Bird Crazy

 

May means it's spring migration time so we are seeing bonus birds! Here's a Snowy Egret flying over a ranch pond. With the longer days, I'm not getting as much sleep, as I want to see birds, and the best times to photograph them are early morning and evening. It's worth it, though, because each time I see a pretty bird or listen to a beautiful bird song, my heart does a little pitter patter. 

Today I went out on the Osceola Ditch Trail in Great Basin National Park to do some birding. I only see about 20% of the birds that I hear, which means I have to learn their bird songs well. One bird that has a distinctive high-pitched song is the Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. I actually saw it today, including the ruby crown!

Birding is something I continue to learn. I saw this little flycatcher, but am not entirely sure which one it is. It was singing "Sweet-pea." My best guess is a Hammond's Flycatcher. (If you know, please comment!)

This Western Tanager sat still long enough for me to snap a photo.

Closer to home, the owlets have left the nest, but are still in the neighborhood. They're so fluffy!

I do take photos of more than birds! Here are some deer that like the easy life, hanging out in the alfalfa fields.

Here's a fun bird, the Long-billed Curlew. I thought it was extra fun to get it with the bill open.

I found a Burrowing Owl in the same location as last summer. 

The sleepy owlet look.

Here's another migratory bird, an Osprey, in our backyard. That makes Backyard Bird #42 for the year for us.

It's not easy to get a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow sitting still! They are usually up in the air, flying acrobatically.

At a nearby reservoir, I enjoyed watching how the adult Canada Geese kept their necks low to reduce their profile as they shepherded their goslings across the water. They popped them up to take a look around, and I pressed the shutter.

At my niece's house I marveled at three types of grosbeaks. Here's an Evening Grosbeak.

A female Black-Headed Grosbeak.

And the biggest surprise, a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. Her feeder is a big attractant!

This Red-Tailed Hawk looks beautiful and ferocious at the same time.

Another surprise bird that's been hanging around for a couple weeks is this Great-Tailed Grackle. It's kind of noisy. 

The melodious Bewick's Wren paused long enough for me to get a photo.

I didn't even identify this White-Throated Sparrow until I got a closer look with a cropped photo.

And to close, back to the Great Horned Owlets, definitely a high point of the spring birding season!

What birds have you been enjoying?

The Wet Look for Lehman Caves

 

With the big snowpack this year, we knew it was going to get wet in Lehman Caves. Extra wet. Wet enough to make strange things happen. Like water spouting out of formations and the ceiling (above), and bubbles at the end of soda straws (below).

The Lodge Room is the main place these phenomena occur in the cave. We think the bubbles might be the way that turnip stalactites formed. There are well over 1,000 of them in the cave, and two were dated to particularly wet periods above ground.

The spouters always make me laugh. That's not a technical term, but it sure describes them well.

The pools in the Lodge Room filled. This is an area that past Lint Camps have focused on for restoration, finding the natural cave floor under debris that was brought in to make it a dancing floor in the early 1900s through Prohibition. You could still dance in there today, but you can also see the beautiful pools--when there is enough water.

The Queen's Bathtub also filled up. This is an ephemeral pool, only wet for the spring and summer seasons.

Nearby, the King's Bathtub also filled. In fact, it got so high that water was on the trail for a couple weeks, and maintenance even pumped some out so that people wouldn't have to walk through a bunch of 50 degree water.

Back to bubbles. I started a project quantifying the drip rates of the bubbles. It was more interesting than I expected, with rates varying from day to day. I even found some bubbles that disappeared and then reappeared.

In the Lodge Room I found 15 bubbles.

They are fascinating to watch.

Even the Panama Canal flooded! 

A couple weeks after the Lodge Room was getting wet, the Cypress Swamp started getting wet. It was actually looking swampy!

The water rose to the point where the rimstone pools were overtopping.

The Cypress Swamp is so pretty with all the reflections! For a few days, it felt like it was raining in this room.

But the Lake Room, just around the corner, stayed stubbornly dry. What was going on?

Finally the Lake Room flooded, weeks after the Cypress Swamp was wet.

Another spot that was fun to watch was the Wishing Well in the Grand Palace. It started out with a paltry pool.

But not to fear, it started getting wetter.

And even wetter!

Back to bubbles, I'm transfixed by them.

And a video, to see how mesmerizing they are as they drip.

The cave is drying up in some parts, as the snow above ground is completely melted. A lot of it will stay wet for weeks and months. I think some of the formations we see in the cave, like turnip stalactites and cave shields likely formed when it was a much wetter climate above ground. We might not get to enjoy baby turnips and shields, but at least we do get to appreciate the results of past climates. This extra moisture this year has us thinking about all the changes the cave has experienced over millions of years. Wow!

Skiing to Stella Lake

As it became more apparent that the winter of 2022-23 was special for the frequent storms and large amount of snow, I wanted to head up to document what was happening in the Wheeler Peak Campground. Located at nearly 10,000 feet elevation, it's a gorgeous campground. In the winter, the only way to access it is via the Lehman Creek Trail, about 4 miles long starting at Upper Lehman Campground, or the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, about 9 miles starting at Upper Lehman Campground. There was almost no snow at the Great Basin National Park entrance (above). 

I opted for the shorter route. At first I thought I was going to snowshoe, but two days of fresh snow followed by cold temps made me decide to switch to my cross country skis, with skins on the bottom for traction. There was a lot of snow in the campground on April 5th, at about 7600 ft elevation.

The trailhead is located about 5-10 minute ski into the campground. 

The next sign is for Osceola Ditch, a ditch made in the late 1800s to transport water from creeks around the mountain to the mining town of Osceola to process gold. 

I admired some Douglas fir pinecones.

When I got to the big meadow, about half way up, it started snowing me, even though it was sunny on the mountains.

I smiled anyway, it was so good to be outside for the day.

By now the tracks had lessened from a stampede to a single ski track, made the day before. I was extremely grateful for these tracks, as the flagging up the trail ended soon after the meadow, and the trail location was not at all evident.

As I headed higher, the snow got deeper. Here's some on a log.

I was amazed that the skiers had managed to find this narrow bridge over a spring. The layers of snow were fascinating.

Before too long, I was getting awesome views of Wheeler Peak behind snow-covered trees.

And then, before I knew it, I saw a little bit of a building. Wait, what? It turned out I was in the campground. But all the campsites were so snow covered I didn't know it. And there were no signs or roads to be seen. But I could just make out the top of an outhouse.

As I looked harder, I could make out one of the roads. You see it, right?

Up near the Bristlecone trailhead I saw the kiosk with the intepretive signs.

I made my way past the bathrooms and sat down for lunch. It was a lovely view. (It took about three hours to get here.)

Here's the trailhead sign for the bristlecones and alpine lakes trails. 

I still had energy and food, so I decided to continue on. The skiers the pervious day had turned around here, so now I had to break trail through about a foot of fresh powder. It was hard work. I came across the water treatment building.

Then I spotted the NevCan installation, which measures weather. The camera here stopped working in December, but there's another one near Mt. Washington that I follow regularly to see just how much snow there is.

Then I came to the Snotel site, which was measuring about 107 inches that day. Wow! 

From there I headed in the direction of Stella Lake, using the Gaia app on my phone to help me. I eventually came upon a trail marker--about waist high!

Here's a trail marker about knee high. These are usually way over my head.

It was strange sking so high up the trees.

As I approached Stella Lake, it got so white. The big meadow in front of it was totally snow-covered.

And then I was there! Stella Lake isn't too impressive with all the snow. But the mountain sure is!

I skied out onto the lake to enjoy a different view and just for the fun of it. Then I took another nice break.

Eventually it was time to head back down. I took the skins off my skis as with so much fresh powder, I had plenty of braking power.

It was gorgeous.

I took a slightly different route through the campground, admiring another campsite.

And another snow-covered bathroom.

I encountered seven people on my way down, including three who were spending the night at the campground. They pulled a sled, which made for a very fast trail. I put the skins back on, and then when the trail narrowed near Osceola Ditch, switched to snow shoes for a bit. 

It was a truly wonderful day out in the backcountry.

Now we'll have the fun of seeing how all that snow melts!