Thoughts about…

2024 Tahoe Big Year is Officially Over!

Last month was the final month of the 2024 Tahoe Big Year. It is done. Yay!

That said, I finished strong by increasing my year’s total of bird species observed to 221. That surpassed my 2021 efforts of finding 201 birds by 20 species, for which I am super grateful. The 221 count also happened to be enough to land me in the top spot on the Leaderbird when New Year’s Eve rolled around.

As I’ve said before, placing anywhere in particular in the standings hadn’t been a huge priority for me. My main goal was always to reach 200 birds. Since I achieved that goal by the end of August, though, I had a glimmer of hope that I might be able to log 220+ birds.

I only logged three new birds in September, however, so I dialed back my expectations. This is because, collectively, we didn’t find a whole lot of new species that month. And I knew that by the time November and December arrived, it would hit-or-miss as to whether or not I was going to find anything new. So I revaluated my approach and created mini-goals to carry me through to the end. I would first try to increase my bird count by ten (210), and then five (215), another five (220), and finally one more species (221) if at all possible.

Fortunately, October and November proved to be fruitful as I logged 12 new birds during those two months. And, interestingly enough, by the end of November I was alone in first place by two birds. So I thought, “Since this is the last Tahoe Big Year in which I’m going to participate in earnest, there’s no sense in stopping now!”

The goal, after all, is to find as many bird species in the Tahoe/Truckee region during the calendar year. And, at that point, I still had the whole month of December left to go. So despite the holiday season and having started my winter job at Kirkwood XC, I just kept grinding toward those lesser goals that ultimately resulted in my grand total of 221 birds 🙂

I’m going to be giving a presentation about my 2024 Tahoe Big Year at the South Lake Tahoe Library on March 25, 2025. Therefore, I’ve begun to consolidate info, data, and notes regarding my TBY. Here is some of that information for those of you curious enough 🙂

The links that I’ve provided will either take you to their corresponding iNaturalist observations or original Facebook Tahoe Birding group posts. Basically, these are the photos of the birds in question. And both sites are set to “public,” so you don’t have to actually have an account in order to view them.

• Total Bird Species Collectively Recorded by TBY Participants: 233
• My Total Bird Species Count: 221 (approximately 95% of all birds observed, so I missed 12 species – see notes below)
• 1st Bird: Common Raven
• 100th Bird: Black Phoebe
• 200th Bird: Common Yellowthroat
• 221st: Northern Saw-whet Owl
• First sightings during the TBY (These are not historical first sightings for the Tahoe Basin, nor was I the only person to see these birds. I just happened to be the first person out of all the other TBY participants to see these particular birds):
  • Red-necked Grebe, #67 (January 21, Lake Tahoe via Kaspian Recreation site on SR89)
  • Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, #125 (April 9, Carson Pass North on xc skis w/Lynn Harriman)
  • Golden Eagle, #130 (April 14, Washoe Meadows State Park while it was doing battle with a Raven)
  • Franklin’s Gull, #135 (April 25, Lake Tahoe via boat w/Geoff Hanlon)
  • Yellow-billed Loon, #145 (May 2, Lake Tahoe via boat w/Geoff Hanlon)
  • Lark Sparrow, #156 (May 8, Cove East Trail near first/large pond)
  • Bullock’s Oriole, #166 (May 12, Upper Truckee Marsh in the willows near the lake)
  • Mountain Quail, #147 (May 18, Angora Ridge Road while driving home after work)
  • Sabine’s Gull, #207 (October 1, Upper Truckee Marsh flyby w/Heather Gaburo)
  • Ferruginous Hawk, #210 (October 12, Carson Pass North flyover)
  • Long-tailed Duck, #218 (November 30, Kiva Beach flyby – this was the only sighting of a Long-tailed Duck for the entire TBY)
  • Long-eared Owl, #219 (December 17, Cove East Trailhead w/group of fellow TBYers)
• The 12 Birds that got Away (Many of these birds are rare for Tahoe and, as such, many of them were one-and-done observations. So if you weren’t standing in the right place at the right time when they presented themselves, you weren’t going to see them at all):
  • Black-bellied Plover (1 sighting)
  • Chestnut-sided Warbler (1 sighting, I only tried once to find it since it was observed up north in Truckee)
  • Common Tern (1 sighting)
  • Great-tailed Grackle (3 sightings, this may have been a one-time group sighting)
  • Parasitic Jaeger (1 sighting, this was posted three days after it was observed so none of us had a chance to chase it)
  • Pinyon Jay (3 sightings, this may have been a one-time group sighting)
  • Short-billed Dowitcher (13 sightings spread over the summer – this was truly the one that got away because I did actually try multiple times to find this species)
  • Surf Scoter (1 sighting, this bird was observed from a boat)
  • Thick-billed Longspur (1 sighting, probably only in Tahoe for an hour or two)
  • Varied Thrush (3 sightings – one sighting by a single observer and the other sighting was made by a group of two observers)
  • Veery (4 sightings, I tried on three consecutive days to find this bird but only heard it)
  • Wilson’s Phalarope (8 sightings spread out over a couple of times)
• White Whale: Historically, there have been sightings of White-tailed Ptarmigans at Carson Pass (particularly on the north side). However, those sightings are fairly uncommon. So I was always hoping to cross paths with one of them on one of my many trips to the area, whether I was hiking or cross-country skiing, but I had no such luck!
• Most Memorable Observation: Not necessarily of a single bird, but of my experience(s) hiking to the north side of Carson Pass near the small pond/tarn during fall migration. I visited this location numerous times in pursuit of a Prairie Falcon. Even after I recorded one, however, I continued to return to the pond to see what other birds I could find. During these trips, I had a first sighting of a Ferruginous Hawk which was a lifer for me. I also recorded my Townsend’s Warbler(s) for the year at this location. And, subsequently, my September 3, 2024, Facebook Post in the Tahoe Birding group about the migrating Townsend’s Warblers went somewhat viral. It gained so much traction that it received over 1.7k likes and well over 50 comments. For context, the Tahoe Birding group only has 2.7k followers, and it’s fairly rare for a photo/post in that group to receive more than 50 likes.
• Worst Birding Experience: Veery (check out my August 2024 Newsletter for that story)
• Total Hours Spent Birding (In reality, we don’t walk very far to find birds. So it’s often more about the hours, not the miles, when it comes to birding. For me, I spent at minimum one hour of every day of the year birding. Most days, however, I spent far more than an hour on the grind. And often I’d split this time split throughout the day. Perhaps I’d look before work and then after. I’d also spend most of my days off searching for new birds):
  • Conservative Estimate = 365 hours (i.e. 1 hour/day for a total of 45 8-hour days)
  • Generous Estimate = 1,460 hours (i.e. 4 hours/day for a total of 182 8-hour days)
  • Realistic estimate = 912 hours (i.e. 2.5 hours/day for a total of 114 8-hour days)
  • Additionally, we all tend to drive many miles throughout the year in pursuit of birds. It’s a necessary evil if you want to be competitive in finding birds. I always try to combine activities whenever possible (i.e. running to the grocery store while birding). However, I often did make specific trips to find birds. So I’m not even going to bother estimating that mileage because it would be so depressing!

Again, the 2024 Tahoe Big Year officially came to a close at midnight on New Year’s Eve. As fun and rewarding as the year was, I’m looking forward to focusing on other outdoor-related projects. Namely, cross-country skiing, making videos about cross-country skiing, and creating more watercolor paintings 🙂

Since I was busy with work and birding in December (2024), I didn’t create any new videos other than this short Channel Update.

For those of you who are really interested, here’s my official 2024 Tahoe Big Year list in chronological order including species number, common and scientific names, and the dates in which I observed each bird.

Although I photographed every bird on this list — except for an American Goshawk (argh!!!) — I’m not providing any photos here. This is just my bird list. What I plan to do, however, is to create a slideshow for my March 25, 2025, South Lake Tahoe Library presentation that will feature photos of every bird that I observed during the 2024 TBY.

So come to the presentation if you want to see those photos!

Thanks for being a part of my life. Until next time…

-Jared Manninen

Tahoe Trail Guide is an online resource for hiking, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing in the Lake Tahoe region. In addition to trail data, I offer backcountry “how-to” articles and information about the local and natural history of Tahoe. Tahoe Swag is a collection of art and design products I create based on my love of the outdoors and appreciation for Lake Tahoe and the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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