Naturalist Notes
A Mono Basin Chronicle
Late February: first California gulls of the season spotted...Comet Hale-Bopp becoming visible.
Early March: red-winged blackbirds, magpies, killdeer, five eared grebes, redhead duck at County Park...great horned owl and numerous gulls in Negit Island vicinity...American robins in town...winter on the way out for sure...dragonfly near lake...woolly bear caterpillar crossing Highway 120...Bewick's wrens in Rush Creek willows...female bufflehead and female canvasback on the lake...bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) leafing out...hairy woodpeckers exploring north shore willows...rufous-sided towhee singing in County Park cottonwood...Clark's nutcrackers arrive in town...common snipe, meadowlarks make lakeside appearance.
Late March: willows budding next to Committee Bookstore...killdeer and red-winged blackbirds at County Park...ruby-crowned kinglet...great-horned owl sighted by day...spring equinox at a rising lake...two scrub jays visit a Lee Vining feeder...first generation brine shrimp hatch visible in lake...desert peach (Prunus andersonii) beginning to leaf out...starlings and scavenging magpies...kestrals over lakeshore meadows...Canada geese honking from tufa towers...prairie (maybe peregrine?) falcons nesting in the Mono Craters...sundogs in the afternoons...horned larks near the landbridge...ruddy ducks out on the lake...Paoha Island sightings: sage thrashers, California gulls, violet green swallows, Say's phoebe, red-tailed hawks, red-breasted sapsuckers...lunar eclipse over Mono...a pair of mallards and five American avocets in breeding plumage... Great Basin spadefoot toads loud with evening chorus the osprey return...first sightings of Brewer's blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds...east shore dust storms.
Early April: snow flurries and windy...more dust storms...soaring red-tailed hawks...snowy egret at Rush Creek sandbar...American dipper on gray granite boulder...blue flax (Linum lewisii) making a start at the office...desert peach starting to bloom...paintbrush (Castilleja spp.) in full bloom...piñon jays and a flock of bushtits out by the Bodie road...sage grouse strutting...rainbow around the moon...Lee Vining Creek trees leafing out.
Late April: lakeshore sightings of Canada geese, a rail, starlings...snipe winnowing...violets (Viola spp.) blooming on moraines...bitterbrush blooming now...a marten up on Tioga Pass...lupine (Lupinus spp.) and larkspur (Delphinium spp.) going strong...eared grebes...mallards, and a sora...white-faced ibis at the lake...visible hypopycnal zones around the creek mouths...penstemon (Penstemon spp.) along the creek...Great Basin spadefoots singing.
Early May: yellow Sierra wallflower (Erysimum perenne) on the moraines...unidentified gilia (Gilia spp.)...soaring turkey vulture over piñons...black-necked stilt, snowy egret, and white-faced ibis in marshland...sixteen cinnamon teal floating by...bananaheads a.k.a. yellow-headed blackbirds...double-breasted cormorant...Serengeti of birds...where are the alkali flies?...least sandpipers...green-backed heron...gadwalls on the lake...arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) turning hillsides yellow...California gulls everywhere...northern harrier hunting...thunderstorms building...afternoon lightning and power failures...white-tailed jackrabbit...a wandering garter snake.
Late May: ten acres of sage up in smoke...leaping orange flames in the dusk...meadowlarks...green-winged teal in roadside ponds...grazing sheep...black-tailed weasel crossing the highway...smoldering fire near Mt. Lewis...common merganser on Parker Lake...prickly phlox (Leptodactylon pungens) and another mystery gilia...osprey plucks trout out of Grant Lake reservoir...western tanager in the Jeffrey pines...snowy plover near landbridge...Sarah says yes...lenticular clouds parallel the Sierra crest...spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa) and Mormon tea (Ephedra viridis) blooming away.
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