It began with a blissful and brilliant feathered ember in the desert landscape. Contrary to what one might think, this was not a glamorous show girl on the famous Vegas Strip but rather a rare desert bird we found at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve on the outskirts of the city.

Days later we would visit Red Rock Canyon National Park where a more mundane appearing avian wonder would appear in my lens. In between there was lots of magic and wonder, and “seven” would be the magic number!

Let’s start with that “ember”, which the naturalist at the Preserve took a quick look at the image presented in the Nikon viewer and said, “Yep, that’s a Vermillion Flycatcher.” 

When I first saw the brilliantly bright red flash among the brown winter-ish leaves of a tree against the deep blue sky, my first thought was that I’d seen a Scarlet Tanager. Here? In the desert? Yet, the feathering seemed too rough and the body too compact for a Tanager. Actually the Vermillion Flycatcher is considered rare for that area of the desert according to the Field Guide to Birds of North America published by the National Wildlife Federation. Apparently it is much more common further south in Mexico than north of the border, and especially as far north as Las Vegas.

It would be one of seven new birds I’d add to my Audubon list from our week-long visit to Vegas. The naturalist at the Henderson also identified my second one as an American Pipit. Although most of what we viewed at the Preserve were waterfowl, capturing two new birds on our first excursion was rather special. Perhaps our being there mid-day meant the shy waders had left for quieter waters, and the smaller songbirds were clustered within the foliage. There was ample plant growth surrounding the nine pools of water within the compound.

Toward the end of our stay, on a drive through Red Rock Canyon, I was able to photograph the seventh, some ground-and-brush hugging Rufous-Crowned Sparrows. The idenity came once we returned home and compared my photos with the birding guidebook. 

The other four? As guests of Roberta’s brother, Craig Schultz, and his partner, Anita Murrell, we saw and photographed Dark-eyed Juncos, Red Breasted Nuthatches and Eurasian-Collared Doves, and briefly saw a Great-Tailed Grackle on their patio where Anita is the chief seed distributer. The first three would fly in almost as soon as she dribbled the grain onto the concrete, and the grackle made a brief landing on an overhead patio beam before immediately pivoting and flying away.

Some of you might be chortling about now about this old man recounting a trip to Vegas is explaining his excitement of viewing seven new birds. Rest assured there were many special and magical moments although none at the tables or machines. Take “Mystére” by Cirque du Soleil, which more than matched their “O” that we saw several years ago. Cirque du Soleil has so much magic going on that it’s difficult to embrace it all, and the artistically athletic beauty just kept on coming from seemingly all directions. Literally. 

We also spent a long morning viewing an AI enhanced art show at the Arte Museum, and I especially loved the rooms called “Forest”, “Waterfall Infinite” and “Garden Light of the Master Pieces”, the latter of which mixed art from the Orient along with some works of the Impressionist artists. What a wonderful way to lose yourself in wonder and music, and yes, the magic of which for me is an unexplainable technology. Honestly, I find technology brutally boring for the most part, yet this AI creativity was nothing short of amazing.

This was my fourth or fifth trip to Vegas and the first that wasn’t business oriented. This was simply a visit, and not a single dime was dropped into the gambling devises. We had a couple of lunches and dinners out, and a dinner show complete with fine musicians and singers who were friends of Craig and Anita. So it wasn’t completely devoid of entertainment. All that and I still came home with seven new birds for my Audubon list! 

Of all of our stops of interest, though, visiting the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area was on visual par with the Arte Museum. Just a bit west of the city, the park is located in the Mojave Desert where towering geological features include red sandstone peaks within the Keystone Thrust Fault, all rising high from the desert floor. A fine 13-mile scenic drive through the park offers pullouts and special viewing areas along with a wonderfully wide shoulder where you can pull over for photography or to simply breathe in the surrounding beauty. Computing the size of the featured geology is almost inexplicable until you notice a human climbing one of the reddish walls, being a mere miniature “stick creature” pressed against a huge slab of mountainous stone. That adds an incredible perspective.

Besides the contrast in color and the size of the formations, a spiritual sense seemed to resonate within, tugging at the soul like having your toes pulled from below in a deep pool. Native Petroglyphs can be found among the rocks, and had we arrived earlier in the day we could have taken the paths to view them. The lateness was all on me, for I convinced Craig and Anita to go in the late afternoon for my preferred photographic light. And once again, the late afternoon light didn’t disappoint.

At one of the pullouts I noticed a split tree trunk that had appeared to have suffered from an earlier fire. Blackened and mysterious, I visualized using it for contrast and composition in framing the bulbous rock formations. While traipsing through the mesquite, desert marigolds and other plants to the Y-shaped log, a group of the Rufous-Crowned Sparrows played a bit of hide and seek, hiding within the branches and foliage. It was enough to test one’s patience, yet a few images were caught of the teasing avians. They would become the seventh and final new bird in my count. And, I got my visualized image of the log.

On our flight home I was hopeful that our plane would head west from airport as it appeared most of the planes we had seen over the past week had done, and if so, that I might capture a sky-high overview of Red Rock Canyon. Fortunately I was blessed, for we had a beautiful overview that added a wholly different perspective of how such a huge and dominate landform seemed so small in the overview landscape of the surrounding desert.

They say that there is something quite special in rolling a lucky seven in Vegas, so coming home with my own “lucky seven” was heavenly. So much fun, magic and beauty, all in one week! As late newsman Whoopy Warrings used to write in closing each of his short paragraph “locals” for our country weekly, “ … and a great time was had by all.”