Lengths A Birder Will Go To

Yesterday on Twitter, someone mentioned some stunning pictures of chickens. Which immediately made me think of Las Vegas.

A few years ago, a friend and I were in Las Vegas for a business convention. One day we had a free morning, and not being interested in casinos, we were at a loose end. Idle curiosity led us to look in the yellow pages under Birds.

What’s this?! A bird sanctuary in Las Vegas? How come two avid birders didn’t know about this?

We hailed a cab in front of our hotel, and had to spend a bit of time explaining to the cab driver that no, we did not want to go shopping or gambling. We wanted to go birding.

He had never heard of this bird sanctuary, but thought he knew where it was, so off we went, We drove, and drove and drove some more. Eventually, on the dusty outskirts of the city, we stopped at a rundown, dumpy little place with a hand painted sign on a piece of plywood.

The buildings were held together by scrap lumber, sheets of tin and whatever other materials happened to be handy. Admission was $5.00.

There didn’t appear to be any people around anywhere, so we asked the cab driver if he would wait for us. This wonderful man decided that rather than wait in the car, he would just turn the meter off and join us. We had managed to pick a curious cab driver, and he wanted to know what this place was all about.

Turns out this place was about chickens. I’ve never seen so many different breeds of chickens. Also a few pens of turkeys. And a tiny, filthy little pond full of hybrid mallard/domestic ducks.

Our cab driver, an ex farm boy, rather enjoyed himself looking at the chickens, who appeared well cared for and were in large, clean pens. For my friend and I, the only highlight was one American Kestrel sitting on a post.

We wandered through this ‘bird sanctuary’ for about a half an hour, and no one ever did show up. So we left and headed back to the glitz of the strip.

The result of our ‘birding’ trip? A $63 cab bill, a new friend who drives a cab in Las Vegas, and a hell of a story.

I’ve been to Las Vegas often since then, and have visited many excellent birding locations. But to this day, whenever I see a picture of a chicken, I think of our $63 dollar kestrel. It just shows the lengths a birder will go to…