I was able to visit the Desert National Wildlife Range for a couple of hours in a recent business trip to Las Vegas. The first day's sessions of a seminar I attended did not start until noon which gave me the opportunity to visit Desert NWR from 6:30am until around 10:30am. I got up early in the morning (5:30am) and got to the Desert National Wildlife Range in about 35-40 minutes using Rt 95 North. The refuge is massive (1.6 million acres) but the best birding spot is the area around Corn Creek Field Station which is surrounded by many trees, pasture and spring-fed ponds.
The first birds I saw in the refuge were a couple of Common Ravens followed by a Horned Lark. Then and to my suprise, I saw 3 Gulls fly over (my guess would be Ring-billed). The place was hoping with activity with Swallows, Honed Larks and Flycatchers being the more common birds. The highlight was a Peragrine Falcon (wish it was the more common Prairie Falcon) that was able to get its prey after 2 swoops. The complete list of birds seen and photographed is as follows:
