Daytrip - Las Vegas Springs Preserve

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On 04/27 Jim Herring, Blake Smith and myself visited the Springs Preserve for some picture taking. We started out having lunch in the Divine Cafe. After lunch we spent several hours walking around the botanical gardens and then stopped by the butterfly habitat taking pictures. Even though I have been here several times, I always seem to come away with some nice pictures.Click here for pictures and a description of this trip ... Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Spring Flower Video Slideshow

Recently I created a slideshow of various flower and cacti pictures that I captured on some of my hikes over the past couple of years and can view it on YouTube. This slideshow contains 39 slides and only takes 5 minutes and 21 seconds to view on my YouTube site. You can check it out below:

Daytrip - Calico Tank Hike (RRCNCA)

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On 04/04/2018 Jim Herring and I decided to hike the Calico Tank hike. Even though the day started out overcast, it was in the 80's and quite comfortable and cleared up by the end of the hike. Even though I hiked this trail five years ago, I found it much more difficult this time around. Unfortunate, we should have waited until the end of April or until May. There was very little in the way of vegetation that was blooming. In spite of this, it was a good workout and the views made it well worth the effort. Click here for pictures and a description of this hike ... Calico Tank Trail (RRCNCA).

Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)

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Picture Notes:  I took these pictures (Figs. 01 & 02) on 5/19/2018 while walking in the Pittman Wash in Henderson, NV. Located in suburban Henderson, the Pittman Wash follows what is usually a dry wash through residential neighborhoods for nearly 2 miles. This large natural watercourse, sometimes wider than the Las Vegas Wash, carries flood waters from the Mount Potosi area of the Southwest Valley, to the Las Vegas Wash, and ultimately into Lake Mead. To read about the wash click here ... Pittman Wash - Summary Page.

Description: The killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a medium-sized plover. Killdeer have a characteristic large, round head, long tail, long flesh-colored legs, and long wings. The bill is short, dark, and thick. Plumage is brownish-tan on dorsal areas and white on the ventral belly and chest; the neck is also surrounded by a white collar. Two large, dark bands surround the upper breast with an additional band located on the head, spanning both the forehead and the area above the bill and continuing around the back of the head. The tail is brown with a black subterminal band, a white terminal band, and white outer tail feathers. Additional defining plumage characters include a brightly colored red-orange rump that is visible during flight and displays, white wing stripes visible during flight. Appearance does not vary between males and females, although breeding females may have additional brown plumage on the head. Juveniles resemble adults with the exception of buff fringe feathers and the presence of only one neck band (Figs. 1 & 2). An adult killdeer range in length from 9.1–10.6 inches with a wingspan averaging 19 in. The largest ringed plover, killdeer weigh 3.1 oz on average. The killdeer frequently uses a "broken wing act" and piteous cries they indulge in to draw potential predators away from nests and chicks.

During nesting season killdeer use open dry uplands, open areas where vegetation is short or absent, and meadows. In addition, killdeer use open wetland habitat and savannahs, selecting dry bare ground and dry ground with vegetation within wetland areas. Nesting habitat is characterized as having enough nest materials to form a scrape but otherwise having little or no vegetation. They are migratory in northern areas and winter as far south as northern South America.

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Pitman Wash - Visit Notes for 05/19/2018

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05/19/2018 Visit Notes: Once we got down into the wash and walked towards the south side we we came upon a steady stream of water that was running down the wash (Fig. 01). It ranged from only a few feet wide to areas that were more than 25 feet. As we walked further down the wash we came to an area referred to as the "pond" that actually had several birds like this Killdeer that were taking advantage of the excess water (Fig. 02). To read more about this bird click here ... Killdeer -(Charadrius vociferus). With a group of people this large it is difficult to get pictures of birds or animals, so I walked more than 40 to 50 feet ahead of the group. As a result I came upon a grouping of ducklings that no one else in the group ever got to see (Figs. 03 and 04). As I walked along the stream there were dozens of dragon flies and damsels skirting from bush to bush, but never seemed to land long enough for me to get a picture (Fig. 05), unlike my hiking partner Bob Croke who got a great picture of a damsel (Fig. 06). As we walked along the trails we got to see a variety of trees, shrubs and bushes, many in full bloom (Figs. 07 and 08).  At one point someone in the group spotted a tiny frog (Fig. 09). Before the end of the hike it started to get quite hot. We finally took advantage of one of the benches scattered throughout the wash while we listened to our leader biologist Larry Lodwick (in red) discuss the surrounding trees (Fig. 10).

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(Fig. 06) courtesy of Bob Croke

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Return to the main page ... Pittman Wash - Summary Page

Las Vegas Springs Preserve - Trip Notes for 04/27/2018

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This page last updated on 04/28/2018

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04/27/2018 Trip Notes: Today, Jim Herring and Blake Smith and myself visited the Springs Preserve for some picture taking. We started out having lunch in the Divine Cafe. We ate out on the 2nd story deck which has a nice view of the City. After a nice lunch on the deck (Fig. 01) we headed to the flower and cactus gardens and the butterfly habitat for some picture taking. For the purpose of describing today's visit, I have divided this page into two sections; the flower and cactus garden and the butterfly habitat.

Flower and Cactus Garden: The Spring Preserve's Botanical Garden is an 8-acre garden
Flower and Cactus Garden with thousands of Mojave Desert and desert-adapted plants. Nearly all of the native and cacti and yucca species on the grounds were rescued from local lands that were being developed for residential or commercial use. More than 400 mature trees and plants, some 20 years old and more than 30 feet tall, were transplanted to the Botanical Garden and throughout the Preserve. The Mojave native plants on display were grown from cuttings collected in the Las Vegas Valley, making the plants genetically true and better adapted to the climate. This is an inviting oasis and provides hundreds of picture taking opportunities. The Preserve's collection has received the Award for Garden Excellence from Horticulture Magazine and was named one of the "Top 10 North American Gardens Worth Traveling For" at the Garden Tourism Awards. Though I was hoping to find more cactus in bloom, I was still able to capture some good ones.

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Butterfly Habitat: Description: Now a permanent part of the preserve, the butterfly habitat opened on 18 September, 2014. It is now open each fall and spring when the weather is ideal for their open-air habitat. The habitat has metal screen walls and can be entered through a vestibule with an inner and outer door to keep the butterflies from escaping. The habitat offers different types of butterflies each season, in part because of the insects’ short lifespan. On average, because they only spend a few weeks as an adult, they will be bringing in a variety of different species, including native species and exotics from around the world and changing them up from week to week or month to month. The butterflies are farm-raised and packed individually for transport to the habitat. This visit was somewhat disappointing. It was the least amount of butterflies I have ever seen here. Not sure if it was the heat and time of year or what. As a result I wasn't able to get very many good pictures. Though there were a log of the butterflies like the one in picture (Fig. 24), we couldn't get any of them to land long enough to get a picture in focus.

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Nevada State Museum: Even though we had all planned on going to the museum, Jim was the only one who went. Blake and I decided to head home. The museum is a 70,000-square-foot building, featuring a 13,000-square-foot exhibit gallery that stands as the museum centerpiece, featuring a replica of a Ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis (Fig. XX). This months' feature exhibit is "Finding Frémont: Pathfinder of the West". This exhibit focuses on explorer John C. Frémont’s Western journey from 1843-1844, when he earned his nickname “The Great Pathfinder,” and brought his famed cannon to Nevada. Among the centerpieces for the exhibit are the mountain howitzer that many believe is Frémont’s lost cannon, an archaeological discovery of mountain howitzer carriage parts, modern color photographs of Fremont campsites and vistas that retain their 19th century settings. After spending more than an hour touring the museums' exhibits we roamed some more of the springs' grounds taking pictures before heading home.

On my way home, I stopped at a park on Paseo Verde and took a few pictures of some roses. (Fig. 25)

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Go to ... Las Vegas Springs Preserve - Summary Page