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.
North Tahoe, near Crystal Bay
We got a fairly early start and arrived 10 am or so in the hills just above the town of Crystal Bay. We explored along some of the dirt roads and trails and creeks just above the Crystal Bay homes and east of route 267. We immediately encountered a number of birds,...
Boca-Stampede Recreation Area
Today my husband Don and I explored the area north of Truckee, driving past the Boca Lake (reservoir) and along the road which follows the Upper Truckee River northish. The river flows out of the Stampede reservoir, which is currently closed for repair. (Apparently...
Martis Creek Walk with Naturalist
Today Don and I drove to the Martis Creek recreation area which is near Truckee in north Tahoe, just south of the Martis Creek Dam. We joined the Tahoe Institute of Natural Science (TINS) led bird walk, which was led by naturalist Will Richardson. It was a group of...
Taylor Creek / Fallen Leaf Lake
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...
Rabe Meadows
Rabe Meadows is a beautiful park and wetland just north of the South Lake Tahoe community, just on the Nevada side of the Stateline. This park area is oblong in shape and stretches about a mile from Highway 50 down to Lake Tahoe. There is a pond and wetland area,...
Spooner Lake
It was a breezy Spring day, pretty cool at 7000 feet. Some snow was still on the ground. It was a delightful stroll 2.1 miles around the lake. Even for a Sunday, it wasn't too busy. Don and I saw quite a number of birds. I liked that there were several distinct...
