OUTDOOR BRIEFS

Late winter rains bring life to the desert

Spring rains bring life and life begins with the color green. Green plants bring out the insects, and insects bring out the lizards and it continues up through the food chain. Because of several heavy rainstorms that have passed through Southern Nevada recently, this spring should prove promising for the wildflowers in the Mojave Desert.

Pat Cummings, game biologist for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said fall and winter rains are beneficial for a number of plants, including smaller annual plants like grasses and forbs, the favorite food plants of upland birds and small mammals. Insects, important to birds like quail as well as lizards, also increase in numbers with the rains. “Quail need to consume a large amount of seeds and insects to put on body weight, which is important for a successful egg hatch,” said Cummings. Spring and summer rains, on the other hand, benefit the larger, perennial plants, which are fodder for large herbivores, like bighorn sheep and mule deer.

“Bighorn lambs, which are dropped in March, need to grow quickly. They are dependent on their mothers’ milk, which in turn is dependent on the ewes’ ability to forage,” he added.

Desert shrubs also provide shady cover for small animals when temperatures become hot. The peak blooming times for the desert plants is February through April, so expect animals to be easier to see during this time. Plants at the lower elevations bloom first and the bloom progresses up in elevation, but not necessarily from south to north. However, blooms are seen earlier on south-facing slopes where it is warmer. Areas of bloom will be patchy, reflecting the areas most affected by rainfall and providing gathering places for the animals that forage on them.

The yellow, daisylike blooms of brittlebush and desert marigold are some of the first to appear, followed quickly by the bright orange desert globemallow. Globemallow is the favorite plant of the desert tortoise, so it makes sense that tortoises come out of their burrows just about the time the globemallow starts growing in the spring.

LEARN MORE

Bird taxidermy workshop slated

With the interest in bird watching at an all-time high, folks are looking for ways to extend the experience. Taxidermy specimens can provide another opportunity to appreciate birds.

Museums have used the art of taxidermy for centuries to ensure the availability of birds for further study.

Scientists often compare fresh specimens to “study skins” to confirm species identity and look for variations. And the Nevada Department of Wildlife regularly uses taxidermy specimens in their education programs, said Cris Tomlinson, the agency’s supervising wildlife diversity biologist.

On Saturday, NDOW is sponsoring a Bird Taxidermy Demonstration and Workshop at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Award-winning bird taxidermist Ted Cassidy will be demonstrating his techniques for skinning and mounting birds. The demonstration will be ongoing from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and will serve as one installment in the museum’s Junior Science series. Visitors will be allowed to drop in on the event, and children will be able to do a mock taxidermy activity — no supplies are required.

Participants may want to visit the museum’s many dioramas where they will see both live and mounted animals. A fee of $8 per adult and $4 per child gets you into the museum and the event. This event is jointly sponsored by the Las Vegas Natural History Museum and Nevada Department of Wildlife. For more information, call the museum at 384-3466.

SAGE GROUSE

Department of Wildlife readies for surveys

The Nevada Department of Wildlife is preparing for its annual sage grouse lek surveys and needs your help. Every year, beginning in early March, NDOW biologists and volunteers rise in the early morning hours, travel to sage grouse strutting grounds and count birds. This important data will assist wildlife biologists in determining the number of sage grouse found in our state. This is particularly important now, since the sage grouse is under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for potential listing as either threatened or endangered.

Lek surveys are conducted during the months of March, April and early May, and take place throughout the state, although mostly north of Highway 50. Volunteers will travel to assigned leks and observe and count strutting birds. Anyone interested in participating in lek survey should sign up for a mandatory training session scheduled for Saturday in Reno, and sometime in early April in Elko. Volunteers can sign up for this training session via the NDOW Web site at www.ndow.org/learn/vol/recruiter/index.shtm

For more information on the Reno training session, contact Kim Toulouse at (775) 688-1893. For the Elko training session, contact Norv Dallin at (775) 777-2391.