Today my husband Don and I drove to the Taylor Creek / Fallen Leaf Lake area of South Lake Tahoe, meeting my brother Chris who is an avid outdoorsman.  We started at the Taylor Creek SNO-Park parking lot (near where Highway 89 crosses Taylor Creek), and hiked southish, roughly following Taylor Creek until we reached Fallen Leaf Lake. It was a gorgeous day, and we could hear lots of birds such as chickadees and red-winged blackbirds.  I spotted a wren, but it was shy and I didn’t get a great photo (see below).  Spring is just beginning to burst out, as willows and the like had mostly buds and only a few small leaves on their branches.  After 10 minutes we heard woodpeckers, and over the course of the trip identified several white-headed woodpeckers in the area, including one female that was low on its tree and only about 15 foot away (see photo below).  We also saw a Williamson’s sapsucker – a new bird for my life list!. Nuthatches were abundant in the conifer forest area at the North bank of Fallen Leaf Lake, where we stopped for lunch.  After lunch we followed Taylor Creek downstream across a heavily wooded area where several dead trees are being cleared, probably to make the nearby campground more fire safe.  After reaching Highway 89, we crossed over into the Taylor Creek marsh area.  The marsh is just starting to green out, and the creek area was beautiful.  We took the guided nature hike, and saw a few blackbirds but not much.  We observed a common merganser with a very bright orange beak swimming strongly upstream (see photo).  We look forward to returning here when the visitor center opens; visitors can see the fish traveling through the stream via a special glass window.

Today I added 4 species to my Tahoe Big Year list.

Fallen Leaf Lake Reflections

Taylor Creek and Marsh with Mt. Tallac

Busy Chipmunk near Taylor Creek

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