Cactus Wren at Red Rock Canyon State Park

We were on our way to Death Valley last week in the middle of the Bombogenesis storm, and indeed the constantly falling rain caused us to get creative in our selection of stopping places. Even though it was closed for the season, the visitor center at Red Rock Canyon State Park had a narrow porch where we could talk without getting rained on, so we gathered there to catch up on our notes. As I finished up, a pair of unfamiliar birds landed on the Joshua Tree next to where we were talking. It was a Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus), a bird I've seen only a handful of times, since I live north of their normal range. The last time I got pictures was during our southwest trip a few years back. These were a lot closer and sharper.

The Cactus Wren is a denizen of the southwest deserts and Mexico. It is well-adapted to dry conditions, rarely needing to drink water, since it gets the moisture it needs from its diet of insects and fruits. It is not considered endangered, but its numbers declined by around 55% in the last fifty years.

Bird of the Day: Sagebrush Sparrow in the Mojave National Preserve

Today's bird is a totally new one for me, and given the circumstances I'm not surprised that I've never seen it before. It's a Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis). They are apparently quite common, but hard to see, as they spend much of their time in the shrubs, and as you can see in these photographs, they blend in well with their surroundings. I wouldn't have even seen them except for the movement.

We were on our way home from a short trip in Arizona and stopped to stretch our legs at the Essex Road offramp on Interstate 40. This is one of the entrances to the Mojave National Preserve, one of the gems of our national park system. The park preserves a wide swath of the best parts of the Mojave Desert, with high mountains with relict fir forests, pediments with thick forests of Joshua Trees, and valley floors covered by some of the highest sand dunes in North America. The mountain range in the picture above is part of the Providence Mountains, which is famous for a number of cavern systems, including Mitchell Caverns. During the recent depression, the park was shut down, and vandals did their terrible work on the facilities. An effort is being made to reopen the caverns as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Sagebrush Sparrows were quietly moving along the shrubs near the freeway offramp. It was a while before I even noticed them. Although it won't surprise my birder friends, I have been astounded by the diversity of bird life in California that I've always overlooked in the past. There are a great many new birds out there to be discovered, some gaudy with bright colors, and others well-camouflaged in their drabness.