Tahoe Meadows is located along Mt. Rose Highway about 1.3 km (.8 mi) from the 2,716 m (8,911 ft) Mt. Rose summit on the way from Reno to Incline Village at Lake Tahoe. The Meadow is about 20 minutes from my home and has become one of my favorite birding hotspot and an added bonus it is about 10 deg-F cooler.
At the beginning of July 2016, J, the kids, and I headed to Northeast Nevada to the Ruby Lake NWR and the Ruby Mountains area. We decided on this area after reading about sightings of Himalayan Snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis) around the Lamoille and Island Lakes. This introduced species in now an established population and the only one in the Americas.
When I was living in the Santa Cruz mountains I saw 5 owl species in the 13 years I was birding in the Monterey Bay area. They were the Northern Pygmy (seen 3 times at my home), Great Horned, Short-eared, Barn (seen twice) and Burrowing Owls (seen 3 times). Since we bought our new home off Mt Rose Hwy in Reno, NV last October 2015 I have seen 5 species.
My move to the Reno Nevada area has been a big change but one of the things that was a little unexpected was seeing birds in there breeding plumage. In Santa Cruz the Horned Grebes are winter birds and we only see them in their basic plumage.
There has been a battle between my Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Steller's Jays for many years at my Santa Cruz home. The Steller's bully the Sharpie but if a Cooper's Hawk arrives there is complete silence.
