The road to Nevada





So after the end of the spring semester, I undertook a crosscountry journey to scenic Nevada. Quite a lot of miles in a short stretch, but I was able to split the drive time with my dad, which was good enough to preserve my brains from going to oatmeal. Didn't have much time to stop anywhere for long, but I did see the Hoover Dam.

 

Well, it's a dam...

So now I work for the University of California Berkeley, helping with a project to survey birds. It's part of the Grinnell Resurvey project, to compare diversity today to records from a century ago. It's a good way to see how changes in land use and climate might have affected different species of birds.

Kershaw-Ryan State Park

So the first stop was Kershaw-Ryan State Park for training and starting the first sites. For the first five days me, another tech, and our boss PhD student were training, birding for 6-8 hours a day in one of the most diverse spots in the state. I had some trouble at first, my fault not looking into the fine print on the birding list, but I'm pretty solid now. In the off time, I was able to explore the park.

Birding in the wash outside Kershaw-Ryan SP

 

Then we started doing the actual point counts. Unlike Texas, these points are done solo, and only for seven minutes. Three days of busy surveys down in the wash in Kershaw-Ryan, then a jaunt down to Moapa.

 

Low, dry country of the Moapa transect 

 

Compared to Kershaw-Ryan, the Moapa site is much more remote and quiet. The campsite's no official site, just a patch near a BLM dirt road to park the car. Unfortunately not much in the way of birding here (mostly black-throated sparrows and ash-throated flycatchers), but interesting new habitat of yucca, cats-claw, and cacti. 

 

Panorama shot from the Moapa campsite

 

After two days surveying at Moapa, the ten days of work turned over for four days off in Logandale. Some time sleeping in a real bed, a place with a kitchen and internet access, pretty nice. I even got to slip off to nearby Valley of Fire State Park, full of curious rocks and mysterious petroglyphs. Anyway to conclude, a bit of a hectic start but getting into the swing of things in a thoroughly interesting set of places.