Summer is truly winding down for many feathered friends here in the Mono Basin.

Red-necked Phalarope. Photo courtesy of Stiver Photos.

The songbird symphony that follows any hiker around the basin from April through mid-August is now merely a murmur. Many of the colorful summer vacationers to the Eastern Sierra (e.g. buntings, orioles, grosbeaks) are still present in the basin, but (more…)

The complete list of bird species seen during this year’s Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua is now available here.

Chautauqua participants scan for birds in the Bodie Hills. Photo by Elin Ljung.

Chautauqua-goers flocked to the Mono Basin in record numbers this year but not so for the birds. With a late, cold spring the total species tally for Chautauqua week was notably down (166 species compared to 184 seen in 2010). Some species that are usually reliably present were absent and overall numbers of common species were reduced.

But that did nothing to dampen the spirits (more…)

If you had chosen to visit the small town of Lee Vining at 2:30 in the morning on July 12th, you would have found a peculiar sight in the Mono Lake Committee’s Field Station alley: four intrepid souls huddled together under the three-quarter moon armed to the teeth with binoculars. A very peculiar ritual was about to begin wherein four birders attempt to identify as many different species of birds as they can within a defined geographic area in a full 24-hour period. Every second counts and there are no stops for lunch.

Oliver James, Chris McCreedy, and Justin Hite scan the skies.

The birders were none other than Justin Hite (Mono Basin naturalist), Oliver James (Committee Birding Intern), Nora Livingston (PRBO Conservation Science Field Technician), and Chris McCreedy (PRBO Conservation Science biologist). The playing field was Mono County. The existing record was (more…)