Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

#4: The wild world around us

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Number 4 on our Top Ten highlights list is a compendium of things that have made this year particularly memorable. One of the great things about living in the Mono Basin is that life is infused with the happenings of the natural world.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words….

Ice skating on Lundy Lake
Dry years can mean cold temperatures without precipitation, which makes good conditions for ice skating. We rang in the year with some seriously memorable ice skating on very-frozen lakes such as Lundy Lake Reservoir shown here. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

In February we had a rare and notable visit from two Trumpeter Swans who spent some time near County Park. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.
One early summer day wind created a surprisingly large quantity of foam at South Tufa. Photos by Rose Catron.
Heavens! 2012 had not only an annular solar eclipse, but the transit of Venus as well. Photos by Bartshe Miller and Arya Degenhardt.
2012 was one of the biggest apple years anyone could remember. Trees in Lee Vining were laden with beautiful and delicious apples. People were doing everything they could with them ... pressing cider, making applesauce, baking apple bread ... the apples even made it into the Fall Newsletter catalog! Photos by Arya Degenhardt.
Following closely on the heels of the ripening of the apple crop, there has been much black bear activity at lower elevations, and in particular, elevations with readily available trash cans. Bears, tracks, and scat have been regular occurrences in the streets of Lee Vining this year. We love them, but we hope with the year-end storms they'll get to hibernating and back to their natural cycles. Photo by Rose Catron.

Regular natural history notes and seasonal updates can be found on the Mono-logue throughout the year.