At the end of the field season, we held a public field trip to the Ruby Mountains. We all had a great weekend, camping and birding in Lamoille Canyon, and even saw the target birds that we set out to see! Check out our eBird report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/270752.

The group getting started on the hike to Island Lake

Taking time for some botanizing on the way up

We made it up to the beautiful Island Lake cirque at 9:00, and a few members of the group had gotten an early start and were already at the upper cirque by then. It was not long before the most bird-like rock any of us had ever seen was spotted. Perched perfectly at the top of the ridgeline with a pale head and brown body, a few people saw it move, some even saw its feathers ruffle in the wind. We were so pleased; we had spotted our Himalayan Snowcock within minutes of getting to the cirque. After everyone had gotten a look, we decided to hike up closer to the snowfields to see if we could see any Black Rosy-Finches. It was not until 15 minutes after we had spotted the Himalayan Snow-Rock, that we determined our bird was, in fact, just a rock. We did not let that take the wind out of our sails though, we continued on to the upper cirque and got to enjoy the sound of a few distant snowcock calling. We met up with the other members of the group here, and they excitedly asked us if we saw the birds they were pointing out to us. When we confusedly said that we hadn’t, they informed us they were watching us scan the ridgeline while they were watching 2 snowcock and jumping up and down and pointing trying to get our attention!

Folks arrived on Friday evening, and we enjoyed a pot-luck dinner while getting to know everyone. Once the campfire went out, everyone went to bed early to prepare for Saturday’s hike. The plan for Saturday morning was to start hiking up to Island Lake at 7 in hopes of catching views of Himalayan Snowcock at the top, before it got too late.

By 6:30 Saturday morning everyone was raring to go chase down these elusive Asian chickens. We left camp shortly thereafter and got to hiking. We were greeted by singing a Lazuli Bunting and Fox Sparrow at the trailhead as well as a not-so-cooperative Dusky Flycatcher sallying about the aspen along the start of the trail. The birds on the hike up were quite active, with Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds enjoying the abundant horsemint and Indian paintbrush, while singing MacGillivray’s Warblers and Green-tailed Towhees provided a nice soundtrack to hike to. At one point 6 Clark’s Nutcrackers stopped in to pose for us on a very picturesque snag. The birding along the hike may have delayed our arrival at the top where we could find Himalayan Snowcock, but was too enjoyable to rush!

At least somebody saw the target birds! We remained in the upper cirque for about an hour without seeing any actual snowcock before deciding to hike down. So while only 2 of the group actually saw snowcock this day, we all heard them call, and enjoyed a place with near-unmatched beauty in Nevada. We finished the walk with 33 species, and returned to camp for lunch.

If you look carefully you can pick out the elusive Himalayan Snow-Rock on the right side

After lunch, we went to South Fork State Recreation Area to see if we could spot some water birds. This turned out to be more productive than we initially thought, yet not so riveting to keep us there for more than half-an-hour. Wilson’s Phalarope of various ages in varying plumages kept as entertained, as well as a juvenile American Coot that had a few of us scratching our heads. We made a group decision to go try for Bobolink before heading back to camp for the BBQ. We left the reservoir with 16 species, and headed for the ranch lands of Lamoille. After getting there it took just 5 minutes to spot a flock of Bobolink across the field. We conservatively counted 12 birds. The females and juveniles were most cooperative, the males only let us get brief views as they flitted about the tall grass. It was nonetheless enjoyable to be on the breeding grounds of such a range-restricted species in the state. Shortly after 5:00 we headed back to camp to chat about the day and enjoy Hamburgers and Hotdogs. We left Lamoille with 12 species, including a few Wilson’s Snipe that were hanging out in the cattle corral.

Once back at camp, Barbeque fixings were already underway. The Barbeque was a great success. We all had a lovely time chatting and enjoying charcoal-grilled burgers and dogs. We got a campfire going, and got to planning for Sunday and making S’mores. Since we had diverged a bit from the schedule, and saw our Bobolink ahead of schedule, and some folks wanted to try again for snowcock, we had some figuring to do. Most folks wanted to do their own thing and have a leisurely hike on the trails around camp. Some even enjoyed Thomas Canyon so much that they booked an extra night to explore the area some more. So we decided that a few of us would try again for snowcock, this time a bit earlier. While everyone else would enjoy Thomas Canyon at their own pace. Now that we had a game plan, everyone enjoyed their final marshmallows and we doused the fire and headed to bed.

We began the hike before 6 AM this time, in hopes that our birds would be vocalizing. We also did not stop for birds on the way up, we were determined to see snowcock this time. As soon as we got to Island Lake, we began hiking to the upper cirque. Once there, we hoped we would hear snowcock vocalizing. We did not, but after about 10 minutes Mike had spotted birds on the ridgeline. When we got the scope on them we all determined that they were in fact moving (definitely not rocks this time), and that there were 4 of them. We all got fantastic looks at the snowcocks and watched as they slowly climbed up and over the ridgeline. After the last of these 4 disappeared we watched another and another pop out of the alpine vegetation onto the rocks of the ridgeline. Before we headed down we agreed that we saw 9 snowcock climbing around on the rocky ridgeline!

The group admiring the majestic Snow-Rock while Chris and Rosie helplessly attempted to point out actual Snowcock from above

Once back to camp we didn’t have much time before we had to check out of the sites. So we made the rounds and bid everyone farewell. All in all, we had a great weekend meeting new friends, enjoying camp meals, and seeing good birds (Even if a few of the group have to change their life list to say “Himalayan Snow-Rock”). It was great to see everyone coming out to bird with us and enjoy the Ruby Mountains.

Thank you for coming out, Ellen and Adib Alaware, Tina Nappe, Bill Bowers, Nicole and Mike Carion, Judy Duffy, Don Van Patten, Chris and Rosie Howard!!

-Ned Bohman

Notes From The Field

Birding in the Ruby Mountains, July 2019