A Brit abroad

East Sierras trip day 1: Phalaropes galore

On Friday I joined Marcel Holyoak on a birding trip to seek out high montane and eastern slope specialities of the Sierra Nevada. We struck lucky early on, spotting a male Goshawk within minutes of arriving at the Shot Point lookout on Highway 89. The timing of our trip coincided with the blooming of several Sierran wildflowers, including this Blazing Star...

... and this brilliant thistle sp.

My personal highlight of this trip was a stop at Mono Lake, home to the famous Tufa Towers...

... and the superabundant endemic Mono Lake Alkali Fly. The density of this fly has to be seen to be believed - the shoreline is literally covered with these things! Of course, the birds are on to this, and the lake supports a large colony of California Gulls.

Huge numbers of Wilson's Phalaropes congregate here on fall migration to take advantage of the feast - we reckoned there were about 800 birds in this flock - and to think I saw my first ever Wilson's Phalaropes only two months ago!

Fellow birder and blogger Alison had once told me that Violet-Green Swallow was one of her favourite birds. I had seen plenty of these things in flight and frankly wasn't that impressed. However, today I saw this fine adult sitting in a tree, positively glowing violet and emerald, and I finally understood what all the fuss is about!

Our campground was at 10,000ft elevation, at the top of the picturesque Lee Vining Canyon.

Having set up the tent we drove back into Yosemite (my third visit in two months!) via Tioga Pass. Our first quarry was Black Swift at Bridalveil Falls. I thought this was a 'turn up and tick' species since it nests here, but I was gravely mistaken: half an hour of craning my neck to scrutinise the high-flying White-throated Swifts yielded nothing more remarkable than a Peregrine. On our return to the car, we discovered this bold Brown-headed Cowbird making use of the wing mirror as a convenient perch. It then proceeded to feed on the mass of dead flies on the windshield!

We spent the twilight hours around Chevron Meadow hoping for a fly-by Great Gray Owl - no such luck, but a nice selection of woodpeckers (White-headed, Williamson's Sapsucker, Flicker, Hairy) and a stunning array of wildflowers.

Posted by rjhall at July 14, 2004 06:25 AM