What I did on my summer vacation: Trip Report from the Mono Lake Bird Chautauqua

I just got back from one of my favorite events of the year, in one of my favorite places in California- the 14th annual Mono Lake Bird Chautuaqua in Lee Vining. 
The Chautauqua is a 3-day festival that celebrates not only birds, but the beauty and natural history of the Mono Basin, eastern Sierra Nevada, and the Great Basin. The long weekend is packed with field trips, presentations, and social events put on by people who are dedicated to protecting this important natural area and sharing its beauty with the over 400 participants who come to partake. I was looking forward to this trip for months, ever since the organizers got in touch and asked if I could lead a bug field trip. This would be my third Chautuaqua as a trip leader, and Zach’s fifth- sadly we had to miss last year’s event for crazy scheduling issues on our end. One of the wonderful things about the Chautauqua is getting to spend time with so many great people. It sounds cliched to say this, but I love getting to reconnect with old friends and make new ones- and every year it seems like we meet great new friends who I will look forward to catching up with the next year. This year was no exception.

If you’ve never been to Mono Lake, what are you waiting for? GO! NOW! I’ll wait…
The lake itself sits at the base of the eastern slope of the Sierras, just over the hill from Yosemite National Park and Tuolomne Meadows, at an elevation of almost 7000 feet. Highway 395 runs the length of the eastern Sierra, and while a few small towns dot the road, the whole area feels gloriously, luxuriously quiet and deserted after a year in Los Angeles. Mono Lake itself is formed from streams running out of the Sierras and draining into the Mono Basin. The lake has no outlet, so the water that collects has been subjected to eons of filling and evaporation cycles, concentrating salts and minerals in the water and driving the salinity levels higher than that of seawater. The lake supports an incredibly productive ecosystem, driven largely by brine shrimp and fly larvae that support migratory and breeding birds in spring, summer and autumn.

For a natural history enthusiast, Lee Vining offers spectacular scenery, clean air, and the promise of seeing lots of birds (or bugs, or whatever your pleasure) across a variety of different habitats. To the east, the sagebrush desert of the Great Basin stretches out as far as the eye can see, interrupted periodically by hills and mountains jutting up out of the landscape in dramatic fashion. To the west, the granite and metamorphic cliffs rise steeply upwards, quickly becoming snowcapped alpine peaks over 10,000 feet high- at least, in most years. California is in the 4th year of a well-publicized drought, and even after living here for a year, we were still shocked and saddened to see how dry the mountains are this year. The lack of snowpack in the Sierras is causing issues over a large part of the state as municipalities such as Los Angeles struggle to conserve what little water is available, and coming to Mono Lake is a stark reminder of just how severe this drought is. Much of Los Angeles’ water comes from the eastern Sierra, and the landscape around Lee Vining is dotted with signs warning would-be trespassers to stay off of the property, as it is now owned and controlled by the LA Water District. All Angelenos should come to Mono Lake and the Owens River Valley and witness for themselves just where their water is coming from, and what that water means to the wildlife that calls this area home.

My biggest regret of the weekend is that I forgot to get a group photo from my field trip.  The good folks who came along on my field trip Sunday morning were absolutely fantastic, and made my job as a presenter so easy.  I just wish the wind would have let up a bit so that we could have seen more butterflies, but I personally still had a great time.
I could easily spend a few thousand words extolling the virtues of Mono Lake, Lee Vining, the eastern Sierra, and of course, the Chautauqua. But I think instead I’ll put up some cellphone pictures of the long weekend, and leave you with an invitation to join the fun in 2016. Registration usually opens in the spring, and some of the programs fill up fast! Put it on your calendar!

We got in late Thursday and immediately set about procuring one of the necessities of any trip to Lee Vining- a milkshake from the Mono Cone. No lie, I spent weeks trying to decide what flavor of shake I should get each day (go with the old favorite every day, or change it up and risk disappointment- which is still relative, because even a non-favorite milkshake is still preferable to no milkshake. I digress.). The Mono Cone would be our primary lunch spot each day of our trip.

We camped next to Lower Lee Vining Creek. The water was coooooold.

No jargon, no confusion.

This trail runs along the lake in Lundy Canyon.

Can you spot the Bald Eagle? Lundy Canyon lake.

Drought or no, the snowmelt caused small streams along the trail.

Butterflies in the Sierras are living in a very different world than the ones in the Santa Monicas. This Azure rests on Aspen leaves.

The flowers in the Sierra are still beautiful, even if the drought means there are fewer of them.

This gorgeous Ruddy Copper was flitting about the Lundy Canyon trail. I couldn’t get a picture of its dorsal surface, but trust me that the shiny, copper penny upperside perfectly illustrates why coppers are so named.

Saddlebag Lake sits just east of the Yosemite National Park boundary and is normally a great place to find high elevation species of butterflies that are hard to get to. The water level is frighteningly low this year.

Looking east past Saddlebag Lake. No snow!

Friday evening we took one of the dirt roads toward Mono Lake to watch for Nighthawks flying.

While we waited for Nighthawks, this marmot tried to climb into the undercarriage of our car.

As soon as the sun set over the Sierras, we could see stars- a scarce sight in L. A.!

The pine pollen was covering everything! Walking through a meadow next to Lee Vining Creek even our feet turned yellow.

Everywhere we looked we found interesting nature stories. This aspen trunk is covered with the claw marks from a climbing black bear.

Aquatic insects are vital to many ecosystems, including mountain streams in the Sierras. The nymphs live in well-oxygenated streams before coming out of the water to shed their skins and becoming terrestrial adults. This is a shed exoskeleton (exuvia) of a member of the Plecoptera, or Stonefly, Order. Fly fishermen often use stonefly nymph lures in mountain streams to catch trout.

American Dippers are small birds that are adapted to a unique niche- they live in fast moving, rocky streams, often along waterfalls, in the American west. They hunt aquatic insects by diving into the water, drifting downstream, and catching their prey. They typically build their nests in crevices on the sides of rocks just a few inches above the water line. This spot in Lee Vining creek hosts a dipper nest every year and we always love to watch the adults provisioning the nest. This year, fledging came early and there were no young in sight. One of the adults was still around showing off its daredevil aquatic hunting skills.

We came across this female Sooty Grouse while out birding early one morning. It was such a thrill to get such a close look at this amazing bird.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the a set of freshwater ponds close to the edge of Mono Lake. The Deschambeau ponds are an incredible place for watching odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), and occasionally doing some catch-and-release for up close study. This 8-spotted skimmer consented to let us examine her up close for a few seconds before resuming her day’s activity.

The Deschambeau ponds are mainly fed by geothermal springs bubbling up out of the ground. Even on hot days one can sometimes see steam coming off of the water at the source. Shortly after draining into the ponds, though, the water cools sufficiently to support odonate nymphs and other aquatic fauna that support waterfowl.

Looking east over the Deschambeau Ponds toward the eastern Sierra. Everywhere one looks in the Mono Basin, stunning scenery abounds.

Saturday afternoon is the Presenters’ Reception, full of delicious food, good company, and drinks in wildlife-themed glasses. Each year a different glass (previous years’ glasses include etched hummingbirds, phalaropes, and brine shrimp (my favorite)), and this year captured one of the funniest scenes one might see on the lakeshore- gulls running along, open mouthed, scooping up flies. The Mono Lake Committee store sells a shirt with the same image and I happened to be wearing it! Of course, I had to pose with my wine glass next to the shirt.