Washoe Lake Wetlands Trip Report 2/4/21

On Friday, February 14th, Jeff Bleam led a field trip at Washoe Lake Wetlands with 7 guests from our birding community. Below is the text from Jeff's eBird Field Trip report. Click on the button to see his report on eBird, which includes more photos from his adventure.

​It was in the low 20'sF, wind was out of the SE at 8-10mph, and the sun was still behind the mountains. So it was cold. The Wetlands are located at the south end of Washoe Lake and is a nesting area for waterfowl, herons, and warblers in the spring. This wetland was dry throughout the fall and didn't start to refill until the first snow so this may account for no birds on the ponds. We walked toward the sun to the west and after about 1/2 hour we saw our first bird: a first year immature BALD EAGLE. The only birds on the ponds with BUFFLEHEADS but on the lake we saw CANADA GEESE, CAL GULLS, about 70 COMMON MERGANSERS, and a CANVASBACK. Other birds were MAGPIES, RAVENS, and 5 FLICKERS. It was a short walk because of the lack of birds and we ended the walk with 12 species.

Read the Washoe Lake Trip Report