Wetlands in the desert – a magnet for migrating birds

We’re already halfway through our Great American Birding RoAd Trip, and Bob & Sue are at the mid-point of their holiday too. To celebrate, we decided to take the afternoon off. But before we did, we visited two excellent wetlands in the desert suburbs of Las Vegas – Clark County Wetlands Park and Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve (or poo ponds for short). They were both excellent birding facilities which added 62 species to our Nevada List, including an incredible total of ten duck species – Mallard, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Cinnamon Teal, Lesser Scaup and, most surprising of all, Red-breasted Merganser. There were plenty of ‘bush birds’ along the various trials, with useful maps and bird-lists to help us on our walk. We chillaxed in the afternoon and ate-in this evening, in our spacious and very well appointed apartment at the Desert Paradise Resort. All in all, a good day of birds and recuperation, taking my America List to 450 and the GABRAT total to 373 – give or take a couple of pending records.

The visitors centre and facilities at Clark County Wetlands Park – puts Cley NWT in perspective!

The biggest birding surprise amongst the ten species of duck was this female Red-breasted Merganser – normally a coastal species. Grab shot only

Yellow Warbler – one species amongst plenty of ‘bush birds’ along the trails

Desert Paradise Resort – with distant views of The Strip