FIRST EVER OWENS LAKE IMPORTANT BIRD AREA BIG DAY SURVEY

Karen Velas of Audubon California participates in the Owens Lake Day Big Day count. Photo by Andrea Jones

On this past April 19th 2008, the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Audubon California and the Owens Valley Committee held the first ever Owens Lake Big Day. Never before has a lake-wide survey of bird populations been done.  A Big Day in birding is when a group of birders surveys an area and identifies as many species and individual birds as possible in a single day. The count was a one day snapshot of Owens Lake during spring migration.  April 19th was chosen since it occurs when high numbers of migrating shorebirds are moving north from wintering areas as far south as Argentina (Patagonia) and Tierra Del Fuego. These masses of birds are moving north through North America to breed in the boreal forests of Alaska and Canada as well as the high Arctic along the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.

Along the routes migrants stop at rich feeding sites such as coastal wetlands and estuaries as well as inland lakes in the Great Basin like Mono Lake, Great Salt Lake and Owens Lake. Feeding stopovers are few and far between even for these marathoner bird species. Necessary fat reserves must be put on to enable the migrants to reach the next stop that may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Birds must arrive on their breeding grounds to the north by the middle of May.

A bubbler, installed by LA Department of Water and Power, rewaters a section of Owens Lake. Photo by Andrea Jones

Forty-nine birders from all over California met in Lone Pine at 7AM to help with this first ever Owens Lake Big Day. Eight groups surveyed all bird habitats at the lake in challenging weather conditions. Wind speeds from zero to gale force were experienced off and on during the day and yet all of the groups completed their assigned surveys.  One part of the lake’s surface would ‘blow up’ while another area would quiet itself. Birds on the ground and the water stuck tight not wanting to lift into a battle with the winds.

A total of 111 species were seen totaling 45,648 individual birds. It was the highest total number of birds ever recorded at Owens Lake. Some 15 species of waterfowl (ducks and geese) and 22 species of shorebirds were identified. Individual species high numbers were 13,873 California gulls (an inland nester at Mono Lake and elsewhere); 9,218 American avocets; 1,767 Eared Grebes; 13,826 small sandpipers such as Dunlin, Western and Least sandpipers; 2,882 individual ducks plus White-faced Ibis, Black-bellied Plovers in breeding plumage (on their way to the land of the Inuit and polar bears), Snowy Plovers, Long-billed Curlews and many more.

Sept. 24, 1917 - Joseph Grinnell, University of California.

“Great numbers of water birds are in sight along the shore – Avocets, Phalaropes and Ducks. Large flocks of shorebirds in flight over the water in the distance, wheeling about show en masse, now silvery now dark, against the gray-blue of the water. There must literally be thousands of birds within sight of this spot. En route around the south end of Owens Lake to Olancha saw water birds almost continuously.”

American Avocets and other shorebirds observed during the Owens Lake Big Day Count. Photo by Andrea Jones

Owens Lake historically was a rich bird resource for thousands of years. It dried nearly completely by the 1920’s due to the completion of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. But beginning in 2001, with the onset of the enormous Los Angeles Owens Lake dust control project, wildlife in large numbers returned once again - using the lake as a migratory stopover and breeding location. Water for dust control has re-created a rich California wildlife resource. The fall Owens Lake Big Day is being planned for August 23rd when birds appear in even larger numbers than in spring and linger longer after the intense breeding season far to the north. Contact Mike Prather of Eastern Sierra Audubon to volunteer (mprather@lonepinetv.com).

For full results, go to: http://www.esaudubon.org/birds/owens_lake/default.htm