Dawn Chorus Birdblog: Yosemite and Mono Lake

Birds ore one part – okay, the biggest part – of birding.   But understanding birds also means understanding the places they live.  I wanted to learn more about the habitats in the Yosemite high country (one of my very favorite places) and took a Yosemite Association class on the ecology of the high Sierra.   We looked at all elements of the ecosystem – plants, animals, geology, climate.

Female American Kestrel at Mono Lake (nest tree)

Our group was led by John Muir (Jack) Laws and David Lukas, both of whom had written books about the area; Jack’s book is a field guide to everything in the high country, and David’s is an update (actually a complete rewrite) of "the" book on natural history of the High Sierra.  My classmates were great, too, with expertise in many different aspects of the habitat, especially the wildflowers.  One thing that I learned quickly was that plant people don’t have to shush up the way birders do, which had the effect of flushing birds well in advance of the group (especially since it was 20 people).  So... not too many bird pix this week, sorry.

On our first day, we walked to Elizabeth Lake, up behind Tuolumne Meadows.  We went through lodgepole pine forest, transitioning into hemlock forest as we reached higher elevations.  (I’ve always been mediocre at best on my tree ID, but learned the tops of the hemlocks are always droopy – good to know because crossbills love hemlocks, and I love crossbills.)   There are few birds species in the high country, but it was great to see the few there are – Mountain Chickadees, Cassin’s Finches, Dusky Flycatchers, Red Crossbills, and – everywhere, Dark-eyed Juncos.  Because the breeding season gets underway so much later up there, we saw parents feeding just-fledged young everywhere.  Some of the group who are just starting to get interested in birds were startled to see how different a young robin looks from its parents.

That evening, most of the group headed down to Lee Vining for dinner at the Mobil station (a near-legendary eating spot), then over to the shores of Mono Lake for the last bit of light.  We were watching the gulls and phalaropes, and realized that the bats were coming out.  Jack Laws had a bat detector, so we spent half an hour "listening" to them zip over our heads and nab insects.  There were a bazillion stars overhead, so we did a bit of stargazing through the spotting scope.  Lovely evening.

The next day, we hiked up to Bennettville, an abandoned silver mine just outside the Tioga Gate.  It was an easy hike, with abundant wildflowers all along the way.  There were also lots of white pines (or is it whitebark pines?), the main food source of Clark’s Nutcrackers, my favorite high country bird.  Nutcrackers chattered away in the background for much of the walk; pretty much my definition of heaven.  The best "bird" of the day was a mammal – a very cooperative Pika who lived in a crevice at the entry to the old silver mine.  We were able to watch him for nearly an hour.

Very cooperative Pika in its crevice

We planned to do some serious stargazing that night from Lembert Dome, but smoke from the Telegraph Fire obscured the view.  The fire started on Friday, but went completely out of control on Saturday, putting a thick blanket of smoke above our campground almost fifty miles away.  Because the fire was along Highway 140, one of the main roads from the park, I was worried that it would be closed and traffic would clog Hwy 120, my usual route from the park.  I decided to skip the last morning’s class and head home the long way, with a stop at Mono Lake enroute.

I went first to the old burn area along the south shore, hoping that there might be some pinyon jays or Lewis’ Woodpeckers, two species I’d seen there in the past.   No luck on that, but I ended up spending half an hour watching a kestrel family.  One female bird perched near the road caught my eye and I stopped to take a few pictures of her.  Soon after, a male flew over, and a chorus of kestrel cries erupted all around me.  I thought the female was one of the kids at first but later realized that she was an adult, most likely mom, and that she was probably perched on the nest tree (based on her behavior and some the kestrel voices I was hearing).  I didn’t want to disturb her so I didn’t check closer.

Mom Kestrel, listening to the kids.

After leaving the burn zone, I headed to the old Marina along Hwy 395 to watch gulls among the tufa formations.  The tufas are masses of calcium carbonate that built up around underwater springs over the millennia, which were uncovered as the lake level dropped due to water diversions to Los Angeles.  When it became clear that the lake was dying, environmentalist waged a long battle to restore flow levels and finally succeeded in the early 80’s.  The lake has come up about halfway to it’s target level (the target is still well below the lake’s level before diversions began), and bird life is flourishing again.

Juv California Gulls, just hanging out away from mom and dad.

The lake is the breeding area for about ¼ of the nation’s California Gulls, who feed on the abundant brine shrimp and brine flies found in its waters.  It’s hilarious to watch gulls walk along the water’s edge with bills open, practically vacuuming up the flies.   The lake is also an important migratory stopover; phalaropes were the biggest group of visitors while I was there.

From the lake, I headed north and went home via the Sonora pass – a place I’d not been before.   I made a few quick stops (really wanted to get home at that point) and did manage to see a family of yellow warblers (one adult, two very vocal kids) wending their way through some willows.