Run To The Hills

I hadn't been to the Lake Tahoe area in around three decades and Jeanine had never been, so we arranged a quick getaway last week, staying in a contactless hotel in South Lake Tahoe. In this instance, "contactless" meant that all information was e-mailed and texted to us, and the room key was a code on a keypad. We were walking distance from the lake and from Van Sickle Bi-State Park, which promised to have some interesting birds, not to mention the novelty of being able to walk into Nevada while roaming the park.

Nashville Warbler

Mountain Chickadees

Wilson's Warbler

California/Nevada Border within Van Sickle Bi-state Park

The drive there was uneventful and relatively free of traffic, which is one of the benefits of starting out during the noon hour on a weekday, and the check-in was as simple as checking my texts. Next, we walked to the park to look around. Jeanine has been amusing herself with Pokémon Go, which is strangely similar to birding, and doing a series of Flat Stanley-esque photographs involving a Star Wars scout trooper toy (named Chuck) that she found in a parking lot awhile back and some other action figure whose identity I forget (named Bruce) purchased at a thrift shop. A calendar of their exploits may be forthcoming. In short, our current hobbies are compatible.

Hermit Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Williamson's Sapsucker

We went to Van Sickle Bi-State Park the first afternoon and then again the first morning in Lake Tahoe. There were lots of Mountain Chickadees and various warblers dancing around in the treetops, occasionally dipping down closer to tease me as I struggled to photograph them. The last bird we saw there was a Williamson's Sapsucker, which came quick on the heels of a Red-breasted Sapsucker. The high point for me was probably the warblers. The first one I saw was a MacGillivray's Warbler, followed later by Nashville, Yellow-rumped, Wilson's, and Hermit Warblers. They were all quite busy doing warbler stuff, which is to be expected. 

Mountain Chickadee

White-headed Woodpecker

Jeanine at Tahoe Marsh

The first morning we ate at Driftwood Cafe, which was tasty and filling. I can't now remember exactly what I ordered, but it involved eggs. Jeanine and I shared our breakfasts, which took away some of the burden of having to choose.

Western Wood-pewee

Steller's Jay

Vikingsholm

Emerald Bay

Thus fortified, we spent the day relying on eBird and Atlas Obscura to decide where to visit. The one nearby Atlas Obscura location that looked worthwhile was Vikingsholm. If you guessed "viking home" then congratulations, although all of the literature calls it a castle. Vikingsholm was built in 1928 on the shore of Emerald Bay (now part of Emerald Bay State Park) by Lora Josephine Knight who wanted a summer home that reminded her of the fjords she'd visited in Norway. Getting there meant grabbing the last remaining parking place in the small lot on Highway 89 and walking down a mile-long pathway (actually the old driveway leading to the property) and buying tickets for a guided tour. It was an interesting house and the surrounding area is beautiful.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Brewer's Sparrow

Mountain Gartersnake

Afterward, we headed back the way we came and then over the border into Nevada. At Lam Watah Nature Trail, I saw my first lifer of the trip, a Brewer's Sparrow, who in typical sparrow fashion flew off and disappeared into the ground cover, but not before I got a couple of acceptable photos. A little later we came across a gartersnake on the pathway, which proved to be a Mountain Gartersnake, which was new to me as well. 

The weirdest part of this stop was the guy taking his log for a walk. He had a dog too, so I guess in actuality he was taking both his log and his dog for a walk. We saw him at distance carrying a good-sized log over his shoulder like he was marching off to battle with it. Later, when he passed us, he commented on the size of my camera lens, and even later, I lamented that I passed up the opportunity to reply by making a crack about his log. It's probably just as well that I didn't. There is something about a guy carrying a large log with no obvious destination in sight that arouses my suspicions.

 

The next day we floundered about looking for somewhere different to have breakfast until a wrong turn (actually, we possibly overshot a breakfast place I'd noticed the day before) revealed a bagel place, so we had bagel concoctions, and I got a big, black coffee which hit the spot the way coffee nearly always does. We intended to eat our breakfast on the beach but the section of beach we arrived at required some sort of entrance fee (thanks, capitalism) so we ate in the car and looked through the fence at the water.

Then, we drove around the Nevada side of the lake on our way to the must-visit Donnor Party Picnic Area. We did have a picnic of sorts, but most of our time there was taken up by following the small interpretive trail and looking at wildlife. 

Our final major stop of the trip was the Sagehen Creek Trail, just up the road. Being a single-track trail along a creek, it lived up to its name. It was now early afternoon, so the birds had settled down a bit and, other than a trio of Red Crossbills who flew over as we got out of the car and a silent Townsend's Solitaire, the first part of the trek was virtually birdless. The habitat was great though, with banks of Willows on the creek side and mixed woodland on the other. 

Green-tailed Towhee

People kept passing us with their dogs, which is always a bit annoying when you're trying to look for birds, but then I remembered that the creek ended at a reservoir of some sort, so it made sense. The trailhead had been an unassuming dirt pullout which probably means only locals (and people following eBird directions) use it much. We were probably the only non-locals. 

Clark's Nutcracker

About halfway along, there was a sudden flurry of activity featuring warblers and chickadees, and sometime after that, I heard a weird call (one I'd forgotten from last year, apparently) and then Jeanine spotted a Clark's Nutcracker in the tree above us. 

Somewhere in there, a conversation with some passersby revealed that we had about a half an hour of walking to go before we got to the reservoir (Stampede reservoir, I later figured out), so we picked up our pace a bit. 

Mountain Bluebird

The reservoir proved to be a lonely place, at least once the various dog people vanished back up the trail. That said, by the time we got there, I think there was just one other person there, and I'm not sure if there was an accompanying dog. The visible birds were out near the water, including my first Mountain Bluebirds of the year, and my first ever Gray Flycatcher (determined after the fact when I got a chance to look at my photos). There were some juvenile American Robins, another Clark's Nutcracker, a noisy family of Western Wood-pewees, and a briefly seen pair of Red Crossbills, not to mention a bunch of distant waterfowl and a short visit by an American Kestrel.

Gray Flycatcher

Western Wood-pewees

The walk back was uneventful, and by the time we reached the car, the afternoon had leaked away, and shadows were reaching toward the east.

We made a trio of brief stops, first at Emigrant Gap, then at a rest stop, both so I could tick another county off on eBird, and finally at a deli for some much-needed food. Our "picnic" at the Donnor Party Picnic Area had been more like a snack break, so dinner was welcome. My last photo of the trip was a Common Sagebrush Lizard. This may or may not be the first time I've seen one of those.

A week after we got back, I-80 was closed down near Emigrant Gap due to a Tesla semi-truck trying to make its own road, catching on fire, and emitting toxic gas from its blazing batteries. 

 Common Sagebrush Lizard