Get out your pith helmet. Time to go on safari in Reno. Take in Sparks, too, and while you’re at it, explore the wildlife hotspots outside of town, such as Washoe Valley, Pyramid Lake, and Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge in Fallon. There’s more to be seen in our waterways than you’d ever imagine, right here in our own back yard “wildlife preserve.”

“We have outstanding opportunities to see wildlife within a mile of downtown Reno, from mule deer on the Truckee River to having to stop for a covey of California quail as they cross the street,” says Adrienne Forbes, regional wildlife education coordinator for the Nevada Division of Wildlife.

Forbes is headquartered at Oxbow Nature Study Area, within 10 minutes of downtown Reno, where birdwatchers mingle with fishermen and lunchtime walkers looking for a respite from city life.

Under the canopy of tall trees, including Fremont and black cottonwoods, with the hypnotizing sounds of the ever-present Truckee River and a variety of fluty and melodious bird calls, Oxbow is jungle-like.

“We have lots of birds here, with an active Cooper’s hawk nest ... and visitors often see our mink from the park, even as they jump and dive in Oxbow Pond,” Forbes says. “I’ve been here 13 years, and we first saw the mink four years ago, and we weren’t sure what it was then, because we hadn’t seen it here before.” Another mammal that came recently to Oxbow is the river otter, thought to have been washed in during the New Year’s Day Flood of 1997.

“We think they came in from Verdi,” Forbes says. “We see them quite often now, and see their tracks in the mud, too. We also have muskrat very typically, and other animals including the Western Pond Turtle, bullfrog, Pacific tree frog, cottontail rabbit, and a mule deer family beds down in the park.”

Feathered friends

Birders love Oxbow for its quick access and outstanding avian possibilities. Nearly every day, the Lahontan Audubon Society’s Internet service has postings from birders visiting this urban oasis for native wildlife.

Audubon members, Rose Strickland and husband, Dennis Ghiglieri, have been birding Oxbow and all of Reno since the 1980s, after Rose took an ornithology class from Dr. Fred Ryser at University of Nevada, Reno. Both love birding the area.

“Especially the Truckee River trail, which has good access any time of year,” Strickland says. “We’ve done it several times. You can go from near Idlewild Park through the valley all the way through Sparks — maybe 12-15 miles — and see many, many different species of birds along the way.” The annual Audubon Christmas Count, done in December, generally yields more than 100 bird species from the Truckee Meadows, she says, adding that in summer, there could be twice that number.

“And, here we have American dippers nesting under the Center Street bridge, cormorants and gulls nesting on the island in Virginia Lake, and thousands of Mexican freetail bats under the East McCarran bridge coming out in the summer at dusk,” she says.

Strickland says other good Reno area birding hotspots include Paradise Park ponds in Sparks, Rancho San Rafael Park near UNR, Swan Lake Nature Study Area north of town; Pyramid Lake, Thomas and Galena creeks in the Mt. Rose area for mountain birds, and the lakes at Rosewood Lakes Golf Course in east Reno.

Underwater wonders

For much of the wildlife in any water feature, fish are a main attraction for sustenance. While the majority of fish in the Truckee River are wild, tens of thousands of trout, including Lahontan cutthroat, rainbow and brown, are released into Reno’s waterways each year, according to Kim Tisdale, fisheries biologist with NDOW.

“This is a great place for fishing and the Truckee River actually got 65,000 angler days in 2003,” she says. “It’s a big river system, and well used.” Tisdale says the recent changes made to the river’s course in the downtown Reno Area for the Whitewater Park actually have helped the fisheries.

“They’re freer now that they have that low flow channel, which is better for the fish, since they like cool temperatures found in deeper waters,” she says.

There also are many “urban ponds” in Reno and Sparks with wild and stocked fish, Tisdale says. The Sparks Marina, an abandoned quarry converted to a lake and filled with one billion gallons of Truckee River and tributary water during the 1997 New Year’s Day Flood, is stocked with channel catfish and is the seventh most heavily fished water in the state.

Virginia Lake and Paradise Park ponds also are stocked with the channel catfish, she says. Other urban ponds with stocked fish, but not catfish, include Rancho San Rafael Park, Davis Creek south of town, and Wilson Common pond in Washoe

And if you want to see the endangered cui ui fish, don’t forget to visit its only home, Pyramid Lake, which also boasts one of the biggest North American nesting populations of the majestic white pelican. There, on your own exotic Nevada desert safari, you can search for the crowds of white pelicans feeding on the spawning cui ui near Nixon ... the sight of a lifetime for any explorer and wildlife lover.

Linda Hiller is a journalist and zoologist living in Jacks Valley. She teaches bird identification at Western Nevada Community College, Douglas; and has been writing about Northern Nevada wildlife and other subjects since 1994 for local publications.

Resources

• NDOW 688-1500, ndow.org/fishing licenses and wildlife information.

• Oxbow Nature Study Area 344-3808, 8 a.m. to sunset daily, 3100 Dickerson Road, at the end of Second Street off Keystone Ave.

• Lahontan Audubon Society, nevadaaudubon.org Good online area birding map.

• Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, www.fws.gov/stillwater/ Directions, maps, and bird lists.