Black-tailed Gnatcatcher at Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve

Here's a bird I never get to see on the home turf. Black-tailed Gnatcatchers (Polioptila melanura) are creatures of the desert southwest. We were on the second day of our Colorado Plateau field studies journey and had camped the previous night at Black Canyon in the Mojave National Preserve in eastern California. We were wandering around the visitor information center seeing what birds might be around.

The bird chases down insects and generally gets the moisture it needs from the food it consumes. They are true wilderness birds, rarely venturing into urbanized areas, but their numbers have suffered from habitat loss in desert regions of the southwest United States.

Cactus Wren at Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve

I was exploring Banshee Canyon at Hole in the Wall in the Mojave National Preserve when I spotted another bird species of the desert, a Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). The pictures aren't as sharp as I had hoped, but it was a great distance, and skies were overcast. Still, it was nice to see some new species as we started our exploration of the Colorado Plateau.

Oh, you think a picture of a Cactus Wren should have a cactus in it? Okay, the bird cooperated for a moment while it foraged on the desert floor...

The strange looking rocks are boulders of rhyolite tuff, a rock formed in huge explosive volcanic eruptions, like St. Helens, but hundreds of times larger. The eastern Mojave Desert is an excellent habitat for the wrens, as the slightly higher elevations there produce more vegetation and therefore more insects for the birds to track down. The bird doesn't need open water, deriving what it needs from the food it eats.

Black-throated Sparrow at Hole-in-the-Wall, Mojave National Preserve

The hiatus is over for a while at least. I've been on a tough road over the last two weeks, leading (and being led by) students all over the southwest. The trip was hectic, wonderful, and epic, but I was never able to go online with my laptop even once. The focus of the trip wasn't on birds, it was on geology and archaeology, but I was constantly on the alert for the possibility of seeing new birds in this new territory.

It didn't take long to add a new bird to my list. Our first night camping was at Hole-in-the-Wall in the Mojave National Preserve in eastern California. When the sun was rising, I heard a persistent new birdsong, and I scoured the slopes near camp trying to locate it. Eventually I found it and got a few distant pictures. It turned out to be a Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata). I would eventually find that it is a common bird of the desert southwest, but I'd never seen one in my home territory.

It wouldn't be right to call it a brightly colored bird, as it is white, black and gray, but the markings are certainly bold. It spent a lot of energy singing in the morning around our camp. It wasn't the last time I would see the bird on the trip. More on my other sightings later!