2011 Mono Lake Christmas Bird Count Results
January 2nd, 2012 by Kristie Nelson
Date of sighting: 27 December 2011
2011 Mono Lake Christmas Bird Count Summary and Report
This years’ Mono Lake Christmas Bird Count was a fantastic success. First off, we had virtually no snow. This opened up a tremendous amount of territory on the circle, since half the circle is high, normally inaccessible or difficult to access snowy mountain wilderness. We nearly always have participants on skis, but when the starting point is near Lee Vining, access is relatively limited. This year with the Tioga Pass open, we had full and extensive access of upper Lee Vining Canyon, Burgers retreat, as well as Virginia Lakes to Turnbull Campground, to the circles’ north. This allowed us to count Whitebark Pine regions, which yielded species that have not been seen on the count since the early 1980’s or so (PINE GROSBEAK, RED CROSSBILL). We also had high turnout of participants, and the results showed!
Northshore Team: Oliver, Nora, Jean, Colin and Tim Dillingham: These guys pulled out the expected species and then some, including an awesome diversity of WATERFOWL, INCLUDING HOODED MERGANSER, plus SHORT-EARED OWLs, VIRGINIA RAILs, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, 21 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS (a winter high count), and a stunning flock of shorebirds, at least by winter Mono standards, 12 LEAST SANDP’S, 2 DUNLIN and a SNOWY PLOVER – Mono County’s and the counts first ever for winter.
Lundy Canyon: Bartshe was able to access all the way up past the resort. He had great luck on WRENS, including PACIFIC and CANYON, both rare for the count, especially Canyon Wren. So the count ended up with the wren Grand slam. Bartshe managed the only BELTED KINGFISHER. Then, up by the resort, an unusual vocalizing bird turned out to be a PINE GROSBEAK, which has not been seen on the count since 1983, and is only the 3rd record for the Mono Lake count, and a stunning bird for the Mono Basin.
I realize I don’t have time to go over everyone’s day. Other count highlights included RING-NECKED DUCK, COMMON MERGANSER, COMMON GOLDENEYE, GREATER SAGE GROUCE, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (yes, can be missed on our count), RED CROSSBILL (only 4th count record, and found in 2 locations this year), and much more.
Despite missing a few fairly regular species, our count tally is 77 species – tying the previous high count set in 2003 and 2004. Way to go Mono Basin counters!
This post was submitted by Kristie Nelson.
