This weekend is the Spring Wings Festival, annual celebration of the migrating birds that make the stop at the Lahontan Valley. There's several activities one can do, like a scavenger hunt or a Big Day or, if you're a kid, a passport book that gets you an airboat ride across one of the reservoirs in the refuge.

Last year, my Big Day was 50 species recorded. This year, I tried to keep better track and ended up with 55 species!

I already updated my eBird and iNaturalist profiles with a majority of the pictures I took (really, you aren't missing out on some of those barely focused snaps) but wanted to share the pictures I like the best.

Super fancy Ruddy Duck.
Protective Canada Goose
Frazzled White-Faced Ibis.
Wind-blown Black-crowned Night-Heron

#LahontanValley #SLineReservoir #StillwaterNWR #Nevada #Birds #Birding #BirdWatching #Wildlife #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #RuddyDuck #CanadaGoose #WhiteFacedIbis #BlackCrowedNightHeron

Okay, uploading to a separate site didn't work as well as I'd hoped, so sticking with posting pictures here.

While looking at the latest Sentinel 2 imagery (Great site if you haven't seen it https://sentinel2explorer.esri.com/ ) I saw that the excess water in the area had doubled the size of a reservoir and filled a pond marked on the map I'd never noticed. So off I went to explore.

Bounced a bit on a dry dike before coming to a sand dune. Carefully crawled to the top (me and sand are not the bestest of friends) and saw a wide expanse of desert was now a glittering lake.

I spotted my first American Avocets of the year wading around in the muck on the shore.

Lots of yellow-headed blackbirds croaking and calling from the trees and reeds surrounding the water.

There's a large tree that serves as a nest area for Great Egrets though today there was a bunch of Double-crested Cormorants and Great-tailed Grackles.

Bobbing in the water were a bunch of ducks. Canvasbacks, American Coots, Ruddy Ducks, and Mallards that I could make out.

All in all, pretty good day of checking out a new water area after work.

#LahontanValley #Fallon #Nevada #Birds #Birding #BirdWatching #Wildlife #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #AmericanAvocet #YellowHeadedBlackbird #DoubleCrestedCormorant #RuddyDuck #Canvasback

Visited the Carson City WWTP Wetlands, between the freeway and the sewage plant (I know, lovely location) where a lot of different birds settle in to enjoy the many reeds and ponds in the area. Tried using eBird again and, while I like having the record, it's just a pain to try to keep count (and putting X on everything seems less than ideal). I like that iNaturalist pulls the metadata from the photo to tag the date/time/location vs having to select a vague location to submit a checklist.

Did meet with a few others out photographing the birds. One gentleman from Carson Valley had a super fast camera to snap multiple pictures, as I was busy trying to focus. We stood around for a bit identifying different birds. Which is when I learned my new 10x50 binoculars are better than my camera! I could see ducks on the far side of the pond clearly that my poor camera could only get a fuzzy shape for. Hurmmmm, have to ponder this.

Trying something new. I'll post the best four pictures here and then if you'd like to see the rest of the birds I saw, they'll be uploaded here: https://metapixl.com/p/NevadaWolf/550849699829402094 (It's just an experiment).

#EagleValley #CarsonCity #Nevada #Birds #Birding #BirdWatching #Wildlife #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #BlackPhobe #RedWingedBlackbird #Mallard #SongSparrow #CinnamonTeal #Gadwell #MarshWren #CanadaGoose #WilsonsSnipe #AmericanCoot #LesserScaup #PiedBilledGrebe #RuddyDuck #Canvasback

#dailyphoto #ruddyduck #birds #nature #pond #male #brookgreengardens #southcarolina #travelphotography #photo taken on March 2023.