Naturalist Notes
A Mono Basin chronicle
January: American sparrow, first winter sighting of a sora ... bald eagle perched on bitterbrush watching over the highway ... 60 pinyon jays on the north shore ... 25 sage grouse sighted at Lee Vining airport (looking for a ride?) ... white-throated sparrow in town, long-eared owls near the shrimp plant ... rough-legged hawks ... a bit to the south, two adult bald eagles and two juveniles, not to mention magpies and ravens ... 32 sage grouse at northeast end of the airport runway. February: 3.76 inches of precipitation in three days ... Highway 395 closed for two days ... deep snow at Old Marina ... more storms ... two red-tailed hawks and 60 green-winged teals at Black Point ... 3-4 feet of snow across the basin ... coyote on highway ... where did the South Tufa trail go? ... first red-winged blackbird of the season ... tracks in the snow on the glacial moraines.
Mono Lake Live!
It's not quite the same as being at the lake, but you can now keep your eye on Mono via our new Mono Lake WebCam! Pictures (from the Information Center in Lee Vining) are updated every 10 minutes.
You can also track the latest in Lee Vining and Mono Lake weather conditions with our Internet weather station. Special thanks go to weather enthusiasts and donors Tom Melatis and Peter Vorster for funding a heating coil that warms the precipitation gauge, allowing us to report snowfall as well as rain.
Conditions are updated every 10 minutes! There's more too, so check it all out at www.monolake.org/live!March: A solitary California gull ... flocks of America white pelicans high overhead ... 13 turkey vultures riding the thermals near Horse Meadows ... three bighorn sheep not far past the Tioga Road closure ... sharp-shinned hawk shopping for lunch in backyard trees ... yellow-headed blackbirds make various appearances ... on the butterfly side of things, numerous painted ladies passing through ... gray fox in the south basin, unfortunately found as roadkill ... no-see-um larvae in the lake (how can you see the larvae but not the ums?) ... berms and backwaters at the south shore ... County Park sightings of common snipe; red-winged, Brewer's, and yellow-headed blackbirds; a sora; song sparrows; American coot; four Canada geese; green-winged and cinnamon teals ... ruby-crowned kinglet ... black-crowned night-heron at shore ... the osprey pair return to the south shore.
April: Eagle hunting on the shore, could be golden, could be bald ... American white pelican resting at the water's edge (dreaming of lakes with fish?) ... first sightings of violet-green swallows ... cliff swallows too ... six cinnamon teal and two northern shovelers ... 12 eared grebes, six horned larks, a sage thrasher and a song sparrow ... alkali flies in small bunches at the edge of shallow lagoon of recently flooded grass ... more turkey vultures ... a common loon at South Tufa ... immature golden eagle flying over the highway ... at the west shore, willets in flight, another dozen eared grebes ... Bridgeport Creek flowing, forming lagoons at the shore ... two loggerhead shrikes ... two California quail near Bridgeport Creek ... one hundred plus mallards and pintails in the creek ponds ... sandpipers at the shore ... owl pellets atop ice-age tufa ... five snowy egrets ... greater and lesser yellowlegs, black-necked stilts ... long-billed dowitchers ... Caspian tern heard over Mono City ... great tailed grackle at County Park.
Early May: A few desert peach bushes breaking into bloom ... an indigo bunting ... gopher snake on the creek trail ... a bald eagle in flight, heading north.
Return to Spring-Summer 1998 Newsletter
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