A Brit abroad

The great snowcock chase

Fellow birder and blogger Alison is getting dangerously close to seeing 700 species in the US and Canada, so when she told me of a plan to go chasing the introduced Himalayan Snowcock in Nevada, I jumped at the chance. The alarm was set for 5:15 and by 6am Sid, Kevin, Rick, Alison and I were en route to the Ruby Mountains. The looong drive through Nevada passes through dry sagebrush country occasionally interspersed with interesting rock formations.

Birds were few and far between, save for some Sandhill Cranes in an irrigated field and some bonus Pronghorn at the roadside. Most of our lunch options were restaurants attached to the numerous casinos, and my fellow birders couldn't resist feeding the hungry slits...

Portions were generous...

... and the merchandise patriotic!

We took a break to bird Rye Patch Reservoir. The reservoir itself held Western and Clark's Grebes, plus a single Caspian Tern, but most of the interesting birds occurred around the well-vegetated campground. Breeding Blue Grosbeak, Laz Bunting and Say's Phoebe were augmented by a number of western migrants, including my only Nashville and Townsend's Warblers of the trip.

A good 12 hours after waking up, we arrived at Lamoille Canyon, picking up Lewis's Woodpecker and Clark's Nutcracker on the drive up. We started to walk the trail from the campground, noting Pine Siskins, MacGillivray's Warblers, numerous Brewer's Sparrows, and best of all the aptly-named Dusky Grouse as a lifer.

On drive back to Elko, 2 Bobolinks on a roadside fence were a pleasant surprise.

After a very bad night's sleep, the 3am start wasn't much fun, although my lifer Porcupine on the drive up made up for this. We began the hike up Island Lake trail in the dark, arriving in snowcock country at sunrise.

At first light there was lots of passerine activity, many Cassin's Finches...

and Brewer's Sparrows.

After an hour of fruitlessly scanning the rock faces for snowcock, I decided to take a wander, adding Gray-headed Junco, Virginia's Warbler, and Mountain Bluebird to the trip list.

Mammals proved to be a highlight, with several sightings of Mountain Goat (lifer)...

plus Pika (often spotted by its Red-breasted Nuthatch-like alarm call)

and Yellow-bellied Marmot.

These fritillary sp. were swarming over flowers in the washes.

After much searching, we decided to leave in the early afternoon and try again at 3am the following morning. We had the glum thought that maybe we were too late in the season (no snow, no calling birds), but a hearty soup in a Basque restaurant and an early night helped restore our spirits.

Next morning's 3am start was a little easier after a good night's sleep, but in the first 2 hours of daylight we again had no sightings. I decided to concentrate on scanning the ridgeline, under the assumption that the birds would have to walk or fly over into the valley, picking up a fly-by Prairie Falcon and perched Golden Eagle in the process.

Just as I was scoping a Mountain Goat on the ridgeline, another group from Utah picked up a Himalayan Snowcock. I was surprised to find them looking at the very same Mountain Goat, and even more surprised that the 'rock' to its right turned out to be the bird we were all looking for!

Using Sid's 60x lens I was able to convince myself that it really was a bird, and even managed a couple of recognizable shots through his scope with my camera on full zoom.

The birds can be really hard to pick out unless standing against the skyline - there are actually 3 snowcocks in the shot below...

Having achieved our goal, we headed down the mountain to start the 8+ hour drive home, stopping off for a cute chipmunk sp. (ID anyone?)...

... and some very photogenic Lewis' Woodpeckers.

As we left Elko, I counted up the trip list to find that we're dangerously close to 100 species. During the drive back we add some quality species like Mallard and Canada Goose, but it takes a pit stop at Donner state park to push us over 100 with Belted Kingfisher and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Another chipmunk sp (Lodgepole?) to test your ID skills.

Nearing Sacramento our 103rd and final species for the trip tally was the Central Valley endemic Yellow-billed Magpie. Was it worth the 16-hour roundtrip drive and over 2 hours of uphill hiking in the dark at 10000ft for an oversized Chukar? Hell yeah!

Posted by rjhall at August 24, 2007 8:37 PM