Wetlands Park Friends

"Altar'd State Mission Mondays."
2021-04-19 11:00 - 2021-07-05 20:00 UTC | NV
Altar’d State (www.altardstate.com) – a nationwide retail chain that has a local boutique in The Forum Shops at Caesar’s (located next to the iconic Tourneau Watch Store on the main floor of the shopping complex) – has selected Wetlands Park Friends for its water conservation-themed “Mission Monday” campaign starting this Monday, April 19 through July 5!!!
During that timeframe, the store will donate 10% of its Monday sales to Wetlands Park Friends! Friends is very thankful for their generosity as the pandemic has really limited our ability to perform outreach and fundraising activities.
Please come shop at the boutique on a Monday through July 5th!
11:00 AM – 8:00 PM
The Forum Shops at Caesar’s

"The Boulevard Mall: Back To School Event"
2021-07-31 11:00 - 14:00 | NV
Come support Wetlands Park Friends volunteers who will be on hand to give out much needed supplies to students going back to school this Fall. For more information, to volunteer, and to donate supplies, please contact: Suzann Pruitt at friends@wetlandsparkfriends.org.
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
The Boulevard Mall (3528 South Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas)

"Outstanding Hikes In Southern Nevada"
2021-11-05 08:00 - 17:00 | NV
Due to the current surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in our area, the Friends Board is postponing this program. Stay tuned for updates!
This is the third program in the Wetlands Park Friends Wetlands Quarterly Lecture Series. Southern Nevada is a mecca for incredible hikes offering rich geologic, biological, and cultural experiences for those who choose to “follow the trail,” or “follow no trail at all.” Learn more from naturalist and educator, Jim Boone, the creator of BirdandHike.com, which has become a must read for outdoor enthusiasts at all levels.
An outdoorsman since before birth, Jim camped and backpacked throughout the western US with family and did month-long summer backpacking trips with friends when 15 and 16 years old. Jim worked a dozen seasons in western National Parks, and with his wife Liz, attended Humboldt State University (B.S. in Wildlife Management, 1987) and the University of Georgia (M.S. in Forest Resources; Ph.D. in Ecology, 1995). Jim’s dissertation involved the morphology and genetics of rapid evolution in field mice, which required months of time hiking and camping in southeastern hardwood swamps.
Arriving in Las Vegas in 1995, Jim did ecological research on the Nevada Test Site, spending 11 years with the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Project. In 2002, he began building BirdAndHike.com, a website that helps people to find peace and solitude in wild places and thereby gains public support for protecting these places for future generations. In 2006 Jim started an environmental consulting company primarily engaged in desert tortoise surveys and enforcing environmental laws on construction sites. Now retired, Jim and Liz hike, camp, watch birds, work on the website, and agitate for land conservation issues.
This program is open to Wetlands Park Friends Members. For more information, please contact Suzann Pruitt at friends@wetlandsparkfriends.org.
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Clark County Wetlands Park, Nature Center Auditorium

"Nevada's Native Plants Are So Much More Diverse & Incredible Than Most Nevadans Know."
2021-11-05 18:30 - 20:00 | NV
This is the second program in the Wetlands Park Friends Wetlands Wednesdays Quarterly Lecture Series. Learn more than you thought you’d ever know about the incredible variety of useful and interesting native plants in Nevada from naturalist Dr. Don Deever.
Dr. Don Deever is an Assistant Professor and Extension Educator, Lincoln County for the University of Nevada, Reno. The former National Geographic adventurer & current Extension Educator,
Deever, doesn’t just talk about the amazing edible and medicinal qualities of wild plants. Wherever he lives, he lives the life of a modern-day beachcomber. In the mid-80’s, Dr. Deever sold everything he owned, quit a good paying job, and moved to a small island in the Fiji group, where he lived the existence of Robinson Crusoe on a small desert isle. As in love with the plants of Nevada as he is with the plants of the South Seas.
This program is open to Wetlands Park Friends Members. For more information or to apply for membership, please contact Suzann Pruitt at friends@wetlandsparkfriends.org.
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Live Stream by Invitation

December Event Location
2021-12-01 08:00 - 2021-12-31 17:00 | NV
TBD Nothing scheduled. Please check our site periodically for updates!

Lake Las Vegas Small Business Expo
2022-01-28 16:00 - 18:00 | Lake Las Vegas Sports Club, 101 Via Vin Santo, Henderson, NV, 89011
(click title to view)
Friends will be on hand to meet community residents interested in knowing more about what the area has to offer on January 28 at 4:00 pm. For more information, please contact email us at friends@wetlandsparkfriends.org.

Wetlands Park Appreciation Dinner
2022-02-26 15:00 - 17:00 | NV
Friends will be on hand to recognize Park volunteers and share latest news about its organization. Location: Neighborhood Park. Open to Park volunteers and invited guests. For more information, email friends@wetlandsparkfriends.org.

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2022-02-28 08:00 - 17:00 | NV
WHICH “GRAY BIRD” BEHAVES LIKE IT’S HAD TOO MUCH CAFFEINE?”

Birders often say that “little gray birds” are notoriously hard to identify (especially without binoculars), but it is even more difficult when the bird is an acrobat in constant motion – the eye just won’t focus quickly enough to see who you’re dealing with! The ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) is such a bird. At just over four inches long, this small, quick-moving bird is hard to identify unless it happens to be a male and he happens to be agitated or excited and is showing his fiery red crest!

Ruby-crowned kinglets are common in lowland areas like Clark County Wetlands Park in the winter, but the spring migration finds them on their way to their colder breeding range in coniferous forests from the mountains of the western United States north into Alaska and Canada. There, the tiny birds nest and raise their young among the spruce and fir trees.

Biologists have described the ruby-crowned kinglet as a “fussbudget without rival,” “hyperactive,” and a “worrywart.” Kinglets have a jerky, undulating flight style. When perched, they continually flick their wings open and closed, hop from branch to branch, twist and turn, chatter, and generally seem to be endlessly “bustling” around among the branches.

All that activity does have a purpose. Ruby-crowns eat mainly insects and other small invertebrates they pluck from the outer foliage of trees and shrubs. They will jump up from a perch, fluttering their wings to reach a prime gleaning spot, or hover in front of leaf clusters and snap insects right out of the air. They occasionally supplement their diet with some fruits and seeds, and they enjoy drinking tree sap. They often join mixed foraging flocks of other “gray birds” like titmice, nuthatches, creepers, and warblers in the winter, making them even harder to pick out and identify. At my backyard watering place they often show up to drink in the company of white-crowned sparrows and dark-eyed juncos.

Active birds the size of ruby-crowned kinglets have very high metabolic rates. David Allen Sibley has written that kinglets have a resting heartrate over 600 beats a minute, which doubles to over 1200 beats a minute when the bird is active. They routinely lose 10% of their body weight just sleeping overnight and gain it back the next day. Closely related golden-crowned kinglets wintering in the far north actually need to eat the equivalent of at least 27 large pizzas per day! How’s THAT for eating “like a bird?”

If your eye catches flicking wings and constant motion in the branches along a Wetlands Park trail, stop and raise your binoculars. A closer look may reveal a “little gray bird” with a red Mohawk head stripe, very visible pale eye-ring, wide dark eyes, and a black bar below the white bar on its wings – if it will hold still long enough for you to see!
Please enjoy these YouTube videos!
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – Tiny Bird with a big Song
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYCEiDXgEM
Fast-moving Ruby-crowned Kinglet
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMPYW8ejw4c
Ruby-crowned Kinglet feeding
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDaEoeZaRLO

– By Chris Leavitt, President; photo by David Walker.
