All of you T-shirt lovers out there—heads up! The Mono Lake Committee will soon be welcoming a new T-shirt design to its collection. Back for another summer at the Committee, I wanted to put my illustration skills to use and design something youthful and hip that would showcase one (or some) of the amazing creatures that live at Mono Lake.

The first step was to come up with a subject, so I whipped out my sketchbook and the brainstorming commenced: “Something about the food chain” I thought, “or about the gulls.” (more…)

Weather stations have been collecting weather data in the Mono Basin since the 1980s, some even as far back as 1931. This long-term data can be helpful in understanding the basin’s present and future climate.

Recently analyzed data, collected between 1986 and 2006 at the Lee Vining Pumice Plant, just a little over a mile from Mono Lake, show that low air temperatures are increasing at a rate of 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit every ten years. Even more interestingly, annual winter air temperatures seem to be moderating, meaning that the extremes between the low and high air temperatures are decreasing. Is this just a fluke of the data, or are there more complex climate variables at play? Perhaps there is a simple explanation for these trends?

A couple possibilities: (more…)

Researcher Sacha Heath looks for insects on a "control" cottonwood.

Last week, I followed Sacha Heath down the Lee Vining Creek trail (and across the frigid stream, in my sneakers) to help count Lilliputians that live in trees. Sacha directed the Point Reyes Bird Observatory research in the MonoBasin for many years, but this season, for her Master’s thesis at Humboldt State University, she’s studying the impact foraging birds have on populations of herbivorous arthropods—i.e. plant-munching bugs—in cottonwoods. Bugs affect the growth of trees, of course, and Sacha picked the Mono Basin as her research location not only because she has an unparalleled knowledge of its riparian communities, but also because it’s a restoration setting—here, new growth is at a premium. The goal of the study is to assess ‘”the ecological service” birds likely provide. (more…)

Have you ever seen a wild bird that looks like a cross between a chicken and a turkey? A churkey? A ticken? Well, I haven’t either … but I have seen Sage-Grouse! Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is the largest grouse in North America, where it is known as the Greater Sage-Grouse. Sage-Grouse are, in fact, related to chickens and turkeys because they belong to the same taxonomic order of “Galliformes.” They range in length from 31 centimeters (12 inches) to 95 cm (37 in), and tend to weigh from 0.3 kilograms (11 ounces) to 6.5 kg (14 pounds).

Greater Sage-Grouse. Photo courtesy of Joe Fuhrman.

Adults have a long, pointed tail and feathers from their bodies to their toes. Adult males have a yellow patch over the eye, are greyish on top with a white breast, a dark brown throat and a black belly. Adult females are mottled grey-brown with a light brown throat and dark belly. (more…)

The California Gull breeding grounds northeast of Negit Island in Mono Lake.

Last July, in a chicken-wire fenced plot on an islet known as Little Tahiti, California Gull banders Kristie Nelson and Nora Livingston spotted one notable adult gull among the masses. It had both a white plastic band and a metal ID band above its ankle, on the “drumstick” part of its leg (though that may be an unsavory description). Odd, they thought, no one bands that part of the leg these days.  Kristie, who has headed up the gull banding on Mono Lake’s islets since 2005, remembered seeing this distinctive bird in the same corner of this particular study plot during other seasons, too. She suspected it was an old bird and knew that, in early banding days on Mono Lake, researchers had placed colored bands—white, say—on chicks from different  islets.

The banding scene on the Mono Lake islets is well-described as calm and collected chaos. While the adult gulls scream bloody cacophony, two banders, including Kristie, sit on overturned crates, sheets spread across their laps like aprons. Then, brave assistants such as Nora (more…)

The flames of the Mono Fire. Photo by Rosa Brey.

Due to the continued closure of Highway 120 East caused by the Mono Fire, tonight’s South Tufa tour is canceled. It is likely that the South Tufa Area will be closed for the next few days, but we will put updates here as new information becomes available. In the meantime, there are plenty of other scenic spots to visit around Mono Lake including Old Marina and County Park.  Stop by our Information Center & Bookstore for suggestions of what to do during your stay in the Mono Basin!

Step right up! Step (or drive) right up to the Mono Basin for a morning bird walk sometime soon.

Each Friday at 8:00am, I lead a jaunt through our glorious County Park, on the northwest shore of the lake. The walk rambles through field and wood before ambling down a willow-lined boardwalk for views of tufa and aves. Last Friday was a tad warm, but we saw some stellar birds nonetheless, and healthy looking coyote, to boot.

There were the Lazuli Buntings nesting just off Cemetery Road, for instance. We craned our necks and eyes as a female, with a burly grasshopper in her beak, slowly crept (more…)

The Urban Semillas group reaches the top of Lembert Dome. Photo by Michael Clausen.

“Take small steps,” said Santiago Escruceria, the Outdoor Experiences Manager, “that’s the trick to hiking on a steeper slope without losing lots of energy,” and the group took it to heart, suddenly looking like the experienced hikers that we knew they could be.

The group that came to participate in the Mono Lake Committee’s Outdoor Experiences program during the first week of July was composed of high school graduates and kids in their early-20s from Los Angeles. They were all a part of a program called Urban Semillas, a young adult program that teaches students about water and trees, people’s relationship with nature, where their water comes from, and that nature isn’t something that you just see on TV—it’s real—and when they visit places like Yosemite and Mono Lake, it’s ALL around them.

We were hiking to Lembert Dome and Dog Lakes, two places that neither I nor the group had ever been to, so we were all (more…)

Visit the Committee's online store for your holiday shopping!

To celebrate the two-month anniversary of the Mono Lake Committee’s online store, we invite you to see our merchandise and Mono Lake Committee logo products!

We have Mono Lake Committee 2010 Calendars, filter water bottles, Life at Mono Lake T-shirts, holiday notecards, Cadillac Desert, Huell Howser at Mono Lake DVDs, and we’ve even got brine shrimp earrings as well as other apparel, jewelry, books, gifts, local crafts, and games.

The items in our Fall Newsletter catalog and many additional products are available for ordering 24 hours a day at our online store; however, we are also pleased to receive your order by telephone (9:00 am to 5:00 pm every day).

All sales benefit the Committee’s work on behalf of Mono Lake, so take a look and find something special today!

Our new and improved web store is now available from any page on our website! Just click on the main heading “store” and then on “shop online.”

Fill your cart with merchandise from our Favorite Selections such as Logo Gear or Water, Water, Water or from categories like Books or Apparel.

We aim to ship within two business days to our US customers. For express or international shipping prices please contact Bookstore Manager Duncan at (760) 647-6595 or by email.