{"id":1405,"date":"2018-12-07T12:58:15","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.judyduffyphotography.com\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2019-01-02T14:23:14","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T22:23:14","slug":"cove-east-tins-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/judyduffyphotography.com\/?p=1405","title":{"rendered":"Cove East TINS Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I met the TINS (Tahoe Institute for Natural Science) group at Cove East in South Lake Tahoe for a very-well attended walk \u2013 about 20 birders were present and in high spirits. This was the last event of the year, so everyone was trying to get a few more birds for their lists. We ambled down the trail, led by Sarah from TINS. In spite of the winter season, we still observed numerous birds. There was a resident Great Blue Heron, several Black-billed Magpies, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Northern Shoveler, and a few small birds. I was happy I finally got a good look at a Ruby-crowned Kinglet<\/strong> \u2013 a very small bird that hops around a lot in the willow branches; it has eluded me several times as other birders have seen it but I missed it. This time I captured a number of decent shots and I even got a great view of the ruby crown (which often cannot be seen). The group was scanning and studying the ducks in the harbor\/lagoon waters, and after some discussion, it was agreed we\u2019d spotted a Eurasian Wigeon<\/strong>. Very exciting, as this was a new TBY sighting for virtually everyone in the group, and a very pretty duck, though it was rather far out in the lagoon for photography. It was mixed in among a number of Gadwalls, American Coots, and American Wigeon ducks, to name a few. We finally ambled to the shore of Lake Tahoe. There we had a flyover by a Red-shouldered Hawk<\/strong> \u2013 a new TBY species for me, though I\u2019d seen one several times at my folks\u2019 home in Saratoga.<\/p>\n

After the official hike wrapped up, I headed down Venice Drive to the Tahoe Keys area, meeting up with local birders Jenny and Bob to see what birds were in that neighborhood. A new bird for me there was the Canvasback<\/strong> duck \u2013 it was quite far away. Jenny helped me identify it through the spotting scope. Now I need more practice in identifying sleeping ducks \u2013 yet another birding skill to build. We saw a disheveled red-shouldered Hawk (maybe the same one seen earlier \u2013 Cove East is only a mile or so from there); it seemed to be wet and unhappy.<\/p>\n

I made a couple more stops \u2013 one at Rabe Meadows, and one at the Edgewood Golf course; the latter is a gated resort area \u2013 I was allowed in on condition I didn\u2019t take photos of the celebrities or the clubhouse buildings. In both areas I spotted more ducks who were clustered more in the non-frozen areas of ponds. Canada Geese abounded on the golf course.<\/p>\n

Today I added\u00a04 species to my Tahoe Big Year\u00a0list.<\/p>\n

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Ring-billed Gull (Cove East)<\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron with Mallard (Rabe Meadows Pond)<\/p>\n

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Western Gray Squirrel (Edgewood Golf Course)<\/p>\n

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