Page Meadows, June 21, 2014

Page Meadows, June 21, 2014
Leader: Kirk Hardie

I led an outing for the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science (TINS), LAS, and Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) to Page Meadows on June 21. This was my eighth year leading an outing there and it was by far the driest. The creek we crossed barely had a flow to it, whereas in other years we usually get our feet wet. Despite the lack of water, we had some great wildflowers and good birding. We started at 64 acres in Tahoe City, CA and had a Belted Kingfisher fly overhead. At Page Meadows we had great looks at Western Tanagers. I don't know if they were the same individuals or not, but we had looks at tanagers all more morning long. We had a Rufous Hummingbird fly by at one point and a MacGillivray’s Warbler singing away who barely showed himself. We also had a Nashville Warbler that was bouncing around and singing away. It seemed like there were a few Red Crossbills cruising around the meadows, but we only managed a brief glimpse of a female. There were two Lazuli Buntings singing in different meadows as well. Overall, we saw 20 species, heard an additional seven species, and two species remained unidentified. Here's the complete list for Page Meadows:

    Unidentified hawk - flew out of sight too quickly to ID
    Rufous Hummingbird
    Unidentified Hummingbird
    Northern Flicker - heard
    Hairy Woodpecker - juvenile
    White-headed Woodpecker
    Red-breasted Sapsucker
    Western Wood-Pewee
    Warbling Vireo
    Cassin's Vireo - heard
    Steller's Jay
    Common Raven - heard
    Mountain Chickadee
    Red-breasted Nuthatch
    Golden-crowned Kinglet - heard
    American Robin
    Hermit Thrush - heard
    Nashville Warbler
    Yellow-rumped Warbler
    MacGillivray's Warbler
    Western Tanager
    Lazuli Bunting
    Chipping Sparrow
    Fox Sparrow - heard
    Song Sparrow
    Dark-eyed Junco
    Red-winged Blackbird
    Red Crossbill
    Evening Grosbeak - heard