Joanne Hihn took some amazing bird pictures on Owens Lake during the 2017 Owens Lake Bird Festival. Thanks for sharing Joanne…
Exploration
Here’s the list of birds we saw at the 2017 Owens Lake Bird Festival: Gadwall American Wigeon Mallad Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Lesser Scaup Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck California Quail Eared Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American White Pelican Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret White-faced Ibis Turkey Vulture Osprey Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Cooper’s Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Swainson’s Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Sora American Coot Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Back-bellied plover Snowy Plover Semipalmated plover Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Willet Whimbrel Long-billed Curlew Marbled Godwit…
While the birds were the star of the festival, the people made it pretty great too: Saturday started out cold (photo by David Carle)… But we persisted, and had a great time (photo by Janet Carle). It was a gorgeous day to search for birds (Gabby Guerrero). We learned a lot from Bob Steele about the art of bird photography (Sam Dummer). Dave Herbst led his always popular exploration of the microbiotic life of Owens Lake (Janet Carle). (David Carle) This year’s festival offered many excited trips off the lake. Here’s the group…
We believe the best way to show how great a time we had at the Owens Lake Bird Festival is to share some of the photos from the weekend. Here are a few of the birds we saw- From Martin Powell: From Sam Dummer: From David Carle:
SnowSchool happened this year in Mammoth! Winter Wildlands Alliance sponsors SnowSchool, a travelling curriculum of winter science and ecology lessons applied to outdoor educational opportunities. This winter, Winter Wildlands Alliance worked with Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association to coordinate the event and bring together groups like Friends of the Inyo, Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, and Mammoth Mountain to get Mammoth Elementary 5th graders out into the winter landsacpe for a day. We scheduled it twice, and got cancelled due to epic storms, but we made it happen on Tuesday, March 21, even with another big storm. The kids were great- smiles…
What a great tour in the Volcanic Tablelands a couple of weeks ago. We owe a huge thank you to Greg Haverstock, the BLM’s resident archaeologist. It seems as if very few people are as familiar with the Tablelands, and we’re thankful for him sharing his knowledge of the cultural history and landscape that is right out our back door. Check out some photos from the day, and we’ll do this outing again in the future. Greg brought an atl atl for us to try out. This is a traditional hunting tool that preceded the bow and arrow. Greg also…
Check out Mike Prather’s piece about Owens Lake from the latest issue from Bird Watching Daily.
Claudia Moya-Tanner’s son Bo explored Devils Postpile National Monumental with Bishop Second Graders on a project supported by Friends of the Inyo. Check out Claudia’s editorial, published in the Inyo Register on December 6. Nature’s Classroom Exploring public lands through the eyes of children. There’s no better way to experience a sense of wonder than through the eyes of a child. For me, that means frequent trips with my son Bo to Devils Postpile National Monument, the protected public lands in our own backyard. The Monument has long been Bo’s playground, and one of his favorite places to learn, explore,…
“It takes all of us that love the wild to keep it wild.” By Janet Carle I will never see the wilderness in exactly the same way after a five-day service trip into Humphreys Basin, organized by Friends of the Inyo in partnership with the Sierra National Forest. I have enjoyed many backpacking trips over the years, but “working” in the wilderness took my knowledge and appreciation to a whole new level. Our group of seven intrepid volunteers from all over California joined Sierra National Forest wilderness rangers Greg Dusic and Zach Barton and Friends of the Inyo staff Tristen…
In July, Friends of the Inyo explored the Glass Mountains with about ten participants. Unique to the Eastern Sierra, the Glass Mountains run east-west and connect the Sierra Nevada to the Great Basin. This range is home to rare plant species like the Mono Lake Lupine, and provides the opportunity for species to connect between bio regions. Also, it’s just a darn beautiful place to spend a day. We began our hike at Sawmill Meadows, and wandered up the trail to the summit of Glass Mountain. In the summer of 2016, the Inyo National Forest received comments on its…