Migrating birds enliven winter walks in Southern Nevada

Winter walking in Southern Nevada’s parks means spending time in the company of feathered friends that last paid a visit a year ago. Local parks with large ponds — Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Wetlands, Sunset, Cornerstone, Veterans Memorial, Craig Ranch, Lorenzi and Floyd Lamb — attract wintering birds that might include American wigeons, redheads, ring-necked ducks, Canada geese, buffleheads, gadwalls and snow geese. A squadron of American white pelicans predictably loafs and feeds in the Las Vegas Wash each winter.

Even parks without bountiful waters become spots where extra birds blend in temporarily with year-round resident populations. Those might include visiting white-crowned sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, American pipits and northern flickers, many foraging in leaf litter and perching on bare branches.

Just as human “snowbirds” might flock to Las Vegas to escape the north’s frigid temperatures and icy conditions, birds fly south to experience warmth and food security during winter months. Millions of birds migrate to Central America and Mexico while thousands stop over in Southern Nevada. Their monthslong visits add beauty and appeal to winter walks in the Las Vegas Valley.

Getting some outdoor exercise this time of year gives walkers the chance to get acquainted with waterfowl whose colorful feathers often make up handsome tapestries. It’s best but not necessary to have a pair of binoculars while walking. The opportunity is now, whether you’re mildly curious about birds, focused on figuring out the differences among ducks or just wanting to walk in a different space.

For those wanting to elevate the winter birding experience, educational programming and guided walks are offered by Red Rock Audubon Society, Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve and Clark County Wetlands Park.

Here’s information about several local parks where walkers can see winter birds that will mostly stick around until March before returning to regions as far north as the Arctic to raise families.

Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve

Its nine accessible ponds of reclaimed water make the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, 350 E. Galleria Drive, a strong contender for best winter birding hot spot in Southern Nevada. The preserve, with more than 4 miles of walking trails, attracts hundreds of snowbirds each winter.

Most commonly seen in January are the big-beaked northern shovelers that have a curious group-feeding strategy of swimming in large swirling circles to stir up fallen seeds and other nutritious tidbits. A late December visit to the Henderson preserve brought sightings of shovelers, snow geese, buffleheads, cinnamon teals, ruddy ducks, mallards, Canada geese, green-winged teals, Northern pintails and American wigeons. A Wilson’s snipe, an uncommonly seen shorebird, was feeding with its extra-long beak on the shoreline of Pond 1, right outside the visitor center’s back door. A belted kingfisher perched nearby.

The Henderson preserve, which closes to the public in the early afternoon, is also an important resting stop during spring and fall migrations along the Pacific Migratory Flyway. Resident birds reliably seen there year-round include greater roadrunners, Gambel’s quail and crissal thrashers, among others.

Clark County Wetlands Park

This park, headquartered at near the eastern end of Tropicana Avenue at 7050 Wetlands Park Lane, is an excellent, expansive natural area to search for wintering waterfowl. It includes a nature preserve with plenty of parking and a visitor center, but many of the park’s ducks, geese and even American white pelicans feed and rest in the Las Vegas Wash, as it makes its way closer toward Lake Mead.

Views of that area are made possible by a string of stops along Galleria Drive heading east toward Lake Las Vegas. Stops include the Pabco and Wells trailheads as well as Terrazza Park and Powerline Crossing. A mostly paved walking and biking path, the 14-mile Wetlands Loop, can be tackled in smaller sections. The south side of the loop trail offers bird’s-eye views of the wash (an urban river that carries more than 200 million gallons of reclaimed water and runoff toward Lake Mead every day).

Along the Wetlands Loop, vegetation obscures parts of the Las Vegas Wash, but the view opens up in spots to reveal calmer waters with groups of wintering birds, possibly including American white pelicans, lesser scaup, gadwalls and American wigeon.

In the Wetlands Park Nature Preserve, which includes a network of paved walking trails, visitors recently have reported seeing blue-winged teals and common mergansers as well as unexpected warblers, including the Cape May, Tennessee and northern parula. Those are in addition to more predictably seen resident birds like the great blue heron, greater roadrunners, Gambel’s quail and verdins as well as Anna’s and Costa’s hummingbirds.

Other birdy parks

In late December, according to checklists on the popular citizen science website eBird, snow geese had been spotted at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City, Lorenzi Park in central Las Vegas, Floyd Lamb Park in the northwest, Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas and Sunset Park just southeast of Harry Reid International Airport. All are pleasant and scenic spots with easy paths for winter walkers and water that attracts varying varieties of visiting waterfowl.

Sunset Park’s 14-acre manmade pond draws dozens of ducks, geese, grebes and double-crested cormorants. Redheads and canvasbacks were duck highlights during a late December visit. The busy urban park is a great place to get close-up views of waterfowl because they swim close to the shoreline in pursuit of human gifts of unhealthy food they shouldn’t eat: bread, popcorn and snacks. American wigeons, ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks and mallards are typically also found in Sunset pond’s winter mix.

Part of the fun when taking a winter walk in the park is not knowing which visiting feathered friends you’ll be lucky enough to encounter but being fairly confident you’ll find snowbird beauty if you look for it.