March 16th, 2014: Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor's Center, Mojave National Preserve

       When people think of Spring Break, images of Cabo San Lucas and throngs of inebriated college students acting like buffoons come to mind. As much as I like partying, I had no interest in participating in such activities on my week off. So I decided to take advantage of this break to get as much birding as possible done, and so along with my friend Kyle Kittelberger (whom I had met in Camp Chiricahua two years ago), I spent the week birding Southern California and Arizona, a trip I had wanted to do for a while. We had a whole itinerary planned out, but we ended up doing a lot of free-styling and deciding what we wanted to do on the spot. Kyle landed at SFO at 11:00 AM, and we left for Mojave National Preserve right away.

       We ended up driving a total of 9 hours (normally it would have only been a 7 hour drive, but being the budding birders we were, we had to stop and bird around along our drive). We parked near the Hole-in-the-Wall visitor's center in the preserve, along the side of the road so that we could actually bird the visitor's center in the morning.

       For those of you who don't know this, the desert may be hot during the day, but at night the temperature drops to near freezing, and despite the numerous layers we had, we just couldn't fight the cold. Add our discomfort due to the uncomfortable seats, and you get yourself a god-awful night. We hardly got any sleep, so this allowed us to get up at 6:00 AM, nice and early, giving us plenty of time to bird the area.

        We awoke to the buzzy songs of Black-throated Sparrows and the wurring calls of Cactus Wrens, sounds I hadn't heard in a longtime. It wasn't quite light yet, so we weren't quite able start visibly noticing the other birds. We were mostly hearing Lesser Goldfinches flying over and we heard our first Phainopepla of the trip, making its 'wo' call.

        Finally, first light broke, and we could actually start seeing birds! The first birds we noticed were a sizable flock of Black-throated Sparrows, with 4-5 individuals. Black-throated Sparrows are by far my favorite species of sparrow, from their namesake black bib, to their white supercilium and malar, and their white arc below. They are indeed pert little birds!

Black-throated Sparrow

           This species is mainly an inhabitant of sage and brushy desert habitat throughout the western side of the Rocky Mountains, where it thrives in numbers. My first experience with this species was 3 years ago in Death Valley National Park, where I found a single bird up on Dante's Peak, a high promontory looking onto the valley itself. After that first experience with it, I was in love with this species.

           Other birds in the area were the ever-present Common Ravens, a species I have seen in numerous habitats, ranging from mountains, to deserts, cities and woodlands alike. A Gambel's Quail quickly flew onto the top of the ridge, a few Western Scrub-Jays screeched at each other and a single Cactus Wren persistently called from the top of a nearby boulder, making sure Kyle and I were aware of its presence.

Cactus Wren

            My lifer Prairie Falcon quickly flew over, while a Greater Roadrunner sang its dreary and mournful song: a descending 'Coo, coo, coo'. We eventually ended up seeing the roadrunner, which offered great views of its long iridescent tail. As we walked around the visitor's center area, we heard another Phainopepla, and we were subsequently able to locate this female calling from inside this acacia bush, which offered remarkable views.

Female Phainopepla

        Finally, it was time to begin playing calls of our primary target species for this location: Crissal Thrasher. This species lives in the thick chaparral in the southeastern United States. So when we found a nice patch of thicker shrubbery, we found it apt to play a call to coax one out. Not two minutes later, were heard one respond. Given how much of a target this was for me, I scanned and perused the landscape as thoroughly as I could, and then I suddenly noticed a brown figure swoop into a nearby bush. We waited with anticipation, hoping this was our bird, and well, I'll let this next photo explain what the bird was.

Crissal Thrasher

        At first, we identified this bird as a Le Conte's Thrasher, due to our quick views of the bird and, quite frankly our naiveté, which was exciting for both of us because it would have been a lifer for both Kyle and I. Unfortunately, Kyle had already seen Crissal Thrasher before, so this bird wasn't a lifer for both of us. But Kyle was still happy to have seen it, as it was only the second one he had seen  before.

       After sighting this thrasher, the only other highlight of this location was a very cooperative Rock Wren, that hopped around the picnic site, almost oblivious to our presence, which proved quite fruitful when looking back at our photographs of the bird.

Rock Wren

         This concluded our birding at this location. With two lifers under my belt, I'd say this trip was already off to a great start!