Sometimes three nights spent in the woods are more restorative and satisfying than even I expect them to be.
And that is exactly the experience I had camping at the Silver Fork Campground on the banks of the Silver Fork of the American River in the El Dorado National Forest. I have camped in this area before, but never at this specific campground, and it was lovely. The campground was quiet and clean. The river was close and beautiful. The forest was impressive. And the birds were thrilling!
And the river itself was wonderful as well. The water was the perfect temperature for wading and swimming which was so refreshing in the heat of the afternoon. Not only were there dippers and the merganser to watch, but there were lots of different butterfly species coming down to drink and get some salts from the sandy shore, and also a huge variety of macroinvertebrates in the water. There were so many stonefly larva crawling around on the bottom with their carefully constructed tiny hard tubes made from tiny sticks and stones.
With the beauty of the forests, the amazing wildlife to see, cooking over the fire, and sharing the whole experience with family and friends, this was a wonderful trip. I was aware that I really missed camping in 2020, but in a lot of ways I am fully realizing just how much I missed it now that I am camping once again! Being in the woods, getting to see and smell and hear the natural world around me, and getting to share it with you both here and on my YouTube channel (there will be a couple of videos coming out in the next few weeks) made me happier and more tranquil and excited than I have been for a while! I can’t wait until my next trip!
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List of Bird Species Observed:
Common Merganser
Common Nighthawk
Anna’s Hummingbird
Turkey Vulture
Belted Kingfisher
White-headed Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Steller’s Jay
Common Raven
Mountain Chickadee
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nutchatch
Brown Creeper
American Dipper
Townsend’s Solitaire
American Robin
American Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Western Tanager
List of Other Species Observed (incomplete):
Western Tiger Swallowtail
Pale Tiger Swallowtail
Blue Copper
Lorquin’s Admeral
Sierra Nevada Checkerspot
Stonefly
Cadis Fly
Yellowjacket
Pacific Clubtail
Kibramoa madrona
Western Fence Lizard
Rainbow Trout
Douglas’s Squirrel
California Groundsquirrel
abirdingnaturalist 