Valley Views:

Peak Consulting Engineer Keith Shaffer got the contract to evaluate the CVIC Hall's balcony to determine a safe load. Attorney George Keele introduced Keith as a former Douglas High wrestler who took second in state all four of his years at the school.

Keith said he may have done some load testing of the balcony himself during Sunday school in the 1970s.

Douglas High School sophomore Reena Spansail took third place in the 2009 Nevada Junior Duck Stamp awards. She and four other members of Christine Croman's art class placed in the contest.

Ashley Villigan, Brandi Graves, Elizabeth Sims, Irma Guiterrez Cortes and Marissa Cook all received honorable mentions in the awards, which was won by a Churchill County High School student.

More than 544 people took place in the contest.

According to the Great Backyard Bird Count, the most common bird in Nevada is the European starling with 3,545 observed during the annual event.

Second most observed was the California quail with 1,973 during the four-day event held between Feb. 16 and 19.

Minden spotters reported 190 birds in all, with the Canada goose leading at 65 sightings. Second was the starling with 44 and tied for third was the dark-eyed junco and the house sparrow.

At the bottom of the local list were California quail, downy woodpeckers and great blue heron, with two each.

That's because all the California quail were in Gardnerville, where the lone spotter counted a dozen. There were six lesser goldfinch, six white-crowned sparrows and four American goldfinch. There were only 14 sightings of Nevada's state bird, the mountain bluebird in the state. Two were in Ely. None were here.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.

For more about it, go to gbbc.birdsource.org.