Naturalist Notes
A Mono Basin Chronicle
January: Winter storms are preceded by crisp clear days that leave the sky and mountains perfectly reflected in the lake’s surface ... wind seems to bring the much anticipated snow ... Cooper’s hawk hanging around in town ... a bald eagle flying south over the lake ... the first winter record of a hooded merganser in the basin ... a golden eagle flies close enough to make eye contact at Panum Crater ... poconip holds back morning sunshine until early afternoon as we are shrouded in fog ... trees are covered in rime until the sunshine breaks through ... and the blue moon this month will leave the month of February a little darker. February: Sharp-shinned hawk chasing juncos ... nowhere to hide in heavy snow ... large sheets of ice cover the west shore of the lake ... an old lake level gauge nearly covered by waters that are still rising ... down at South Tufa last summer’s new trail is once again a muddy puddle ... the warm spring that once sat on the shore is now completely submerged ... only gurgling waters mark its presence now ... and it seems that the dock at Navy Beach is next ... a pair of hooded mergansers ... cinnamon teals ... and a northern shoveler all out at the ponds on the north shore ... bald eagle harassing a ruddy duck at the lakeshore ... the American dipper is bobbing back at the culvert on Rush Creek ... violet-green swallows over Mill Creek signal spring is on its way ... and the red-tailed hawk carrying nesting material seems to know it too ... but the true indicator is the gulls spotted on the last day of this full-moonless month ... on the 23rd Venus passes very close to Jupiter and lights up the sky above Mt. Dana. March: In like a lamb ... another month of two full moons ... swallows bustling down at Rush Creek … the remains of two predated duck nests with gouged, bleached, empty eggs in each nest at the mouth of Wilson Creek … new growth on lupine (Lupinus arbustus) and desert peach (Prunus andersonii) down by the creeks ... a raccoon running across the highway … and the first no-see-um (family ceratopogonidae) bite of the season … snowy plover seen but not heard down on the shore ... another warm spring is submerged and gurgling happily through the green, algae-laden lakewater ... just waiting for the brine shrimp to do their thing ... eight double-crested cormorants flying in formation ... a bald eagle circling low ... Pacific tree frogs (Hyla regilla) in Lee Vining Canyon ... an American kestrel on the move ... a side blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) spotted out in the desert hills ... meadowlarks heard singing in grassy fields ... mountain bluebirds are back ... Gaines Island, the remnant of the landbridge to Negit Island, is surrounded on either side by equal amounts of open water.
Return to Spring 1999 Newsletter
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