Las Vegas - Day 3: Lake Mead (12/27 morning)

Wednesday we made the short trip out to explore the Lake Mead/Hoover Dam area. We never truly got off of Eastern time so it was pretty easy to get out to the park early. The weather wasn't on our side though as a light mist blanketed the lake for most of the morning.

We started at the boat launch close to the park entrance. It was so early that the area was pretty deserted. We drove down to the water and admired the view. The lake was certainly huge... even the tiny corner of it we were looking at. Apparently the whole Colorado River area has been in a drought for the past few years and the water in the lake was significantly down. You could even see the whitewash on the shore that designated the normal water level.

Surprisingly, there weren't many birds on the water here. We spied some Coot and a Common Merganser or two but that was it. So, I started back up to road. There were tons of sparrows in the bushes but in the low light they were hard to pinpoint. At a small picnic area near the road I spotted a Say's Phoebe hawking for insects. A few minutes later a small flock of Gambel's Quail came into view. The birds obviously didn't like to be out in the open so they scampered from bush to bush. Along with the quail were several White-crowned Sparrows. They were foraging at the edge of the brush and were actually buzzed by an American Kestrel looking for a kill. The Kestrel perched on a lightpole and surveyed the area for opportunities for a couple minutes before I scared him off.

But the most surprising thing of them morning was that a few plants were actually flowering at the end of December. I found a couple different flowering bushes (one with large yellow flowers and the other with small white ones) but I couldn't identify either.

After taking a short walk we left to head to the Hoover Dam. As we drove out of the park, we had one final sighting. A bird flew low across the road just in front of the car. It was just a quick glimpse but we decided that it was a Clark's Nutcracker.