I planned a trip through the Smoke Creek Desert in the hopes of photographing a Yellow-breasted Chat. The Yellow-breasted Chat has always been a mystery to taxonomists: it looks similar to Warblers but is larger, has a more varied songs and calls, and has different behavior and anatomy compared to warblers. For decades the Chat was place in the warbler family, but in the late 2010s this Chat was given its own family (Icteriidae), noting the differences from a Warbler.
There are about 15 different Dark-eyed Junco subspecies in North America and I have had 5 subspecies in my yard, which is located SW of Reno NV. The most common Junco, in my area, are the Oregon subspecies and they are more common in the winter but being altitudinal migrants here you can find them breeding above 6000ft.
Looking back over the years of photographing birds, I have noticed a continuous improvement in my image composition and quality. If I had to pick my favorite image for 2022 it would be an encounter with a Pacific Wren. I have seen them in the Chimney Beach area, which is about 6 mi south of Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in the eastern Sierra Nevada Range of Washoe County NV. It would be easier to look that up.
The last time I talked about wrens was in 2015 so what about a revisit. What’s nice about Wrens is they are bold, chatty, will get in your face when you are in their territory, and they will sit still. The Pacific Wren is very common in my old home of Santa Cruz, CA but on the east side of Sierras you need to know where to find them.
I saw my first Hutton’s Vireo on Aug 31 2008 near my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which was about 5 miles north of Boulder Creek, California. The Hutton’s Vireo is a common resident along the Pacific Coast and western Sierras so I had seen many each spring; however, it is a rare bird for Washoe County in northwest Nevada.
