June 3, 2007
June 3, 2007
Aimee is in heaven. She loves birds. Every time she sees some bird on one of our hikes she comments it would be fun to go bird watching. She got her wish today. A Mono (pronounced like NO-NO) Lake park ranger is conducting a bird watching walk at 8:00 this morning and I reluctantly agree to take her. I must admit the ranger ends up being amazing. He has an unbelievable ear for birdcalls. Amidst all the normal sounds of nature he would pick out a sound, say it was some yellow-bellied sapsucker and then point in the distance to the bird. Sure enough, we all aim our binoculars in that direction and there is the bird. He reminded me of the character “Radar” on MASH who could hear the chopper coming before anyone else. We saw a total of 28 different birds on the walk. If I had been on my own I would have seen three.
After lunch we stop at the Mono Lake Visitor Center. They have a nice movie and nice exhibits about the lake. At 1PM we head to the south shore of the lake for a ranger walk by the same bird expert. About sixty years ago Los Angeles started stealing water from the area causing Mono Lake’s water level to drop precipitously. Unexpectedly this exposed strange chimney-like mineral deposits called “Tufas”. The Tufas formed when Calcium-rich spring waters bubbled up into the highly alkaline lake water causing Lime to precipitate.
In addition the lake supports a weird biological population. Because of the high salinity no fish can grow in the lake, but brine shrimp and alkali flies flourish. As we walk by the lakeshore, we chase away thousands of flies. Oddly they don’t bother humans at all and the local Indians considered the fly larvae a delicacy (supposedly they taste like bacon bits, although none of us were willing to verify it). The lake draws huge populations of migratory shore birds that feed on these flies. Mono is the second largest rookery for the California Seagull.
Several small volcanic craters surround the lake. On a recommendation, we stop to hike the closest one before leaving the park. On the short hike to the top of the crater we pass lots of pumice rock. It is either very light or my working-out has paid big dividends. Down into the crater we run into a huge lava plug of black obsidian or volcanic glass. The local Indians used to trade obsidian widely thruout the region. It was a prized material for making arrowheads.
We spend the night again in Lee Vining, CA.
Aimee is in heaven. She loves birds. Every time she sees some bird on one of our hikes she comments it would be fun to go bird watching. She got her wish today. A Mono (pronounced like NO-NO) Lake park ranger is conducting a bird watching walk at 8:00 this morning and I reluctantly agree to take her. I must admit the ranger ends up being amazing. He has an unbelievable ear for birdcalls. Amidst all the normal sounds of nature he would pick out a sound, say it was some yellow-bellied sapsucker and then point in the distance to the bird. Sure enough, we all aim our binoculars in that direction and there is the bird. He reminded me of the character “Radar” on MASH who could hear the chopper coming before anyone else. We saw a total of 28 different birds on the walk. If I had been on my own I would have seen three.
After lunch we stop at the Mono Lake Visitor Center. They have a nice movie and nice exhibits about the lake. At 1PM we head to the south shore of the lake for a ranger walk by the same bird expert. About sixty years ago Los Angeles started stealing water from the area causing Mono Lake’s water level to drop precipitously. Unexpectedly this exposed strange chimney-like mineral deposits called “Tufas”. The Tufas formed when Calcium-rich spring waters bubbled up into the highly alkaline lake water causing Lime to precipitate.In addition the lake supports a weird biological population. Because of the high salinity no fish can grow in the lake, but brine shrimp and alkali flies flourish. As we walk by the lakeshore, we chase away thousands of flies. Oddly they don’t bother humans at all and the local Indians considered the fly larvae a delicacy (supposedly they taste like bacon bits, although none of us were willing to verify it). The lake draws huge populations of migratory shore birds that feed on these flies. Mono is the second largest rookery for the California Seagull.
Several small volcanic craters surround the lake. On a recommendation, we stop to hike the closest one before leaving the park. On the short hike to the top of the crater we pass lots of pumice rock. It is either very light or my working-out has paid big dividends. Down into the crater we run into a huge lava plug of black obsidian or volcanic glass. The local Indians used to trade obsidian widely thruout the region. It was a prized material for making arrowheads.
We spend the night again in Lee Vining, CA.
posted by Mike and Aimee at 4:39 PM
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