Where is Everybody?
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:00 am
Six of us just returned last night from 9 days in and around the headwaters of Rush Creek, and the Middle and North Forks of the San Joaquin River. We set a personal record of 6 full days and nights without seeing another soul, even though we moved camp every night but one.
This suited all of us just fine, in part because it allowed us bunch of naturalists to really focus in on the wildlife around us. But, with notable exceptions, this became more a matter botanizing and birding, and sadly, less time spent watching mammals.
Our 3 dog companions explain the dearth of animals near to camp, but we poured over the miles around us with binoculars, and usually came up empty. We found old bear scat, and recent coyote scat, but only met up with only one very vocal coyote, who either loved or hated our little dog pack. In the fairly lush Bench Canyon, we encountered only about 8 marmot, and 5 or so alpine chipmunks, 0 deer, 0 Belding ground squirrels, 0 hares, and we only heard a few pika, but couldn't find them to look at. The animal highlight was a phenacomy that our friends saw scurrying from one creek bank burrow to another. We have only encountered this stream-loving rodent once or twice before.
The bird life made up for the lack of furry critters. We saw a bald eagle for the fourth time in the Sierra, and it circled beautifully around the lower Blue Lake in Bench Canyon before perching first on a ledge above the lake, and then later, it passed by again and landed high in a lodgepole pine, close enough to admire and photograph. A osprey flew by and circled us, showing off its catch of a trout, and redtail hawks visited us several times too. Our ornithologist buddy first heard, then located the wonderful lemon yellow Wilson's warbler. With this friend we always locate many of the local birds, and thanks to his fine ear, we get to see other less common birds- this time the highlights were a spotted sand piper, and a pair of western tanagers. The American dipper is an obvious, but very welcome old bird friend. We saw it multiple times high up in the North Fork of the SJ River, before we crossed Marie Pass back into Rush Creek watershed. We had a shocking encounter with a blue grouse who flew right up from under our feet in the forest below the southern Twin Lake. She left her flightless chicks flitting all around us and our rapidly contained dog trio. We found, and avoided finding more white-crowned sparrow nests, which due to the the many alarm calls he heard, Carleton assured us were to be found all around in the willows north of 1000 Island Lake, and up toward North Glacier Pass. The most common birds up high were the colorful rosy finches and juncos, and we did see a lot of them. One of Lizzie and my favorite birds is the mountain bluebird, and we were lucky enough to find a couple of them too.
On the way back across the Tuolumne Meadows, we luckily spied a few deer, and pulled over, since we had only seen two deer while backpacking. It turned out to be the most bucks I've seen all together in the high country- it was 12 or 13 bucks, some with very nice velvety antlers, all grazing and resting together. Oh, and we also heard some chorus frogs, and saw a few of them, and also one striped snake.
We think the people may have been so scarce due to the small forest fire west of Mammoth Lakes that had begun just days before we went in on June 24th. Is it likely that many backpackers cancel their trips when there is fire nearby? It was indeed hazy at times, but thankfully the smoke lifted during most days, and we were not burnt up at all.
I will get around to producing a Trip Report soon to cover other aspects of this fine trip we had. Good luck to you all, the Harlens.
This suited all of us just fine, in part because it allowed us bunch of naturalists to really focus in on the wildlife around us. But, with notable exceptions, this became more a matter botanizing and birding, and sadly, less time spent watching mammals.
Our 3 dog companions explain the dearth of animals near to camp, but we poured over the miles around us with binoculars, and usually came up empty. We found old bear scat, and recent coyote scat, but only met up with only one very vocal coyote, who either loved or hated our little dog pack. In the fairly lush Bench Canyon, we encountered only about 8 marmot, and 5 or so alpine chipmunks, 0 deer, 0 Belding ground squirrels, 0 hares, and we only heard a few pika, but couldn't find them to look at. The animal highlight was a phenacomy that our friends saw scurrying from one creek bank burrow to another. We have only encountered this stream-loving rodent once or twice before.
The bird life made up for the lack of furry critters. We saw a bald eagle for the fourth time in the Sierra, and it circled beautifully around the lower Blue Lake in Bench Canyon before perching first on a ledge above the lake, and then later, it passed by again and landed high in a lodgepole pine, close enough to admire and photograph. A osprey flew by and circled us, showing off its catch of a trout, and redtail hawks visited us several times too. Our ornithologist buddy first heard, then located the wonderful lemon yellow Wilson's warbler. With this friend we always locate many of the local birds, and thanks to his fine ear, we get to see other less common birds- this time the highlights were a spotted sand piper, and a pair of western tanagers. The American dipper is an obvious, but very welcome old bird friend. We saw it multiple times high up in the North Fork of the SJ River, before we crossed Marie Pass back into Rush Creek watershed. We had a shocking encounter with a blue grouse who flew right up from under our feet in the forest below the southern Twin Lake. She left her flightless chicks flitting all around us and our rapidly contained dog trio. We found, and avoided finding more white-crowned sparrow nests, which due to the the many alarm calls he heard, Carleton assured us were to be found all around in the willows north of 1000 Island Lake, and up toward North Glacier Pass. The most common birds up high were the colorful rosy finches and juncos, and we did see a lot of them. One of Lizzie and my favorite birds is the mountain bluebird, and we were lucky enough to find a couple of them too.
On the way back across the Tuolumne Meadows, we luckily spied a few deer, and pulled over, since we had only seen two deer while backpacking. It turned out to be the most bucks I've seen all together in the high country- it was 12 or 13 bucks, some with very nice velvety antlers, all grazing and resting together. Oh, and we also heard some chorus frogs, and saw a few of them, and also one striped snake.
We think the people may have been so scarce due to the small forest fire west of Mammoth Lakes that had begun just days before we went in on June 24th. Is it likely that many backpackers cancel their trips when there is fire nearby? It was indeed hazy at times, but thankfully the smoke lifted during most days, and we were not burnt up at all.
I will get around to producing a Trip Report soon to cover other aspects of this fine trip we had. Good luck to you all, the Harlens.
