The Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge and
Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge happened on Wednesday and Friday respectively,
with 10 volunteers at Hart Mtn and 9 volunteers at Sheldon (the same crew minus
one).
Conditions at Hart Mtn were very challenging with up to 5 inches of fresh snow
still blowing around in strong winds most of the day, so birds were mostly
hiding out in sheltered canyons or foraging on the ground under snow-covered
sagebrush. At Sheldon we had calm weather and sunshine most of the day, though
things were cold (starting off at 2 F in the Virgin Valley just before dawn)
and songbirds were still hunkered down much of the day.
Two COMMON REDPOLLS about a mile west of Hart Mtn headquarters, found by Pat
Grediagin and Jeff Picton while they were driving in on Tuesday afternoon, were
seen again on count day and at least one was still there on Thursday morning,
foraging on and under rabbitbrush. A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD in "downtown" Plush,
found by Cindy Zalunardo and Coleen Pidgeon on Tuesday afternoon and was still
in the same hedgerow on count day, frustratingly still 1/2 mile outside the
count circle. Roy Morris found six GREATER SAGE-GROUSE for the count, also just
west of HQ. We ended with 33 species plus a flock of TUNDRA SWANS flying over
for count week.
More COMMON REDPOLLS were found at Sheldon on Friday. Around 9 AM Gawain Geier
photographed a lone bird along the road into Virgin Valley (again in a stand of
rabbitbrush) which flew off toward the east, then and hour later photographed a
flock of 10 near the hot springs in the campground which flew off toward the
southwest. Meanwhile Coleen and Cindy, found what was likely a separate flock
of 15 to 20 redpolls in the trees just behind the refuge manager's residence,
which flew off toward the west. In the afternoon they also had a flock of 5
(identified by calls) fly over in the Kinney Camp area, several miles to the
WNW. These were likely separate flocks so there may be as many as 36 in the
area, though moving around quite a bit and seemingly spending much of the time
out in sagebrush/rabbitbrush habitat away from the roads. Adam Bradley was able
to relocate one bird in the old HQ area on Saturday.
Two AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS found by Roy along the entrance road into Virgin
Valley, were also notable birds for this count, which finished with 29 species.
Count-week additions included a Ring-billed Gull that turned up on Saturday,
and a SHORT-EARED OWL that Gawain and I saw in the headlights as we were
driving out to help Roy on the Winnemucca CBC yesterday.
--
Joel Geier
(writing from Sheldon NWR near Denio, NV)
