This post completes a trilogy of bird photos from Spring, 2026. This time the pictures are from three areas south of Bishop: Klondike Lake, Owens Lake, and Death Valley.
KLONDIKE LAKE
Ten miles south of Bishop (pop 3800) and just a couple of miles north of Big Pine (pop 1900), is the shallow waterhole of Klondike Lake. This pool is close to Highway 395, so we can watch big-rigs cruising past while we search for birds. The lake has a heavy growth of reeds and several satellite puddles that attract birds.
I will start with a few photos from February 2022. A fire started near the Bishop airport and quickly burned south along the Owens River all the way to Big Pine. Thousands of cottonwoods were incinerated. You can see Klondike Lake in the three photos below, plus the White Mountains. Fire crews managed to stop the fire in the Big Pine area.
When we walk at Klondike, the Sierra summits are nearby. In May there was still plenty of snow:
Birch Mountain (13,665 ft)
Split Mountain (14,058 ft)
Mount Tinemaha (12,561 ft)
An American Bittern flew up from the reeds:
A Snowy Egret was hunting in the grasses, then flew off:
A Great Egret was also nearby:
Plus a Great Blue Heron.
Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
Gadwalls
American Coots.
I was glad to photograph a Bonaparte’s Gull, my first time to record of this bird.
A Common Yellowthroat perched on reeds.
A Willet went past.
A Clark’s Grebe floated on the water. Note that the black “hat” is above the eye; white feathers separate the eye and the hat. The bill is yellow or orange/yellow.
The Western Grebe has a green-yellow bill with a black undersurface. The black “hat” feathers surround the red eye.
Brown-headed Cowbirds.
A Spotted Sandpiper hides in the reeds. In another picture we can see the bird in the open.
American Avocets have a red head and neck in breeding season. Later they lose the red color and are black and white like a police car.
A Black Phoebe.
A Caspian Tern appeared. It hovers, looking for fish. And then dives. The dive was unsuccessful; the bird gave up before it hit the water. In his guidebook, Keith Hansen says “If a gull is a utility vehicle, then a tern is a Ferrari.” This bird migrates through the Owens Valley in Spring and Fall. Usually breeds further north, winters as far south as Columbia.
OWENS LAKE
Owens Lake used to be a shallow salty pit which captured all the water from the Owens River. After Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverted this water, the lake dried up and became the source of particulate air pollution when the wind blows. (Some fear this will be the fate of the Great Salt Lake.) Courts have ordered LA to cover the lake bed to reduce this pollution. The result is a network of dikes and roads, cutting the lake into sections that are covered by salts or water or salt-resistant grasses. Pipes and massive electric pumps are everywhere moving water from one basin to another. The project has cost about $2.5 billion since 2000. This bizarre basin is host to many birds.
California Gulls are numerous here. Big flocks fly overhead, making us think the surf is up. If you see a gull in the Owens Valley and assume it is a California Gull, you will be right 99% of the time. They hang around preening, squawking, having sex, and flying about.
An immature California Gull has brown coloring and no red make-up on the bill or face.
American Avocets are also common. In the first photo, most have a red head and neck which is breeding plumage. But a few are black and white. Flocks fly back and forth.
“Peeps” are small sandpipers, often a mixture of Least and Western Sandpipers. So-called because they vocalize “peep.” First, a single Avocet stands amid peeps of both species.
Next, a mix of peeps.
Peeps fly about an Avocet.
Another flock of flying peeps above a California Gull.
Barn Swallows appeared one morning. I was lucky to catch a few in flight. One flies over its reflection. And one was taking a break on the ground.
White-faced Ibis can be hard to photograph. Unless I can get them in full light, with the sun behind me, their glossy colors just look black. I had some good lighting this spring.
Long-billed Curlews are our largest shorebird: length 23″, 1.3 lb. They pace about, gathering up insects and worms with speed and precision. Note bug in bill in first photo.
Next photo shows an adult curlew with a juvenile. Note difference in size and bill length.
Initially, I thought the bird below was another Long-billed Curlew. But it is smaller, with a shorter bill that is nearly all black. There are distinct stripes on the head and face. If you consult a bird guide, you will find this is a Whimbrel. Early this year (2026), the American Ornithological Society decided to divide Whimbrel’s into two species, so this bird is officially a Hudsonian Whimbrel, distinct from the Eurasian Whimbrel. Hudsonian refers to Hudson’s Bay, where many of these birds breed. Fun fact; almost a century ago, these Whimbrel groups were classified as separate species, but in 1934 they were collapsed into one. Now they are again separate. The Hudsonian Whimbrel below may have flown here from Chile. When it leaves Owens Lake, this western bird may skip Canada entirely and fly in a single hop to breed in Alaska.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds perch in the reeds near some of the ponds.
Black-bellied Plovers are easy to identify in breeding season, when they have… You guessed it, black bellies.
I photographed my first Franklin’s Gulls. They look like penguin wannabes.
Gadwalls have intricate feather patterns.
Caspian Terns were on the lake. One takes off. Sadly, the sun was not behind me; I prefer to photograph them in full sunlight so that we can make out the eye in the black feathers.
We see a coyote, sometimes two, on about half our visits. Maybe they are no more common than other places in the Owens Valley, but just easier to see because the lake has little cover. Are they catching ducks or gulls or something else?
DEATH VALLEY
I picked a few non-bird photos from April, when I hiked up some small summits called the Talc City Hills between Owens Lake and Death Valley. The photo below is taken on the top of Talc City Summit and the peak in the center is Talc Peak. The roads on the right lead to abandoned Talc mines.
Engelmann Hedgehog cactii were in bloom in April.
I’m sure there must be many rattlesnakes in the eastern Sierra, but I rarely see one. While hiking up Talc Hill, I heard one. Can you find the snake below? If it had kept quiet, I would have walked by without seeing it.
