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.