The Henderson Christmas Bird Count of 2019 took place on Wednesday, December 18th.

​The Henderson Circle routes cover both urban and natural area settings and are led by experienced birders. In the time since the first Henderson count, the human population in Clark County has expanded nearly tenfold, significantly changing the landscape for birds and other wildlife. Our Henderson Circle routes take us through wetlands, a bird viewing preserve, desert washes, a golf course, a lake, urban parks, and other urban areas, giving us a chance to collect data important to understanding how the local bird population is changing.

The day started early with 31 volunteers meeting up at the Clark County Wetlands Park to receive their assignments, checklists and, if desired, a donut. Another three volunteers started their day at Lake Mead where they boarded a boat to count waterfowl on the lake and any birds they could spot on shore or in the air.

At the end of the day, the group met up at the Wetlands for a pizza dinner while they tallied their observations:
​
Species: 104 (+4 more from count week)
Birds: 11,588
​Miles walked: 18.3

​Many thanks to the route leaders, new and experience birders for spending the day with us, and to our good partners at the Clark County Wetlands Park and the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve for making the count a success.

​Written by Andrea Wirth and Nancy Chang

FYI here are the results of this year's Christmas Bird Count for the Red Rock Canyon Circle: • 19 volunteers participated

• 69 species recorded
• 1876 birds counted
• 26 miles walked
• 103 miles driven

Eleven volunteers completed the Lower Pahranagat CBC on December 15, 2019. We had grand total of 36,850 birds counted for the day. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge hosted the event. Volunteers met at the refuge’s visitor center, broke into groups, and headed out to the field. The temperatures ranged from the upper 20’s in the morning to the low 40’s by afternoon. The skies were clear and the winds were light, which made for a great day birding.

On Saturday December 14, 2019, Red Rock Audubon Society conducted the Corn Creek Christmas Bird Count. Fifteen participants braved our nice southern Nevada weather to count birds from sunrise to sunset. We recorded 77 species and 2,509 individual birds. Highlights included the Townsend’s solitaires, Le Conte’s thrashers, phainopeplas, and burrowing owls. Numbers of small songbirds like sparrows and warblers seemed to be low this year. Congratulations to CJ Vadovic and Daniel Mitev for participating in their first Christmas Bird count.

​The entire third grade from Ruby Thomas Elementary School visited the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve over three days in December. HBVP staff provided classroom instruction about birds and an outdoor migration game. RRAS volunteers led the students on a bird walk around Pond One and helped  students learn to identify some of the resident birds there.

​On Sunday December 8th, twelve volunteers from Red Rock Audubon and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services did some habitat restoration around Pond 1 at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. The weather was perfect and the goals were swiftly accomplished. 

​I recently had the pleasure of talking to a group of first graders about plastic pollution and how all of us living in So. Nevada can lessen its impact on our environment. 

This was part of a series or presentation, Red Rock Audubon is doing wth the Winchester Culural Center called the Winchester Nesters.

​Many thanks to the volunteers for spending a beautiful fall morning at the Rainbow Owl Preserve. We accomplished our goals - clearing out all the Halogen and Russian Thistle, picking up trash, planting native plants and sowing native seeds.

​On Saturday, Nov 24, representative from Canon came out to the HBVP to demonstrate their photographic equipment and stabilized binoculars.