Birds perching on a fence near Muller Lane include a possible female cowbird or two along with mostly male red-winged blackbirds and juvenile red-winged blackbirds. Photographer Robin Eppard said the it's not uncommon for the three species to flock together for resources.
With two fires in three days that allegedly started when birds hit powerlines, a conflagration could literally come out of the blue.
East Fork firefighters responded to both the small fires that occurred last week. The third outage was Sunday afternoon, when a big flock of birds was gobbling up grasshoppers and other insects in the fields south of Muller Lane.
A slight chance of thunderstorms is in the forecast for Thursday afternoon, increasing the chance of igniting a wildfire.
Nevada Emergency Manager Dave Fogerson tweeted that grasses below 5,000 feet have cured to the point where they can readily ignite.
Preparations for fire season are in full swing as the East Fork Fire and Fuels Team has moved into Station 15 in Alpine View. Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service has moved to Ruhenstroth Station 10 where they can respond to fires in the Pine Nuts and Sierra.
Firefighters from East Fork Fire Protection District are also fanning out to other states to help out and gain experience on fires around the West.
“Fire season is starting to become active in several states now,” Chief Tod Carlini said on Friday. “We have sent several personnel on off-district assignments. Our personnel, along with other Nevada agency personnel, are recognized as being very competent and experienced wildland fire management personnel.”
Brush 10 with a crew of four firefighters are in Mammoth Lakes as part of a 12-14-day request to provide back-up for the U.S. Forest Service Station.
Three East Fork firefighters are part of a Sierra Front Type 3 Team Deployment in Alaska where they will be engaged in a “shadow deployment,” following a Type II Team, Carlini said.
Battalion Chief Larry Goss is with a Type II Team as safety officer. There are 16 fires burning in Arizona.
An 80,000-acre wildfire that grew by 40,000 acres in one night is burning south of Las Vegas in the Mojave National Preserve. Firefighters have a line around 23 percent of the York Fire, burning a dozen miles west of Searchlight.
Due to drying vegetation, increasing daytime temperatures and some human-caused fires, state and federal agencies implemented fire restrictions on Friday.
The Bureau of Land Management, Carson City District Office; the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Western Nevada Agency; Bureau of Reclamation, California - Great Basin Region; Nevada Division of Forestry, Public Domain Allotments; and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge Complex are all participating.
“Fire restrictions are implemented based on specific criteria to including moisture content of vegetation, weather outlooks, human risk factors, and firefighting resource availability,” officials said. “With increasingly dry vegetation, the danger for human-caused wildfires increases even more. All agencies are asking the public to be extremely careful when recreating on state and federal lands and call 911 to report any fires.”
For more information or clarification on the restrictions, contact the BLM-Carson City District Office at 775-885-6000; the BIA at 775-887-3500; Reclamation at 916-978-5101; USFWS at 775-423-5128; and NDF at 775-684-2709 or go to www.nevadafireinfo.org
