View of Lake Tahoe from the Carson Range transect.
Williamson's Sapsucker female carrying a lot of food in her beak!
Another of our #NevadaBirdCount projects this year was our adopt-a-transect program, where we were able to survey transects like this one in the Carson Range. Thank you to our supporters who made this survey possible!
One of our survey sites in a pinyon-juniper removal treatment, in beautiful morning light.
One of our major #NevadaBirdCount projects in 2025 included setting out Automated Recording Units to record bird song on BLM habitat survey sites. We then overlaid NBC point counts and area searches on a subset of these sites. We're still analyzing the data, but are looking forward to the results!
One of our survey sites in a pinyon-juniper removal treatment, in beautiful morning light.
One of our major #NevadaBirdCount projects in 2025 included setting out Automated Recording Units to record bird song on BLM habitat survey sites. We then overlaid NBC point counts and area searches on a subset of these sites. We're still analyzing the data, but are looking forward to the results!
Map of Nevada with dots showing transect locations
Black-throated Sparrow, perched.
It's November, and that means it's #NevadaBirdCount time!
The Nevada Bird Count (NBC) is a statewide bird monitoring framework, primarily consisting of point count transects. We now have ~ 1200 transects across Nevada and into adjacent states!
Map of Nevada with dots showing transect locations
Black-throated Sparrow, perched.
It's November, and that means it's #NevadaBirdCount time!
The Nevada Bird Count (NBC) is a statewide bird monitoring framework, primarily consisting of point count transects. We now have ~ 1200 transects across Nevada and into adjacent states!
Sagebrush mountains, valley bottom far below, blue sky with puffy clouds.
The #NevadaBirdCount crew finished up our season here in the Pine Forest Range, in far northern Nevada (near Denio Junction).
The spot-mapping overlay of our automated recording unit array documented a number of family groups (particularly Rock Wrens and Mountain Bluebirds) … and beautiful views!
sunrise through clouds, over sagebrush in golden hour
Hello again from Nevada! Long time no post :)
The #NevadaBirdCount & #IMBCRbirds field seasons finished up last week meaning the data processing portion of the year has begun in earnest.
However, photos of sunrises are nicer than photos of datapiles, so here you are, from north of Elko, Nevada!
Setting up camp in the Black Rock range - foreground sagebrush with a pickup with the doors open, background mountain against blue sky.
Ahhh, a beautiful evening.
Camp above Snow Creek, high up in the Black Rock Range
#NevadaBirdCount
#MountainMonday
Gentle hills in the foreground, rocky ranges in background, in golden light.
Good morning!
Sunrise from the east side of the southern Spring Mountains #NevadaBirdCount
blue skies view of young juniper scattered in sagebrush steppe, with pinyon-juniper and sagebrush valley in background, and mostly burned mountains in far background.
Good afternoon!
View from the Virginia Mountains
#NevadaBirdCount
Barren, rocky mountains and drainages.
Good morning!
Clouds over the Moores Creek area (2014).
#NevadaBirdCount #MountainMonday
Barren very rocky mountains. Foreground can see rocks, a few cacti, flowers, and some creosote.
The view from a high elevation Mojave scrub mountainside, taken by one of our #NevadaBirdCount happy hikers!
(Just in case your winter weather has you dreaming of sun and warm breezes!)
#MountainMonday
Good morning!
A blue skies kind of view from the Sugarloaf area in the Virginia Mountains.
#NevadaBirdCount
Foreground view from high in Sheep Range with conifers and a few snags, looking downvalley at conifers to a wide high elevation valley of Joshua trees (not that you can see the Joshua trees from here!). In the far distance, can vaguely see Las Vegas.
And a Happy #MountainMonday to you!
Our Intrepid #NevadaBirdCount Surveyor took this photo from high in the Sheep Range. Can you see Vegas in the far background?
Sagebrush slopes with wildflowers, and woodlands of pinyon-juniper and mountain mahogany.
Good morning!
View from Eagle Mountain in the Pine Nut Range
#MountainMonday #NevadaBirdCount
Unburned view from York Mountains in the Mojave Desert in 2014, with Joshua trees, Pinyon-Juniper, cholla, and lots of blackbrush!
View of the same area in 2024, after the 2023 York Fire, very burned.
DS-BorderCorral was surveyed in 2024 thanks to our donors! This area was burned during the 2023 York fire, and your generosity allowed us to gather data on this first year of fire effects on the bird community there. Thank you! #AdoptATransect #NevadaBirdCount
What do bird surveyors do after the field season is over?! A post- #NevadaBirdCount road trip to Arizona for more birding, of course!
Here's a time series at one of our point count survey locations on one of our oldest #NevadaBirdCount transects, on @nature.org 's McCarran Ranch preserve along the #TruckeeRiver
A celebratory camp meal at the end of a great season circa 2016. Note the simultaneous corn and marshmallow roasting. Eat dessert first, life is uncertain! #NevadaBirdCount #FieldWork
Hiking trail winds through gallery cottonwoods along the Truckee River.
Perhaps our longest-term project has been monitoring the impacts of The Nature Conservancy’s restoration program along the lower #TruckeeRiver, particularly at their McCarran Ranch preserve. #NevadaBirdCount
In the middle of Nowhere Nevada … in search of birds and unusual roadside attractions along the way. #NevadaBirdCount
Developing decision support tools can help land managers make decisions with competing priorities. As one example, #NevadaBirdCount data were used to investigate conservation tradeoffs of regional pinyon-juniper removal projects on sagebrush and PJ bird communities.
www.sciencedirect.co...
Sights from #Nevada- Beware of extraterrestrials, wayward cattle, and general chaos. #NevadaBirdCount #ETHighway
Kayla climbs up up up from the valley floor on a remote and rugged transect along upper Coleman creek, in the Black Rock range. #NevadaBirdCount
Imagine this: you’re lost after dark, desperately trying to find your transect in the Pine Nut Mtns, & come across the terrifying sight of hundreds of glowing eyes in the distance... but soon realize it’s just a flock of sheep - and their Guardian dogs! #NevadaBirdCount #Nevada #HalloweenInNovember
You never know where the #NevadaBirdCount will bring you! Metropolis Ghost Town was established in 1910 as an agricultural community and quickly grew to a population of 700. Lack of water, a typhoid epidemic, rabbits, and Mormon crickets plagued the town and its crops. #Nevada
Pinyon-juniper removal projects are common in the Great Basin. We were asked to look at the impacts of these projects on the bird community in several areas, including in the Pine Nut Mountains, in western Nevada. #NevadaBirdCount
Because #NevadaBirdCount surveys were in place on the Refuge, when screwbean mesquites began to decline and die from regional mortality, our monitoring continued- to investigate impacts on the bird community from old & new restoration projects, *and* this new regional screwbean mesquite mortality.
NBC surveys began on Ash Meadows in 2003, and regular monitoring began in 2007, particularly to look at impacts of the Refuge’s restoration activities on the bird communities there. #NevadaBirdCount
One of our long-term #NevadaBirdCount projects is at #AshMeadows National #WildlifeRefuge. Established in 1984, it’s an important desert oasis, with the greatest concentration of endemic species in the U.S.
