeckers. The sapsucker poke a series of holes called sap wells in the trunk. The tree sap seeps into and wells inside these wells where it attracts insects. The sapsucker then returns to drink the sap and eat the bugs. 

Sapsucker Wells

We didn't see any sapsucker in that spot, but we did see another species of woodpecker there - the ladder-backed woodpecker. 

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

The trail curved through the oak trees and turned back to the north. These oaks were there only evergreen trees around, what classifies them as a species of live oaks. 

Scrub Live Oak, Quercus turbillena

Near the trail was a wide sandy area that was almost bare of vegetation. An interpretive sign informed us that this place was a 'sand bath' for burros, or feral donkeys - descendants of runaway domestic donkeys that were used by miners and ranches in the past. We saw no burros in the area, and not even dung piles, Apparently it had been a while since the burros were here last. 

Another interpretive sign said that in the park grew about 60 plant species, of which about 12 were endemic to the area. Naturally, we didn't see any annual plants, but the trees, even in their bare winter appearance, were quite lovely. 

Back on the north side of the creek we went on another loop that the trail system offered. It looked like there weren't too many birds around and those that were present, didn't make it easy for us to see or photograph. 

I was happy with the desert plants I saw, even the dry cacti, but my family birders as well as the younger chika were getting frustrated. We pressed on. 

Along this part of the trail the trees were shorter, but closer together, forming what looked like a more protective area for wildlife. We didn't see any wildlife there at the time though, so we moved on to complete the loop. 

All of the bushes near that part of the trail were bare of leaves. They could have been deciduous, I didn't know what species they were, but they could have also been dead. The local cacti looked very dry and unhappy, indicative a severe shortage of eater. 

Beavertail Cactus, Opuntia sp.

We completed the birding walk with a very low bird count. I liked the place but Pappa Quail and the elder chika were not satisfied at all. Having some daylight time left we decided to stop and check out one more place on the way back to town, so upon leaving the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park we drove off to Red Springs Desert Oasis - a small park just outside Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. 

 

 

Desert Birds Birding in the Desert at Desert National Wildlife Refuge

Date: December 29, 2020

Place: Desert National Wildlife Refuge at Corn Creek, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.438007, -115.358795

Length: 1.9 miles

Level: easy

Our winter of 2020 family vacation was in the larger Las Vegas Area because our original plan to visit Death Valley National Park got cancelled with the government closure of the park due to the pandemic. It was Pappa Quail who planned this vacation, so a significant part our time there was dedicated to birding. After consulting the Audubon Society publications, Pappa Quail came up with a list of birding hot spots in the area. We had already visited one of them on our first day in the area - the Clark County Birding Center. Three days later, after having visited the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Valley of Fire State Park, both of which centered around the magnificent geology of the area, it was time to go birding again. The first destination of the day was the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, an area north of Las Vegas that used to be a ranch and is now part of the federal wildlife refuge system. 

I go out of the car to a view very much like most other southwestern desert flat basins I've been to: a wide alluvial plateau of gravel and stones loosely covered with desert shrubs, which in the middle of 2020 winter looked pretty dry.

 

There were no staff in the NWR at the time. We picked up a brochure with an illustrated map at the kiosk, gathered our things and started north in the direction of the Corn Creek Spring, where we hoped to see some birds.

The Corn Creek Springs were a fairly short walk from the trailhead. We didn't see any open water though, just a line of riparian vegetation, some of which green, that was marking where the water was. Whether there was any surface water I did not know.

The Great Basin Desert, is the largest type of desert in North America. It consists of multiple basins - lower flat areas into which water collects and evaporates, frequently leaving behind an alkali lake or a salt flat. Although direct precipitation is uncommon, water does come down to the basins from the surrounding mountains. Desert NWR is in the north part of the big basin of Las Vegas and even though it is narrower in this part, it was large enough that the surrounding mountains looked distant. 

The basin looked very dry but the mountain tops had some snow. The creek that extended from the springs area wasn't flowing, and the vegetation looked dry. 

The vegetation was also quite low and nothing obstructed our view in all directions. We followed a narrow foot path that looped between the dry shrubs, watching and listening for birds. 

Trail

The ranchers of Corn Creek were not, of course, the earliest people living in the area and utilizing the springs. Although I didn't see signs with information about the local indigenous people, we did see some displays, evidence of their former living here, such as the grinding stone. 

Grinding Stone

The first wildlife we saw on the trail was not in fact, a bird, but a little mammal. It was an antelope squirrel, with small, flattened ears. 

White-tailed Antelope Squirrel

Even though it was dry at the time, it was clear that water does flow in Corn Creek fairly regularly. The vegetation along the creek line was considerably taller and thicker than in the surrounding. Some of it even looked greenish. 

Many of the mesquite bushes and the oaks supported a good number of mistletoe balls, which often looked more alive than their wintering hosts. 

Mistletoe

Mistletoe berries are a staple for many bush birds. Naturally, it was there  in the mistletoe-laden mesquite thicket by the vreek that we started seeing birds, and lots of them. 

Northern Mockingbird

The thicket also made it more difficult to take clear photos of the little birds. As patiently as Pappa Quail and the elder chika waited, sometimes they had to settle for tweets only. 

Phainopepla, male

The trail curved gently back south and on the way we got a nice view of the Spring Mountains on the west. On the following day we planned to visit those mountains. 

Closer to the center of the NWR we saw a few old cabins. This were the historic farm structures.  An information sign informed us that these structures were build of reclaimed materials from discontinued railroad that linked area mines that were exhausted. 

We looked a little bit at the historical relics, but more so at the trees around the old ranch site, which were considerably larger than those that grew more upstream Corn Creek. There were more birds in the trees, and they were easier to see and to photograph, too.

Townsend's Solitaire

It was a short walk from the historic ranch site to the center of the refuge, but it was a very walk for us - the birds were abound in this area, and our family birders busy. 

Phainopepla, female

There were two  cemented and maintained ponds in the center of the wildlife refuge. Naturally, most of our bird sightings were in this area of the refuge, and the place where we hanged out the bigger part of our time there. 

Green-winged Teal

The ponds were connected by a flowing part of the creek. I assume that water was collected directly from the spring and held in the upper pond, from there it was released controllably into the creek connector and the lower pond. We walked a couple of time up and down the connecter creek, searching the water and the trees for birds.

Corm Creek

There were indeed some nice birds in the area, including a cute snipe that the elder chika found by the creek. Snipes are shy birds that are very well camouflaged, and it was nice to see it out in the open. 

Wilson's Snipe

We hoped to see some waterfowl in the pond but the surface looked clear of birds. An information sign by the water told us of the importance of riparian habitats in the desert and of a native water snail that became endangered de to the invasion of human-introduced crayfish. 

From the lower pond we went on a second loop trail on the north, west of the previous loop that we hiked. 

Still within the riparian area where the larger trees were, we got to see the red-naped sapsucker poking at the tree trunks in search of food. 

Red-naped Sapsucker

As the distance from the open water grew, the vegetation became lower, and the trees were replaced by thick bushes. 

Trail

Soon we were once again walking in an area of low shrubs and dry-looking bushes with red mistletoe balls. Once again it was quiet all around with only the occasional bird that would quickly disappear in the vegetation upon our approach. 

We looped around the trail and started back south. We could spot the places where water would be held for longer periods of time or that underground water was closer to the surface by the clamps of taller trees. These trees, which were mostly ash trees, were in full winter appearance - completely bare of leaves.

We completed this part of the hike fairly quickly. The trail was easy and comfortable to walk on, and there were no displays or special sights along the way, only the quiet desert calm. 

Trail

Once again at the creek we spent more time looking at the birds but didn't see anything that we haven't seen on our first ass through the area, so we continued around the pond to the south, to where the visitor center was located. 

Corn Creek

The visitor center, like all other federal places we've been to on this trip, was closed due to the pandemic. We passed some time poking around and reading the interpretive signs. The building had large glass windows that were spotless clean. Several very realistic-looking corvid silhouettes were glued to the glass. I assumed that was to prevent other birds from crashing into the windows.  

Reflection

There was a small botanical garden of native plants near the building and I went around it, looking at the plants. I did find one that was sort of in bloom - the pretty apricot mallow. 

Apricot Mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua

The apricot mallow was already familiar to me from California, and so was the California barrel cactus, which although named after California, does not recognize state boundaries. 

California Barrel Cactus, Ferocactus cylindraceus 

Pappa Quail and the elder chika did find some more birds near the visitor center, where a bird feeder was located. 

American Goldfinch

After seeing what there was to see in the area of the visitor center it was a short walk back to the parking area. The chikas wanted lunch and we took off to eat and to our next destination - the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park where we were hoping to see more birds.