We left our hotel in Lake Havasu City and headed south to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge and the adjoining Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. Bill Williams River is a tributary of the much larger Colorado River. The refuge’s habitats include sun-baked cliffs, reed marshes and open river water. This provided us our first birding opportunity large amounts of water, and was welcomed by both of us after a week of the hot, dry desert.
The first birds we saw were ten Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii) running around the parking lot and among the campers there. We had seen the colorful quail on our first day of birding in Arizona in Phoenix, but had not seen them again until today. Running along the ground with their topknots jiggling, they are just as cute now as the first day we saw them.
The Black-Throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata) is a small sparrow in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is sometimes referred to as the desert sparrow, because its preferred habitat is arid desert hillsides and cottonwood tree scrub. We saw one today flitting around the base of some bushes at the refuge. This sparrow is pale gray above, with a black and white head pattern. The black throat is diagnostic.
We often see Pied-Billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) while birding in the Midsouth. We saw some today in a calm inlet of water as the Bill Williams River pours into Lake Havasu. There we also spotted several majestic, long-necked Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii). The Clark's Grebe ranges in size from 22 to 29 inches. Among its distinguishing features is its bill, which is slightly upturned and bright yellow. We studied the Clark’s Grebes carefully, debating whether they might be the Western Grebe ( Aechmophorus occidentalis), which looks very similar.
After lunch, we started to make our way up the Colorado River to Lake Mead. Lake Mead, when full, is the largest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity. We saw lots of jet skis and swimmers, enjoying the cool water to squelch the late summer heat. All this water was a slight shock to our systems. We had driven and hiked through the hot desert in southern Arizona. I guess we prefer water.
We were speeding up the highway and were suddenly thrown into such a traffic jam of gamblers heading to Las Vegas that we thought of the gamblers in Memphis heading to Tunica. Let me say that I think the intensity here was greater. We had a little trouble finding a hotel room. We finally found a places in the city of Henderson, Nevada. Robert ate a lovely seaweed salad and Tuna roll sushi for dinner. Berry had the edamame, miso soup and a California roll.
During dinner, we compared and contrasted the northern Arizona with southern Arizona. In Tucson, at night we noticed that the side streets did not have streetlights, so each little street was pitch black. In Las Vegas, every street has streetlights. We remembered that some Tucsonians had placed white Christmas lights on the cactus in their front yards, to provide light to a pitch black situation.
Robert and Berry
photos courtesy of wikipedia
So do we know why Tucson doesn't have street lights on side streets?? Anne
ReplyDeleteI am sure that it is an economic reason. We drove past them and it is pitch black. Some of the residents hang white Christmas lights on the cactus in their front yard, to provide light, in lieu of streetlights.
ReplyDeleteRobert