LOVELOCK - The Lovelock area is a prime winter haven for winged hunters escaping colder northern temperatures, according to local bird watchers Debbie and Randy Pontius.
The couple has conducted annual bird counts and leads fellow birders on the annual "Raptor Tour" of the Lower Valley. This year, the birdwatchers were not disappointed.
The day was cold and windy but that didn't chill the excitement of spotting, identifying and photographing local hawks and owls, Pontius said. Years of local birding experience enabled the Lovelock couple to locate both resident and visiting birds of prey.
"It was windy but we saw some birds that made it worthwhile," she said. "We pretty much know where to find the resident birds. Living in the area, you don't have to search very far because hawks and owls stay in about the same place. Plus, we always do a pre-trip to scout where the birds are the week before the tour."
In Nevada's ornithology world, the Lower Valley is known for attracting the state's highest population of raptors in winter, according to the Great Basin Bird Observatory, a nonprofit group of bird scientists based in Reno.
"Up until a couple of years ago, we would do an annual raptor survey for the GBBO," Pontius said. "We'd always have the highest number of raptors in the state."
Local farms provide hawks with good hunting for voles, chipmunks and other treats.
The remote rural area also makes for good birding, so the raptor tour is always a popular event. This year's tour, sponsored by the Lahontan Audubon Society, included residents of Lovelock, Reno, Carson City, Fallon, Winnemucca and a couple from Pennsylvania.
"The main thing is to give them a good variety of birds," Pontius said. "Owls are always a very popular bird to see because they're hard to find. If you're lucky enough to know where they are and the birders can get a picture and a good long look at it, they're happy. They saw two great horned owls right off the bat so they were happy the rest of the day."
The visitors observed great horned owls, red-tailed, ferruginous and rough-legged hawks, northern harriers, kestrels and prairie falcons.
"You're also looking for birds in different modes of behavior and different stages of color," Pontius said. "Just looking at the red-tailed hawk, the juveniles are completely different colors than the adults and they go through about three color changes, plus we have different color morphs here in the Lovelock Valley. We have a lot of dark morphs in the West that they don't have in the East."
Red-tails vary widely in color and sometimes look like other hawks making bird identification challenging and a "great fun mind game" for birdwatchers, Pontius said.
"The dark morphs are very uncommon in the East so people coming from the East want to see the dark version - it's like seeing a different bird," she said.
Although there's many color variations and each individual is unique, experienced birdwatchers look for details unseen by average observers.
At first, Pontius and her husband were perplexed by a rare white hawk spotted in the Lower Valley during a winter raptor survey for the GGBO. The bird had a smattering of brown and red feathers - just enough for the couple to realize it was a leucistic red-tail. In ornithology terms, leucism means white or without color. Albinos are completely white with pink eyes, Pontius said.
Leucistic and albino birds usually have relatively brief lives but the male red-tail survived long enough to find a mate and produce normal offspring. After he was found dead three years ago, the couple gave the hawk to a Reno ornithologist for preservation.
"He lived for about five years and raised several clutches with a female," Pontius said as she showed a photograph of the bird in flight. "You can see a red tail feather and the belly band and dark leading edges of his wings are characteristic of red-tails. He didn't live the life a bird normally would. A raptor will usually live 10 or 20 years."
Birding is popular for the mental stimulation as well as a love of nature, Pontius said.
"There's lots of different reasons why people bird-watch," she said. "One is for the mental relaxation but also the mental activity of the identification process."
A highlight of the tour was a rough-legged hawk who showed off its hunting skill.
"It flew down and grabbed a vole or something then flew right over the top of us," Pontius said. "Then it flew closer to us, sat on a pole and ate its breakfast. When we have a tour group, birds usually fly away from us. We've never had anyone fly closer to us."
Burrowing, long-eared, screech and barn owls are sometimes seen later in the year, she said. Golden and bald eagles are seen occasionally.
"There was a golden pair that was here for a couple of years out on Lone Mountain," Pontius said. "Periodically, we'll see them in Lower Valley but nothing regular."
In a couple of weeks, Pontius said she and her husband will be watching for incoming summer residents including herons, egrets, shorebirds and other water lovers. A large flock of migratory turkey vultures has already arrived and is roosting near Lovelock.
"During migration there will be lots of birds that are not normally here and the summer birds are coming in," she said. "The ibises, the phalaropes and others that will be out on the flooded fields, if there's water."
When water is plentiful, the Humboldt Wildlife Management Area south of Lovelock is a birdwatcher's dream with elevated platforms for excellent viewing.
"It all depends on the water," Pontius said. "In flood years, it will be teeming with things like the phalaropes, pelicans, coots and ducks. We've had hundreds of communal roosters like herons and egrets along the river when it's full."
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