Mono Lake
Richard Rathe, June 2025 (Birds)
This is my second trip to Mono Lake and the good news is it hasn't changed much. In fact, the water level has stabilized (it was drying up) after agressive water management action by California. A large amount of water had already been drained for watering lawns and golf courses in Los Angeles. We visited the Tufa State Reserve on a sunny afternoon and saw many cool plants and birds.
The lake's edge is dominated in places but Tufa formations. These are what is left of mineral-rich spring water reacting with the dilute brine of the lake. All these structures were once under the surface—a good gauge of how much water has been lost!
We were lucky to see a small flock of Wilsons Phalarope since this is the extreme edge of there summer range. I'm not sure if they were nesting or just passing thru.
Wilson's is one of only two North American bird species where the female has brighter breeding plumage than the male. (The other is the Belted Kingfisher.)
Unlike most birds where the female has the predominant role in caring for young, female phalaropes desert their mates once they’ve laid eggs. While the male raises the young by himself, the female looks for other males to mate with. This unusual mating system is called polyandry, and it’s reflected in the way the two sexes look, with the females more brightly colored than the males. (allaboutbirds.org)
Many of the local birds benefit from the millions of Alkali Flies that live near the lakeshore and eat microscopic algae.
If you look closely at this photo of this Violet Green Swallow you can see the bright green iridescence fringed with rich purple.
There were several Osprey nests on top of the tufa columns—some occupied, some not. This pair was clearly intent on setting up housekeeping! 🙂
I'm in the process of teaching myself how to use a slit scan camera app. This photo is classic with the subject simply walking in front of a fixed camera. The interesting perturbations in the background occur because this is a hand held shot and I was moving slightly during the five second exposure.
