Mountain Mosey

 

Wary Chipmunk, Mt. Tamalpais

Nuts are still ripening on the oaks and tanoaks, the Douglas fir tree pantries are full of empty holes, and cackling acorn woodpeckers are playing hard-to-get. Chipmunks, despite serenading me with chirpy alarm calls, have been much more cooperative. 

My car's thermometer read 64 degrees near Rock Spring despite a stiff, warm breeze. I actually felt hot as I mosied around under mostly sunny skies and slipped off-trail to check up on my camera traps. I wondered if the car's thermometer was busted. The weather forecast said today's high up there would be 70 degrees, but I'd have guessed it was at least 75.

I was surprised to see the fog so low on the mountain this morning since the web cam has shown several days of it rising nearly to the top of East Peak.

In the distance, a few wild turkeys gleaned their way over the golden hills.

Acorn woodpeckers are busy making new holes for the coming harvest.

Numerous pine siskins are still in the area, and still going for drinks at the Rock Spring water tank.

Pretty Young Junco

Caught this guy with a sharp tooth on display.

Family Portrait

Although it's still easy to spot trees infected with Sudden Oak Death (Phytophthora ramorum), there seem to be many fewer than there used to be. Apparently the trees are doing much better at managing the pesky microbe.

Still Bearing Spots

Speaking of playing hard-to-get, the spotted towhees are really sticking to cover.

I thought it was a bird in the bushes about to go after these poison oak berries, but it was fun to see a chipmunk interested instead.

I'd heard a kestrel calling out when I was hanging out earlier with the deer family. Later it wheeled above me before flying off to more private hunting grounds. (Composite photo.)

A lone tom turkey looks for seeds and grasshoppers as it makes its way through fields of brittle grass.

The rest of the photos are stills from the camera traps, with a five-minute YouTube video at the end.

Bobcat

Great Horned Owl

Gray Fox

Raccoon

Big Buck!

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Pika Town

 

Pika Bounding With A Bouquet

We awoke to a sunny morning after a rainy night in Lee Vining, and I looked forward to using my new Z8 and 180-600mm to photograph the pikas along the Nunatak Nature Trail on the way home via Tioga Pass. We'd gone out via Sonora Pass so we could check out Twin Lakes near Bridgeport.

At the nature trail I walked through a patch of meadow still frosted after a cold night and found a likely spot at the base of the scree slope to await the arrival of a pika. Their alarm chirps had already greeted us, so we knew they were still there. It didn't take long for a couple of rock-rabbits to come down the hill and cast a wary glance my way.

In the not-too-distant background I watched a long-tailed weasel bound downhill over the talus and feared for the safety of one of the pikas when it scampered over that way to gather greens for the coming winter. The pika soon returned to stash the goods in its lair beneath one of the larger boulders, and I never saw the weasel again.

I've long been intrigued by the dramatic peaks you can see to the south as you drive through Bridgeport, and I figured Twin Lakes would get us closer to them. This is the view from the second lake. They actually look more imposing from Bridgeport because you can see more of the Sawtooth Ridge and Matterhorn Peak.

I've been to the Nunatak Nature Trail several times, so this time I concentrated on trying to photograph the pikas as they moved over the landscape.

Smiling Pika

After stashing the goods in a midden below the rock, the pika returned to its lookout point and struck a wary pose before bounding back up the hill.

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Bristlecones to Mono Lake

 

Bristlecone Pine & Mormon Tea, Schulman Grove

After camping overnight we headed back up the mountain to hike the Shulman Grove's Methuselah Trail the day after visiting the Patriarch Grove. It was sunny and cool in the morning, making the four-and-a-half-mile hike about as comfortable as it gets at 10,000 feet of elevation.

This was the view from my camp chair the morning we drove up to the Patriarch Grove.

I couldn't resist trying to photograph the birds that passed through our camp, like this Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.

The only familiar face from San Francisco was this Hairy Woodpecker.

Gray Flycatcher

Juniper Titmouse

Western Warbling Vireo

This was the view at a pull-out above Grandview Campground the morning we drove up to hike at the Shulman Grove. Later in the day we'd break camp just ahead of a storm.

Morning Light on the Methuselah Trail

The bristlecones thrive wherever the soil is at its most hideously dolomitic best.

We were finally caught in a hailstorm as we drove up I-395, and I was amazed that our windshield didn't shatter under the assault. We stopped by Mono Lake since we were an hour early for our 4 o'clock check-in at the Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining. The osprey above was still occupying this lone burnt tree when we left.

There were several active osprey nests on the tufa towers, including one that you can just make out on the left-most tower above.

A few people were exploring the tufa formations despite the rain, but we took in the view from (mostly) inside the car.

P.S. I first visited the Bristlecone Pines in 1985, five years after I was a sailor aboard the USS Eisenhower when it set a record of 152 consecutive days at sea during a different crisis with Iran. That record stood until the USS Roosevelt beat it in 2002, only to be regained by the Ike during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. 

Now in the midst of Trump's war on Iran, the record has been blasted to pieces by the USS Lincoln with a massive 200 consecutive days (days without a liberty port) and counting. 

Back in my day, many crewmembers, especially those with families, were so eager to return to Norfolk after setting that 1980 record that the captain cancelled a brief liberty port call at Mombasa, Kenya. We'd even already gotten all our necessary vaccinations for the trip. I was sick of being at sea too, but I still voted to make the port call. 

Anyway, congratulations to the resourceful and resilient crew aboard the USS Lincoln for setting a record that will hopefully last forever.

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