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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!
There were 3 Mountain Plovers at 10 Mile Beach yesterday when my parents (Dave and Janet) and Kathy Duvall went out to do a survey of dead eared grebes.
We walked several mile and half mile stretches of the lakeshore (measuring using GPS) and counted grebes to try to get an estimate of the total that may have died in the recent die-off.
10 Mile Beach (1 mile): 68
Old Marina (1/2 mile): 103
South Tufa to Navy Beach (1/2 mile): 130
Navy Beach to east (1/2 mile): 6
From these numbers we averaged 61 dead eared grebes per half mile, and extrapolated to estimate 4,896 total around the lakeshore.
This is assuming a 40 mile lakeshore–please let me know if this is incorrect.
Ilene Mandelbaum noted that there were many dead grebes on E. Navy Beach on the 18th, but very few on the 25th, as they either disappeared or were blown by the wind to other areas.
This count certainly isn’t definitive, but, I think, it’s better than no count.
If you’d like to see the data, contact me or Janet Carle.
In the tufa Park we saw this. While it looked like a brown headed cowbird, its head and breast were much more red than brown. Wanted other opinions if it was a cowbird or not.
Sorry for the tardy post, but myself and Ann Greiner found a Black Turnstone, first record for Mono County, second for eastern Sierra, and one of few inland records, on friday at the DWP dock. I was loading the gull research boat into the lake for our annual gull chick mortality assesment on the colony, and flushed the BLTU which f;lew a few yards, vocalizing, and landed again. Very distinctive. While I wrangled the boat out of the way, Ann got some great shots of it.
I made a few phone calls, but had no good internet access to post more widely, since after documenting the bird, we left for a few days to camp on the Mono Lake Islets. But worth a tromp around the lake to see if it’s still around. Sure a lot of flies to eat
This is a bit of a belated post, but since there’s still a chance that it has lingered, I’ll throw it up.
A good birder and friend of mine by the name of Bob Battagin gave me a call at the Committee to report a single adult Solitary Sandpiper present at the southern most puddle at the June Lake Sewage Ponds. This bird continued through the 25th. Bob also later reported more Common and Black Terns from Rush Creek Delta as well as one Whimbrel. I myself had 6 BLTE on the 27th.
I have officially left the Basin for the season so this will be last report for 2011. Keep Mono Lake Birdy.
This post was submitted by Oliver, Birding Intern.
Meandered out to Rush Creek Delta this afternoon and was greeted by the distinctive chatter of medium-sized terns. Indeed, there were about one dozen terns hauled out with the gulls. Amongst the 10 or so Forster’s were three Common Terns, all juvenile birds. Also present were 1 Long-billed Dowitcher, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, and many peeps (all Least). Species diversity is starting to get juicy…
This post was submitted by Oliver, Birding Intern.
This morning in the early a.m., Russ, Erik, Abby, Morgan and I took canoes out to Lee Vining Tufa. A beautiful sunrise was shared with: 1 juv. Black Tern dancing around the Lee Vining Creek Mouth, a nearby Black Phoebe, 3 Lesser Yellowlegs and one Ring-billed Gull in full breeding plumage amongst many other feathered friends. That’s all for now.
This post was submitted by Oliver, Birding Intern.
After a productive morning scouring County Park with the 8:00 a.m. field trip, I looked up from the parking lot and noticed a kettle of California Gulls literally careening back down to earth. Turns out it was to evade an adult Golden Eagle blasting by in the direction of Conway. All in all a very predatory day at County Park: two young Cooper’s Hawks, three Red Tails and the Kestrel Family were keeping the new fledgling Warbling Vireo on its toes.
This post was submitted by Oliver, Birding Intern.
