For John Muir the Sierras were the peak experience of California wilderness. These great forests of pine and fir, pure streams and rivers, mountain lakes and soaring peaks are a revelation of the nature of American wilderness. Our headquarters for these natural history weekends will be the Sierra Valley, an area about 25 miles north of Lake Tahoe. The area’s grasslands, lakes and forests provide homes to a extraordinary variety of birds, butterflies, wildflowers and small mammals. We will visit nearby Lake Davis, the Sierra Valley marshes, the Feather River, Yuba Pass, Plumas-Eureka State Park and other locations. In this spectacular setting we expect to see between 80-100 species of birds, including sapsuckers and other woodpeckers, numerous warblers, kinglets, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Osprey, White Pelicans, Mt. Bluebirds, White-faced Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, Black–billed Magpies, Nighthawks, Clark’s Nutcrackers, ducks, hummingbirds and many other songbirds. The weekend trip begins at noon Thursday in Sierraville and ends Sunday at noon in Portola. I will provide a list of local accommodations for your stay. We typically visit two locations per day, break for lunch and share dinner in the evenings. Lodging and most meals are not included in the tour price. (The tour may be taken together with a class on Sierra birds and ecology meeting May 18 and 25 in Berkeley. The class is included in the tour price.)