August 4 - Mormon Crickets

It was clear and cool this morning and I had coffee and ate a light breakfast in my room.  Then drove down to Winnemucca’s Riverview Park, walked around it and down to the boat launch to do a bit of birding.

A River Runs Through It . . . the Humboldt

There were lots of Ibis flying up and down the river . . .

 . . . and Pelicans

Leaving town, I drove east on Interstate 80 to Battle Mountain, then south on Highway 305, en route to the Southeast Arizona Birding Festival.

A Big B M

As I continued south through the Reese River valley, I was impressed with the thousands of Mormon Crickets on the highway.  For a long stretch I guesstimated that there were between 2-10,000 dead crickets per mile!  There were so many that the roadway crackled with the sound of the tires crushing them.

In a macabre cycle of death, live insects would swarm onto the road to feast on the bodies of their swarm-mates - only to be crushed themselves by the next vehicle to pass.

This is the species Anabrus simplex that, famously, was the antagonist in the “Miracle of the Gulls”.  According to the story: In 1848, these shield-backed katydids were destroying the crops of the newly-arrived Mormon settlers in Utah.  Following fervent prayers by the pioneer farmers, it is said that “Sea Gulls” - probably the California and Ring-billed gulls that nest around the Great Salt Lake - ate their fill of crickets, drank some water, regurgitated, and continued eating crickets over a two-week period.  The pioneers saw the gulls' arrival as a miracle, and the story was recounted from the pulpit by church leaders as a blessing from God.  At least, that’s how the myth goes . . .

Cannibals!

I continued south, taking my lunch at the Tonopah Brewing Company & BBQ.  I had a friendly chat with a young Navajo man named Ray who works at the gold mine.  I stopped again in Rachel Nevada, which is adjacent to Area 51.

The road out of town passes through the Tikaboo Valley, where the Bureau of Land Management protects the area as a bastion of the Joshua Tree.

In this area, the western and eastern species; Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana, each of which is pollinated by a different species of Tegeticula yucca moth.  An information kiosk provided lots of information.

In the late afternoon, I pulled off the freeway to get some cool water at the Headquarters of the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, but it was just ‘way too hot for birding.  It was 107º as I drove through the Las Vegas area!

Hot?  Yes, it's hot . . .

I continued driving until about 8 p.m. and checked into the Travelodge in Kingman for $67.36, ate ‘supper’ of cheese biscuit and summer sausage, with a can of V-8 for my vegetable.  The motel was clean and reasonably priced.  Minor problems that the sink faucet only provided warm/hot water and a light bulb was out.  The most annoying thing was that the internet connection was poor.

Winnemucca eBird Checklist is Here

Pahranagat NWR eBird Checklist is Here