Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Las Vegas!  Winter has arrived! No snow in our yard but up in Red Rock Canyon it was spitting snow, windy and 26 degrees. We missed out on the 'big' snow storm they were predicting! YAY! Glad we didn't get hit as they only have 6 snow plows the Vegas area. Could have been interesting as they are expecting 320,000 visitors for NYE.

Dan had to check out the snow.  Lol. It was dry and sandy. Not good for sugar on snow. (Notice I didn't get out of the car to take the photo.)

Dirty snow!

Back at home we've had fun watching the birds at the feeder we fill for the first time this week. However I can sympathize with this little guy! Record cold temps here today.

Not stupid  - no wind on this ledge

A few more birds for my birder friends: Dan gave me The Sibley Guide to Birds for Christmas. Very helpful!

House Finch

House Finch - variant

Costa's Humminbird - male

Costa's Hummingbird - female

Anna's Hummingbird - male

Anna's Hummingbird - female

Lesser Goldfinch

Dark-eyed Junco - Oregon version I think.

Just before Christmas we headed out on a little road trip to Primm on the California/Nevada state line. Of course we had to take the road less traveled ...

Hummm? Should we?

 After some backtracking we ended up at Whiskey Pete's.

Little did we know what treasure we'd find inside. The real deal! 

There is a huge discount mall in Primm but the Sunday before Christmas was not a good time for our first visit.

We had Christmas dinner with my sister's family at our house.  Way too much food.  My brother-in-law's auntie joined us.  Taigo showed her some love!

Stopped by the Belliago to see the holiday display. 

Wedding photo op!

Filled with flowers

We've heard about a casino called Sam's Town so we took a drive over there for a quick look-see. They have an indoor waterfall and an laser light show at Mystic Falls Park.  There are animated animals throughout the indoor park. We saw the water show but it was too bright to see the laser show.  Guess we will have to go back some evening.  

Sam's Town hotel rooms

 

I almost forgot we took a drive out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway one evening for the Glittering Lights.  A drive-through light extravaganza. Money raised goes to various charities.  Here are just a few shots.

Champ? Las Vegas style

Special thanks goes out to the nice young man from Veteran A+A+ Garage Doors who arrived yesterday afternoon and fix the door that went wonky on us this week.  Hated to leave the door open as our hot water tank in out there and we are expecting freezing temperatures this week.  

Just after sunrise.

Winter landscape.

A bit of snow in the distance.

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family near and far! 2014 was a big change for us.  We are looking forward to many new adventures in 2015.  If you are coming to Las Vegas please be sure to look us up.

It's all about the journey!

Love, 
Nancy and Dan

No Aliens - Birds, lots of birds

Turns out the only restaurant on the Extraterrestrial Highway is closed for renovations until after Christmas so we will make that trip another day.

Instead we headed to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. There were many ducks in the area today. Many we have seen in Vermont.  A few we added to our life list.

Cinnamon Teal

Snowy Egret

Mallard

Great Egret

Bufflehead

Green Winged Teal

Ringed Billed Gull

Immature Western Grebe (I think) 

Snow Geese

Northern Shoveler

New Arrivals 

White Crowned Sparrow (I think)

American Coot

Immature Black Crowned Night Heron

Sign of the day!

Gambel's Quail

Just as we were leaving the viewing area we spied several Gambel's Quail.  Unfortunately one of them didn't make it as the Swainson's Hawk pictured below thought it was lunch time.  The hawk ran into this fence before he finally managed to get his quail. Not sure if you can see it but he has a bird pinned down in the photo.

Bird of Prey! Swainson's Hawk

I tried to put this little video under the Northern Shovelers but the video wouldn't cooperate! We saw this circling behavior in several locations. Funny!

Debbie at the front desk was very helpful getting us started on our adventure today.  

And John helped us identify a couple of birds when we returned to the main building. We are planning to visit again throughout the year.  Dan wants a new camera.  We had camera envy many times today.

My little camera takes pretty good pictures!

Happy holidays everyone.

It's all about the journey!

December 19.  Just sayin!

Love, Nancy and Dan