Ah Spring time – the chance for Las Vegans to get outside and enjoy the fresh air before the heat makes the outdoors unbearable.
We aren’t the only ones enjoying the mild weather. Birds of all sorts stop in Las Vegas as they migrate north. You’ll see geese in V-formations skirting the sky and hear songs of a different feather in your back yard.
Doug Cheng from the Red Rock Audubon Society said the summer resident birds you'll hear in the backyard include American robins, finches and mockingbirds.
“In the winter, we’ll only hear the verdins chirping but now we’ll hear three or four other species,” Cheng said.
Liz Bickmore with the Clark County Wetlands Park said the birds passing through Las Vegas come along what is known as the North American Flyway.
Right now, the birds are, of course, heading north from their winter homes in South and Central America.
“They can come from as far away as northern Canada sometimes as far south as Argentina or as close as Arizona and Northern Nevada,” Cheng said.
The wetlands park on the outskirts of Las Vegas offer a respite for birds heading north for the summer, Bickmore explained.
The water in the park is actually treated waste water that is channeled into ponds, then into the Las Vegas Wash, which flows into Lake Mead.
Because of the park, birders are seeing more and more migratory birds in the Las Vegas Valley, Bickmore said.
"Just having the juxtaposition of having that type of environment next to the urban desert you really get a nice influx of both the native desert birds but also riparian and wetland birds," she said.
To highlight the importance of bird migration and protecting natural habitats, the Clark County Wetlands Parkwill host the 3rd annual Migratory Bird Day event Wednesday, March 23.
Doug Chang, president, Red Rock Audubon Society; Liz Bickmore, senior program administrator, Clark County Wetlands Park