Death Valley 12-26-03 to 12-31-03

After a wonderful holiday divided between two sets of parents, Cricket and I headed off to Death Valley, one of my favorite places in California! Due to the heavy rains of the days prior, there was much standing water in normally dry places and snow dusted every peak higher than 5000'. Two years ago we had explored mostly locations that were familiar to me such as Badwater, Golden Canyon, the famous Sand Dunes and Ubahebe Crater, but added the Race Track for something new. This time we went to several new spots, Natural Bridge, Titus Canyon and Twenty Mule Canyon. Titus Canyon was especially wonderful for hiking, but we failed to find Desert Bighorn Sheep as we had hoped. The Wild Rose area, ice cold and covered in snow, gave us a taste of the mountains overlooking the valley and seemed very far away from our memories of the valley's blistering heat. Additionally we crossed into Nevada and toured Ash Meadow National Wildlife Refuge where aqua-colored natural springs create deep pools in the arid desert. We stopped at Devil's Hole National Monument where the only representatives of the Devi's Hole Pupfish live, making it one of the rarest fish in the world, a mere 500 individuals! A barbed wire enclosure nestled against a sheer cliff protect the fish from intruders and reminded us of Area 51. The most unreal experience of the entire trip however would have to Badwater. Miles of five-sided salt tiles stretched from the road toward the distant hills. We walked almost 2 miles out until we reached an area that was smooth and covered in about 1/8" water. The cracks between the tiles were not raised as in the drier sections, but smooth, like fractured china. Because the sky and mountains were reflected in the shallow water and the area was absolutely silent, it felt like another world. A strange lifeless world that looked like it should be cold but was not. A world that floated between the earth and sky... We looked silently at the spectacle and felt like the only people left on earth. Hard to describe... Anyway, birding was better this time than last, although several attempts to locate Ruddy Ground Dove at Furnace Creek were not met with success. Here's the list:

Pied-billed Grebe (Ash Meadow, NV)
Eared Grebe (Ash Meadow, NV)
Double-crested Cormorant (Ash Meadow, NV)
Great Blue Heron (Ash Meadow, NV)
Great Egret (Ash Meadow, NV)
Snowy Egret (Ash Meadow, NV)
Turkey Vulture (Ash Meadow, NV)
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
Ruddy Duck (Ash Meadow, NV)
Bufflehead (Ash Meadow, NV)
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Prairie Falcon (Death Valley Junction)
Gambel's Quail (Death Valley Junction)
American Coot
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Lewis's Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub Jay
Common Raven
Pinyon Jay
Verdin (Death Valley Junction)
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Rock Wren (Ballarat ghost town)
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Western Bluebird (Ballarat ghost town)
Townsend's Solitaire (Wildrose)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Pipit
Phainopepla (Death Valley Junction)
Loggerhead Shrike
Cedar Waxwing (Ballarat ghost town)
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
House Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Finch
Spotted Towhee (Ash Meadow, NV)
Sage Sparrow (inland form, Ballarat ghost town)
Dark-eyed Junco ("Oregon", "Slate-colored" and "Gray-headed", Wildrose)
White-crowned Sparrow

Along Hwy 99 on our way to and from the Valley we also saw Short-eared Owl, Golden Eagle, Cattle Egret, White-faced Ibis, Red-shouldered Hawk and Yellow-billed Magpie.