About the Tahoe Big Year Project

The “Big Year” is a bird photography project that takes place over the course of 2018.  After attending a seminar at REI on birding in the Lake Tahoe area, I joined the birding activity that is being coordinated by the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science (TINS).  This is sort of a contest to see which birder can observe the most unique species of birds during the course of one year.  Of course, photographing the bird sighting is not strictly required by TINS, but for me to document what I’ve seen, as well as enhance my bird identification and wildlife photography skills – I consider a photograph a strict requirement. So every bird I claim to have seen (and have logged on the TINS site) will have an associated photograph on my website.  Please note that this means not all the photos may be of the quality I’d enter in a camera club competition or that I’d offer for commercial sale.

If you are interested in learning more about the Big Year project being run by TINS, please refer to the Tahoe Big Year website.

Click on any blog entry below to get the detail of that day’s field trip and what birds I saw.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Cove East / South Lake Tahoe, December 2018)

NOTE: For miscellaneous sightings of birds I’ve observed that don’t merit a full blog page, refer to the Miscellaneous TBY Page.

Upper Truckee Marsh

Upper Truckee Marsh

Today I went with Doaf to the Upper Truckee River meadows area, in South Lake Tahoe.  First we tried the east side of the marsh, accessing it off San Francisco Road.  We immediately heard the raucous sounds of the Yellow-Headed Blackbirds that were numerous in the...

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Spooner Lake 3

Spooner Lake 3

Today Don and I drove to Spooner Lake, arriving at 7:45 am.  This is a birding hotspot that keeps on giving (and a convenient drive from our home in Reno).  We really had a successful outing today, and saw a number of Tahoe Big Year new species.  Most impressive was...

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Pelicans!

Pelicans!

Who knew there were pelicans in Reno? Apparently they like nesting up at Pyramid Lake in the winter, but they are all over the place and migrating around now.  First we saw a number of them from our backyard in Reno. We needed the binoculars to see what kind of birds...

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Spooner Lake 2

Spooner Lake 2

I convinced my brother Chris (aka "Doaf") to meet me for an 8 am amble at Spooner Lake.  We parked up at the Spooner Pass parking area on Highway 50.  It was a gorgeous Spring day at 7000 feet!  We saw many wildflowers, butterflies, and birds.  The first find was some...

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Tahoe Meadows

Tahoe Meadows

Don and I drove up the Mt. Rose highway and visited Tahoe Meadows, which is just over the summit. There were still a few patches of snow here and there, but we were able to get around.  The birds were somewhat elusive at this high altitude (around 8000 feet), and we...

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Incline Village and More

Incline Village and More

Today I joined the TINS bird walk that they have weekly at 7:30 am.  It was hosted by Michelle and Dan from TINS who helped us find a few species on this sunny Spring morning.  The highlight for me was the black-headed grosbeaks.  I wasn't able to see them well during...

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