Mono Lake Field Trip

Leaders: Ralph Baker & John Harris
We intend to bird several locations around Mono Lake. Some possible destinations are Mono Lake County Park, Pole Line Road, Cottonwood Canyon Road, Bodie, Lundy Lakes, Virginia Lakes Resort, Wild Rose Canyon, Mono Mills, Crestview Rest Area and Lee Vining Canyon. Birds we’ll be looking for include Greater Sage Grouse, Common Nighthawk, Common Poorwill, Costa’s and Calliope Hummingbird, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Lewis’s Woodpecker, various flycatchers, Plumbeous Vireo, Pinyon Jay, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Black-billed Magpie, Juniper Titmouse, American Dipper, Mountain Bluebird, Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Cassin’s Finch, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin, Black-throated, Sagebrush and Vesper Sparrow, Yellow-breasted Chat and Virginia’s Warbler. And there’s always the possibility of something rare showing up.
Plus, John will lay out some traps to see what kind of small mammals we can catch (they will be released unharmed after we make our observations). John began his interest in Mono Lake while working as an undergraduate assistant in a study of chipmunks in 1975. He went on to study kangaroo mice on Mono Lake’s dunes while a graduate student at U.C. Davis and has studied small mammals in the Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin antelope squirrels and Mojave ground squirrels. John retired from teaching biology at Mills College in 1983 and currently lives near Oakdale, CA.
This will be a 2-3 day trip. We plan to arrive late Friday (if we arrive before dark we may do a little evening birding) and then meet participants at Whoa Nellie Deli, 22 Vista Point Dr, Lee Vining, CA 93541, early Saturday morning, but anyone is welcome to join us later. We will bird all day Saturday and a big chunk of Sunday before heading home, but, of course, anyone is free to head back at any time. More details will be announced as the date approaches. For recommendations on accommodations check out www.leevining.com/lodging.
For questions or to RSVP contact Ralph at sharks_hockey_maniac@yahoo.com