On to Baltimore and on Backwards Through Time

Maryland!

The reward after a long flight from Sac o' tomatoes to Baltimore, Maryland was being greeted at the Baltimore airport with hugs from my sister Dolores, niece Bea and her husband Avon. It was already dark when they drove over to where Dolores and I are staying, at my nephew Kirk's house with he and his wife Nicole and their babies, 7-year-old Sydney and 4-year-old James . The last time I saw Kirk and Nicole was in Las Vegas. Back then, little Sydney was in vitro.


Watching "The Princess and the Frog" on iPhone
with James Allan and sister Sydney

The kids are a kick! In the morning I sprawled myself over an easy chair, watching them at play. Soon they were showing me their favorite toys. There were My Little Ponies, bright plastic hammers and saws that bounced to hip hop in a tool belt and Bratz dolls. Next thing we were piled on a lazeeboy couch, watching The Princess and the Frog on my iPhone. I remember when Bea, Kirk and their baby sister Doris and I were so little. We would have overnighters at each other's houses - Bronx and Brooklyn. Beatrice and I would march around singing 'For Pete's Sake Get me to the Church On Time!'


Kirk and Nicole's Baltimore House

Tonight the lot of us as well as Nicole's mother, all met for an elaborite feast at a local Chinese restaurant. Four year old James artfully managed to skip his nap in the afternoon, so after the 15 minute car trip the kid was out cold and soon sprawled across two restaurant chairs while the rest of us chatted and shared exotic dishes of seaweed salads, steamed dumplings and other appetizers. I slipped my iPhone to Sydney for a game of Alice in Wonderland.

When we arrived back at Kirk & Nicole's house, Kirk and I were out front of the house, me having a go at calling a Barred Owl that hangs around the neighborhood. I felt a glompy hug from behind and thought it was my sister, but was my niece Ain - pronounced 'Ah-een').


"Aunt Claire! I haven't seen you since I was five!"

Ain is so tall I had thought she was Dolores, my sister! Ain is beautiful, a talented jewelry maker and geez is she patient. I played with a colorful piece of string on the way out from California, but couldn't teach Sydney or James what to do with it. Ain, sat patiently, explaining and demonstrating to Sydney how to do cat's cradle - which I never mastered. Soon we were all fiddling and fumbling and running through the string pinching maneuvers and managed a few of the moves - with the help of Youtube.


Sydney unwraveling 'Stringy the String'

It dawned on me, Sydney, James and I had traversed 50,000 years or more in the day, starting with the latest technologies iPhone games, then transversed way back to the stone age for a game with a piece of string. It was a fun day's journey and we still have the remainder of the week to go. I must have a b'jillion bits of string at home, why did I bring only one?


James and Ain Chillin'

All the Way Home

Double drat the end of another mini-break. Oh well! For our last hurrah, we ran one last run after Pinyon Jays - a bust. Then before we left, we visited the Mono Lake Visitor Center, which is under reconstruction.

Click here, and look carefully to see the photographer, i.e., 'moi'
The center had a very pretty mobile of Wilson's Phalaropes that I was taken with.

Phalarope Mobile
There was also a nice exhibit on the peculiarities of the saline Mono Lake, and a display giving an idea on how the Paiutes of Mono Lake once lived before settlers moved in and blew the party.

Summer homes for the Paiutes were temporary shelters
Mono Lake Paiute Indian Basketry
The area I've seen around Mono Lake is beautiful, with loads of wildlife in the nearby Aspen groves, pine forests, and the beauty of majestic looking extinct volcanos. I think it must have been a paradise for the Paiutes.

We didn't begin to scale the Tioga Pass until nearly 11 AM. I always get a thrill from entering Yosemite National Park, in particular it's high alpine meadows that Tioga Pass meanders through.

Entering Yosemite via Tioga Pass
Granite slopes line the eastern most stretches along Tioga Pass
Don enjoying a sky show of Red-tail vs. Golden Eagle
We didn't have too much time to spare, needing to make it back to Sacramento, but we did stop in a couple of spots. Don went searching while I lazily sat back and enjoyed the scenery. The best bird we saw in the area were Williamson's Sapsuckers.

Toulomne Meadow
How is this for idyllic?
Half Dome looms in the distance
Angelwing Zephyr poising on my sideview mirror
may have been a bit larger than it appeared
Astonishingly enough, after exiting Yosemite at one of the northern-most gateways, and then driving for hours along Highway 49, passing the old gold country towns of Angel's Camp and San Andreas, we didn't have enough birding under our belts. So after making nearly all the way back to my home, we stopped at twilight to bird along Meiss Road - the country lanes where I love to go hunting for wildflowers in the spring. We looked for Common Nighthawks but instead found several Great Horned Owls. We watched one such owl catch a nice fat meadow vole for its dinner. I enjoyed watching at least a dozen voles racing around under a shrub. It was too dark to photograph the little clowns, but some time this fall I hope to return there with my night vision camcorder; another mini-break for another time.

The Jay Hunt Continues - Mono Lake

Shores of alkaline Mono Lake

When my birding buddy Don heard from a friend, that Pinyon Jays were found at a little spot near Mono Lake, he called me. No questions asked, I packed up my duffel bag and grabbed the spotting scope. If someone managed to find Pinyon Jays, we for damned sure were going to find the feathered f*ckers too! So, on Friday morning at the first sparrow's fart, Don left the Bay area for my place, and soon enough we were headed for my first trip to Mono Lake.

We drove past Markleeville where already, twice this past year, we unsuccessfully sought Pinyon Jays. By midafternoon we were setting up a Spartan camp amid the Aspen and Ponderosa Pines at Lundy Lake, a quiet little Forest Service campground near Mono Lake.

Don set up the tents, I, always ready to pitch in, pretended to help

This was the second time this summer I camped. I learned that I am willing to camp out IF my two needs are met – NO, not that kind of need you sick puppy – I refer to having a cot, so getting up at 3AM is an elegant, rather than ugly event. My second concession is an outhouse no more than 50 yards of my tent. That's reasonable. No on enjoys fumbling in the manzanita scrub trying for a pee while mosquitoes dine on the shiny orb that is one’s ‘bum’.

i mean having a cot, so I don’t have to sleep on the ground. Getting up off the ground is do-able, but is rather a pain-in-the-arse . If you think it’s easy? Well then strap a 50lb sack of flour to your chest and a second one to your arse, then try rising from a prone position at 3 AM when hunting down a private spot for a pee, in while in close proximity to my female bits, one can hear the wee sniggerings of wild raccoons and field mice.

County Park's boardwalk to the Waterfront

Where was I? Right. So, soon we were birding at county park at Mono lake. I was a bit whiney – as per usual, still, I took the infinitesimally short hike down a wooden boardwalk to the lake front. I shot photos most steps of the way there. There were loads of little & big things to ponder on....

A HUMONGOUS mushroom - a little thing really...

A color coded fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar - even smaller

The caterpillar crawled on a willow tree. Later I looked it up: the fuzzy bugger will eventually morph into a Spotted Tussock Moth.

I found a currant bush, chock full of berries. I decided to not eat any – it’s been too long since I took horticulture 101 and didn't want to spend the afternoon in some Mono County ICU.

A shrub all full with beautiful red currents

There! Not much, but still worth a slovenly hike down to the lake front where I saw… Tufa (Too-Fa) and water birds I didn’t bother to photograph: California gulls, American Avocets, Least Sandpipers, Eared Grebes and such.

A HUMONGOUS bit for thought - a mushroom shaped Tufa Tower

Calcium Carbonate structures, strewn about the lake front

Needless to say, while I lolly gaged about, Don was hiking up hill over dale in search of birds. But I can say my laziness paid off and a species I've only seen once before flew in to see me: a Red-breasted Sapsucker.

A Red-breasted Sapsucker - a rather lack-luster shot

Later on we visited a beautiful spot where ancient volcanoes erupted eons ago, leaving the strange site of pine trees growing up like a Piney Phoenix out of ashes.


Strange sight - pine trees set in ash

Ancient Volcano surrounded by ashy pine woodland

The volcanic ash area is where Don's friend spotted a pine tree full of screaming Pinyon Jays. No doubt the birds had screamed "CATCH US IF YOU CAN!"

On Saturday morning we again visited Mono Lake, at a different access point and I was tickled to find several Green-tailed Towhees. One towhee posed for me quite prettily and I took loads of pictures of the rusty topped, white-throated cutie.

Green-tailed Towhee

We took the time to visit a little coffee shop in the tiny town of Lee Vining. There I called my sister, then 20 minutes later as we drove south, I realized I didn't have my one year old iPhone with me. I wanted to shoot myself, and alas, the missing iPhone is a sad story, for another time.

Scenery south toward Big Pine

Now here's the thing; as we drove along the freeway approaching Big Pine, we spotted a flock of perhaps 50 birds, winging it past Pinyon Pines and grassland. Yes. We too think the feathered ones were Pinyon Jays. Sadly, as the species were potential lifers for both Don and myself, we could only see them and weep - for a better viewing. We weren't counting fly bys. Later on as we drove upward through hills covered with Pinyon Pine and on upward to the alpine and Bristlecone forest, I spotted a second flock of Pinyon Jays, flapping away from us as quickly as their little wings could paddle through mountain air. Bugger.

Still, happily, Don got a lifer bird - the Juniper Titmouse - so the long drive wasn't a waste.

Visitor Center at Bristle Cone Forest Summit

Bristle Cone Tree

View at Bristlecone Pine Summit

Late on both Friday and Saturday, we searched along the Mono lake shores for another bird - not a lifer, but a favorite - the Poorwill. We found one - the only one I've seen this year. Poorwills are adorable, cryptically feathered birds, fond of sitting on roads, where their eyes shine bright in car headlights. If you spook the little buggers, they fly straight up, like feathery ghosts. That's what the one we saw did. Must visit the area again next year - maybe I can find my first Rosey Finch - another 'ever elusive' little bugger.

Poorwill - photo by Steve Messick

We drove the same road the previous night and found no Poorwill, but we managed to scare the crap out of a Sage Thrasher on the road, that apparently wasn't quite ready for bed yet.

A dayroaming Sage Thrasher

Ah well! Two days, loads of fly-by Pinyon Jays, but none for close scrutany. Perhaps Pinyon Jays are like fairies and can only be approached by the pure of heart or those with dumb luck to spare. Hum... well, my heart is not exactly pure, but it is uncomplicated...