Blue-Feathered Gold

We were in the middle of our only full day at Mono lake, our second trip to Mono Lake in search of Pinyon Jays, and our b'jillionth annual search for Pinyon Jays in general. 
We had already dropped by Mono Mills, a small park, where other birders have repeatedly seen Pinyon Jays. We suspected the other birders of being no-good-horrible, double-dog liars, because we saw no Pinyon Jays there and we're v-good-wonderful, double-kitten truth tellers. Still, we kept  checking Mono Mill, hopefully & with the same desperation one keeps checking the kitchen drawers when your car keys go missing. 

At one point, after a short & jay-less search, we returned to the car, to find, I kid you not, a White-breasted Nuthatch IN THE CAR!  No, it wasn't trying to hot wire the car & didn't seem to be planning to wait for us to enter the car, then jump out and hijack the vehicle. Don unlocked the car and after a couple of horrifying bird/glass collisions, the poor thing flew away - that would be the bird, not Don. We were stunned. How the heck and when the heck did that bird get into the car? As Don drove us away, I pondered on the strange occurrence of birdie car invasion, as I gazed at the blue skies above, through the open moon roof.

Mono Mill, where lying birders 'claim' to have spotted Pinyon Jays. Yeah, right.

We headed over to another spot by the side of Mono Lake. We weren't there long when before strange calls rang out and shortly thereafter Don rang out, "HARK! THERE FLY'ITH PINYONS!" Well, in retrospect, I think what he yelled was more like "THERE THEY GO, THE LITTLE $#%@ERS" or there abouts.

A massive flock of Pinyon Jays winged their noisy way over the sage brush.HURRAH and about time!  I had to perform my 'I got a lifer dance', which is only performed in my head, for the safety of those nearby. 

A lower flying flock of Pinyons

While I pursued the Pinyon Jays in search of the perfect photo, which didn't happen, Don triumphantly marched down to the Mono shoreline to see what interesting waterfowl were hanging out.

Don Marching down to the Tufa formations for a look-see at Mono waterfowl

Our next stop was back to the Mono Mill, where, a short distance away, one of the two giant flocks of jays we saw along side the lake, were frolicking in the piney pines. I gave chase, but wearing sandals and the ground being about 99/44 100% sand, it was rather slow going - had to keep stopping to empty the sand from my toes.

One little Pinyon Jay

So, Don and I finally got our lifer Pinyon Jays and I must say we are both feeling rather chuffed to add those little boogers.  We realized that when we were at Mono Lake two years ago, we did indeed see no less than 3 flocks of Pinyon Jays winging by, but we didn't count them as it's difficult to justify dashes of blue-feathered gold that pass the car window at 70 MPH. I mean, we're experienced birders, but for a lifer, you want a little more certainty than, "Look up in the sky, it's a plane, it's superman, no, it's A PINYON JAY - or not..."

Now, I could end the day here and you wouldn't know the difference, but truth is, it was our last day so after a brief visit to the Mono Lake Visitor Center, we headed west, up over the Tioga Pass and into Yosemite. It's a terrific drive with loads of giant craigy bits of granite to oogle at as you drive past.

Pretty eh? Decided to stop for lunch so at Tenaya Lake, which was milling with happy picnikers, I hopped out the car and headed over to a picnic table. I was just wondering where the heck Don was, when he came over, all happy and preening proud. He explained he found a female Pine Grosbeak by the parking area - a lifer he had hoped to find, but of course being more or less sane, hadn't expected to find. Not a lifer for me, but then I've only ever seen one Pine Grosbeak and at that time got only one photo, taken through the cloudy window of a van with a pathetic 2 pixel digital camera. 

My one other sighting of a Pine Grosbeak, Churchill Manitoba, a b'jillion years ago

So, near needless to say, I was disappointed to have missed a sighting of a female Grosbeak... and then I heard strange birdsong. It sounded like a happily demented parakeet. Then, guess what alighted in a pine tree, just overhead? Yes! A unicorn. Or mayhaps it was a female Pine Grosbeak.

In all her loveliness, a sweet little Pine Grosbeak

In the words of the long late Steve Irwin, "Isn't she beautiful?"  Yes, she sure was - chipper, curious, and totally tame for a wild bird. She flew down low and began to feed on a shrub, and I swear, I had to back up to get photos - that's how close she was.

Not sure what she fed on, but must have been tasty

Oh yeah, it's tasty all right!

If you compared the male Grosbeak's photo with the female, you'll have noted, while the male is pretty in pink, the female is kind of lovely in grey & gold. That's the way it is in the birdie world.

So, again I arrive at the end of the great Pinyon Jay Hunt, but once again... not quite just yet... we drove from Yosemite, taking the back roadways of Highway 49 through the weensie towns of Sonora, Angel's Camp of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" fame, and Jackson. Then, we made one more stop before heading to my house. We birded Meiss Road just before sunset and spotted one more good bird for the day, this little Vesper Sparrow. Whew!  What a day!

Vesper Sparrow on Meiss Road

"Goodbye God, I'm Birdin' in Bodie"

Seemingly barren, yet pretty;
scenery on Bodie Road at Dawn

  'Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie' is what a small girl child of the 19th Century wrote in her diary when she found her family was to settle in Bodie. Bodie was a California gold rush town where murder was a daily event. I'd bet those Bodie residents would't understand that long after the gold petered out, that birds alone would make people come by for a visit. With that in mind, it was barely twilight when Don and I drove down the asphalt road to Bodie State Park... then ran out of asphalt and rolled along in a cloud of dust on the dirt road.  We it all the way to the park entrance - but we hadn't seen what we came for.  Rats. Decided to drive the 10 miles back to the main road. On the way some interesting birds finally showed themselves - birdies of the sage. Found a pretty little Sage Thrasher, high up on the hillside.

Sage Thrasher

 There were also several Sage Sparrows, skittering in and out from under shrubs.

One little Sage Sparrow jumped around so much I was a little surprised I finally managed to snap a picture of it, though it did manage to keep some barbed wire between it and myself. Sage Sparrows have interesting face masks. Probably stemming  from the days when they lay in wait on the Brodie Road to rob stage coaches. No? Well.. I be they would have liked to.

Typical Stage Coach robbing, masked Bandit. Ok, maybe it's a Sage Sparrow.

There was a Rock Wren by the roadside. The little guy caught itself a meal. I think you may have to know what you're looking for to make out the dragonfly.

Rock Wren with a mouthful of uncooperative, winged breakfast

 Soon enough we were back where the dirt road meets the asphalt, and after loads of  discussion, we U-turned, headed back for the state park. I don't recall why we stopped on the road, but soon, we were knocked speechless by a flight of big birds crossing the road. I couldn't spit the words out, neither could Don, but we sure knew what we were looking at. Sage Grouse on the wing! That's what we came to Bodie for - Greater Sage Grouse.  The flock we found marched around on the slope for a bit, then, probably startled by the big fat lady with the camera thingmajig, they all took off. By some kind of freakn' modern day miracle, I managed to keep my camera in focus and got several good shots.

Wow. I mean, just WOW.

We even found a second group of birds a bit farther down the road. There was a Grouse cock that was just plum full of himself, and he did sort of an out-of-season breeding dance, in place. Ugh! Should have used the camcorder function! The bird puffed up his chest, spread his spindly tail feathers and 'pumped' himsefl up and down, his wings drooped at his side. His flock girlies ignored him. Maybe they were his siblings, who knows.

Someone was just full of himself

There were some congratulations all around I can tell you!  That bird wasn't the only critter that was full of itself. We decided we might as well visit Bodie State Park, which was just opening as we drove up.

View from the kiosk at the park entrance.

In the 1880s, Bodie was a bustling mining town

The local church - at one time, far outnumbered by the local bars

Even in their hay day, Bodie's buildings were ramshackle

I love the look of the weather worn wood in the old ghost town

ghostly gray Mountain Bluebird guards over Bodie

Another modern day Bodie resident - an Orange-crowned Warbler

 I've wanted to tour Bodie State Park since my last visit to Mono Lake in 2010. On site though, though interested in the ghost town's history, I was tetchy over the heat of the sun. So, cranky from the heat, I didn't explore much, or see as much of the town as Don did. He returned to the car with a much longer list of buildings viewed and birds seen.

Surviving our visit to Bodie, we decided to head to Lee Vining for a much needed cup of coffee. We stopped at a great little coffee shop that was at one time a private residence, a Victorian house. There, with steaming cups of coffee, we sat looking through the window into a flowery garden, set up for birds - and therefore, birders like us. Don spotted a Black-chinned Hummingbird, and was tickled as it was a bird-of-the-year for him. There were the usual Lesser Goldfinches, a mix of finches and I even spotted a Clark's Nutcracker winging by in the distance.

Back garden at the little Lee Vining coffee shop

Lesser Goldfinches working the Sunflowers for seed

It was closing in on mid day when we decided - with dubious sighs - to the shores of Mono Lake, hoping we might find the Pinyon Jays. The birders we met the previous day told us they found a large flock of the evasive buggers, but I must say, Don & I were dubious we would have such luck. Oh well - there was only one way to find Pinyon Jays, we would just have to go hunt for them.