Registration is NOT required for this field trip.

Field Trip Leader: Craig Swolgaard

Brown Creeper, Image by Chris Conard

This trip will explore a little birded part of the Sierra Nevada off Ice House Road at over 6000 feet elevation. Tells Creek flows through Van Vleck meadow just west of the Desolation Wilderness. A trailhead for equestrians and hikers begins at the parking lot but we will follow a road that circles the meadow itself. This is a good spot to see a variety of Sierra Nevada birds including Lazuli Bunting, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Purple and Cassin’s Finch, Green-tailed Towhee, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Brown Creeper, and others. In the past, an Indigo Bunting spent most of the summer there. The trip will include other stops as well.

Meeting Location: Craig’s house in Georgetown (El Dorado County) at 7am and carpool from there. The address is 2884 Church Street, one block over from Main Street. Georgetown is about an hour from Sacramento and can be found on Google Maps for directions.

Special Provisions: This trip will last into the early afternoon so bring a lunch and water. Hiking is easy and fairly level.

COVID 19 Precautions:

• All participants, including field trip leaders, must be vaccinated.

• Field trip participants should maintain adequate social distance.

• Field trips leaders are authorized by the Sacramento Audubon Board to cancel field trips if stated precautions are not met.