{"id":927,"date":"2018-07-05T18:58:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T01:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.judyduffyphotography.com\/?p=927"},"modified":"2018-07-09T19:55:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T02:55:06","slug":"spooner-lake-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/judyduffyphotography.com\/?p=927","title":{"rendered":"Spooner Lake 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today Don and I drove to Spooner Lake, arriving at 7:45 am.\u00a0 This is a birding hotspot that keeps on giving (and a convenient drive from our home in Reno).\u00a0 We really had a successful outing today, and saw a number of Tahoe Big Year new species.\u00a0 Most impressive was the Red-breasted Sapsucker<\/strong>.\u00a0 It flew past me and landed on a bare branch that was over the trail where we’d just passed.\u00a0 He put on quite the show for us – hopping about, grooming itself, scraping its bill on the bark, and stretching out its wings.\u00a0 I was so glad that I lugged my tripod along.\u00a0 Among the aspen, we observed several Wilson’s warblers – these are not new TBY birds for me, but they were so fun to watch, flitting around in the lowest branches of aspen, gathering bugs to eat.\u00a0 We also saw a number of juvenile wrens, some quite darker in color which I’ve identified as Pacific Wrens<\/strong> while most of the observations were of House Wrens.\u00a0 I also saw a wonderful Spotted Sandpiper which was in a pile of wood logs between willow bushes near the lake.\u00a0 It was quite excited to see me, hopping about, bobbing its rear end up and down and making warning sounds similar to a killdeer’s. It must have had babies near there.\u00a0 My husband spotted the Great Blue Heron<\/strong> down at the Lake’s edge, hunting stealthily not far from a large noisy group of Canada Geese.\u00a0 We also saw a number of raptors, including a Bald Eagle, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk<\/strong>, and a Turkey Vulture<\/strong>.\u00a0 We wandered off-trail a bit onto a low peninsula.\u00a0 There we saw a busy Yellow-rumped Warbler finding bugs in a pine tree.\u00a0 Additionally we spotted an Olive-sided Flycatcher<\/strong> perched on a dead branch atop a cottonwood tree.<\/p>\n

Our controversial sighting for the day\u00a0was the vireo – my first vireo – note the tiny hook at the end of the bill.\u00a0 This bird is small (maybe 5 inches long) and very lively and not too afraid of humans.\u00a0\u00a0The Cassin’s Vireo and the Plumbeous Vireo are very similar – they both have the distinct white eye “spectacles”.\u00a0 Both are gray above with a lighter, whitish belly.\u00a0 I thought Plumbeous due to the lack of significant greenish-yellow tints at side of breast.\u00a0 However, due to the rarity of the Plumbeous Vireo, Will the TINS Naturalist requested more data before I logged this bird into the TBY competition.\u00a0 After reviewing my photos – he determined it to be a Cassin’s Vireo<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not only that, another vireo (which I assumed was the same species) that I photographed he identified as a Warbling Vireo<\/strong>!\u00a0 I am still learning the subtleties between different birds, plus I need to get better at identifying their songs.<\/p>\n

Today I added\u00a010 species to my Tahoe Big Year\u00a0list!<\/p>\n

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Painted Lady Butterfly<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.judyduffyphotography.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JDP-TBY-20180705-8959.jpg” title_text=”Click to zoom in.” show_in_lightbox=”on” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_padding=”20px||5px|” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Image Caption” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ text_font=”||||” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” use_border_color=”off”]<\/p>\n

Lush Lupine<\/p>\n

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Black and White Dragonfly<\/p>\n

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