December 16, 2023

Christmas Bird Count 2023 (official count day was December 15, 2023)

Overall, this year's CBC (hosted by the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science) was pretty quiet. The air was still and it seemed like I could hear for miles around, but I seldom heard birds! Fortunately there wasn't too much snow, which made for easy travel compared to last year where there was already multiple feet of snow on the ground. Everyone was able to just walk around this year with sturdy boots. Parking was easy, too :)

I covered the south half of Washoe Meadows State Park in the morning. And then met with my friend, Maria, for an afternoon session through the Angora Burn area via the Gunmount Trail (Angora Creek/Lake Tahoe BLVD - Nez Perce FS Gate turnaround - exited via Wintoon FS Gate. Total hiking mileage was 7.05 miles over approximately 5 hours, with minimal driving for shuttling purposes in the burn area.

My total count (in no particular order):
• Mountain Chickadee - 31
• Steller's Jay - 4
• Mallard - 2
• Golden-crowned Kinglet - 7
• Red Crossbill - 4
• American Dipper - 2 (my highlight for the day)
• Raven - 1
• White-breasted Nuthatch - 8
• Red-breasted Nuthatch - 4
• Brown Creeper - 3
• Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 6
• Bushtit - 6
• Red-tailed Hawk - 1
• Northern Flicker - 1

Updated 12/17/23 - Two additional species for the week (Williamson's Sapsucker and Hairy Woodpecker)

The unofficial species count that we determined during the follow-up dinner party last night was 78 unique species, which is within the normal species range for the Tahoe CBC. However, the overall numbers count was way low compared to past years. Nobody has any real insight as to why the numbers were so low this year. The weather has been very favorable, so that doesn't really seem to be a factor.

The two species highlights were the observations of one American Goshawk (Geoff H.) and one Sora (Will R.).

Updated 12/20/23 - Here's a YouTube video that I created about the day's experience titled "Birds of Lake Tahoe: Christmas Bird Count 2023 aka Participating in Citizen Science at Lake Tahoe!" ( https://youtu.be/Qc0hxiMEG8U )

Posted on December 16, 2023 03:06 PM by jaredmanninen jaredmanninen | 9 observations | 3 comments | Leave a comment

November 14, 2019

Unbelievable amount of green still out there

A 6-mile walk home from the "Y" (HWY50/SR89) and through Washoe Meadows State Park yesterday yielded a bunch of green-leaved plants. Hard to believe considering we're in the middle of November! Although I found the Oregon Grape in town, the other four specimens were all located in a boggy section of the state park.

Then, the following day (11/14/19), I hiked up Mount Tallac and just above Cathedral Lake I found Lace Lip Fern and Bridges Cliffbrake still growing.

Although I'm posting somewhat redundant observations, mostly I'm doing it as a record of how late in the season I'm still able to find living/lush specimens.

Posted on November 14, 2019 03:04 PM by jaredmanninen jaredmanninen | 8 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

October 2, 2019

Beginning the process of uploading 2019 (non-wildflower) photos

I spent so much time posting (and trying to identify) images of Sierra Nevada wildflowers this year that I neglected posting photos of anything else. So, it's my goal to upload before the end of the year photos of birds and other creatures from 2019. I don't plan on uploading more than a few each day, so it shouldn't be too annoying :)

Once I'm finished updating my 2019 backlog I'll start to work on previous years' photos, possibly dating back to 2005. That said, it wasn't until 2012 that I started to photo document flora/fauna in earnest. I imagine this whole process will take me awhile, but I've grown fond of iNat and the service/science it provides. Therefore, it's my intention to contribute (data/observations) more than what I have been.

Posted on October 2, 2019 03:01 PM by jaredmanninen jaredmanninen | 3 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

September 30, 2019

Sand Harbor (Lake Tahoe) Wildflowers

Technically, I was on a stretch of the new hiking/biking boardwalk (directly north of Sand Harbor) that was constructed in 2019 along the east shore of Lake Tahoe. Precipitation hit Lake Tahoe late afternoon on September 28, and then the temperature dropped to about 28 degrees overnight. By the morning of September 29 snow had accumulated approximately 1 inch at lake level.

There were multiple specimens of Indian Blanket in various states of bloom and decline along this stretch of boardwalk. It's possible some of the specimens were actually Great Blanketflower.. However, I don't know how to differentiate between the two species at this point. I've seen images of the backs of both flowers where it shows the petals of Indian Blanket are red/crimson while the examples of Great Blanketflowers are yellow. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from this angle.

I've never seen Tumbleweed in it's live state, and was surprised at just how sharp and numerous its barbs are. I definitely wouldn't want to stumble into that while out hiking!

Posted on September 30, 2019 12:49 PM by jaredmanninen jaredmanninen | 7 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

September 15, 2019

Winnemucca Lake (Carson Pass) Wildflowers

Although I already ID'd most of this date's plant species (earlier in 2019), I wanted to record them here on iNaturalist since it's so late in the season to still be seeing some of these in bloom. For most of these, I followed a small stream up the base of Round Top from Winnemucca Lake (taking care only to walk on rocks, of course!). It was as if time had stood still along the small snowmelt stream. Some of the IDs were just along the Winnemucca Trail (from Carson Pass).

Posted on September 15, 2019 02:54 AM by jaredmanninen jaredmanninen | 29 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment