Lily Lake

Today I met up with my brother Chris (aka Doaf) in South Lake Tahoe, and we drove up to Lily Lake, just south of Fallen Leaf Lake; the one-lane road to get there was a little hairy, as there were many summer vacationers out and about. Since Doaf had recently hiked in this area, he hoped to show me an odd turkey-like bird he’d seen. We set out around the lake, seeing a number of small birds. The small lake was beautiful, had several areas with lily pads, evidence of beaver activity, and a few ducks (Common Mergansers). We saw a Northern Flicker, a very scruffy Steller’s Jay, and scruffy Robins. At the far side of the lake, the trail was a bit difficult to follow and there were many willow bushes we scrambled through. There were quite a few birds there, but they were shy. I did catch a Warbling Vireo, and Doaf pointed out a busy Hairy Woodpecker. Walking ahead of me, he saw the turkey-like bird again, but it scurried into the shrubs before I could get there. Rats! Note: later on I realized the bird was a Sooty Grouse, which I’d previously seen in a tree at Angora Burn Area which is within 5 miles of where we were. The most unusual sighting was a pair of juvenile Western Wood Pewees; they were watching their parents fly around, probably showing them how to catch insects. Very cute!

I did not observe any new species for my TBY list today, but I discovered a beautiful lake with great landscape photography potential.