Las Vegas Vacation ...

... first full day. 

We had a great day exploring several different bird sanctuaries in the Las Vegas/Henderson area. 

We first visited the Henderson Bird Viewing preserve … spending more than an hour and a half there. It was a wonderful place and we saw so many different birds … several new ones for me. My main picture is of a Costa’s hummingbird.  This is a new hummingbird for me as the hummingbirds that I’ve seen at my mom’s in Southern California are Anna’s hummingbirds.  The bird in the upper left of my collage (in extras) is definitely a new one for me … it’s a beautiful American Avocet! We enjoyed our time there but there were other places we wanted to check out.

On our way to the Clark County Wetlands Park we stopped at Walgreens to get some sunscreen!  Smart move!

The Wetlands park was nice as they had several paved paths … we didn’t see a whole lot of birds though. However we did see the beautiful bride in the lower right of the collage. The groom was nearby as well.  As we walked some of the trails we saw the bridal party had set up several places in which it appeared photography was going to be taking place!
After leaving the Wetlands Park we had lunch before returning to the Henderson Bird preserve.  All we did was sit in the parking lot to watch/photograph the hummingbirds. The lizard picture in the upper right was taken at this time.

From there we went back into Las Vegas to a cactus garden at the Ethel M. Chocolates factory.  I remember going to this chocolate factory many years ago but don’t remember them having this lovely Cactus Garden.  We spent almost forty-five minutes here walking amongst the cacti.  And I saw another new bird species … the lovely little Cassin’s finch in the center bottom picture.  He looked similar to our House finches here at home but was decked out in orange instead of red.

If today was any indication of how great our vacation will be I’ll be a happy vacationer!