Fall Sierras Trip
Wrights Lake meadow with fall colors
When people talk about visiting the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it usually conjures up images of camping in the summer or skiing in the winter. For me, the fall beckons. The temperatures are mild, some of the trees change color, and the crowds are minimal. My husband and I enjoy visiting Lake Tahoe in the early fall to pick up our remaining mountain birds for the year. This time, we did something a little different and traveled to Mono County on the east side of the Sierras.
To begin the trip, we planned to spend one night in Lake Tahoe. On the way to our destination, we did a quick detour to Wrights Lake near the Desolation Wilderness. At about 7,000 feet, we did a very light hike to avoid feeling sick from the altitude change, but our brief walk down the main trailhead was gorgeous. Signs of fall danced on the leaves turning red and yellow, and the air was crisp and cool. A small meadow near the lake offered a serene moment to take in the calm.
One of our target species for this spot was the American Goshawk. In a thrilling moment when we pulled up to pay the entrance fee, I heard an unfamiliar hawk call. I recorded it using the Merlin App, but it couldn’t identify the species. I was certain this was a goshawk – what else could it be since I knew the calls of all the other local hawks? A closer examination revealed that it was a Douglas Squirrel – a mammal that has a range of bird-like calls that is frustratingly confusing, although amusing. We never got our goshawk on the trip, so we will be back to visit the area again in the future.
After a night in Tahoe, we were off to the main part of the trip: birding in Mono County. The eastern side of the Sierras is disorienting to me. I’m accustomed to the mountains rising to the east, but riding along the highway with the towering mountains to the west made me feel like I was in another land. The drive along the mountainous highway was technically the high desert, offering different plant life to observe. We made a brief stop at a community park that had public restrooms and a gate that led to a gorgeous walk into the mountains. I was excited to hear a White-crowned Sparrow singing a slightly different tune than what I’m used to hearing.
Walker Community Park with high desert plant life
We made a few extra stops along Highway 395, but the birding activity was low, likely due to the high winds that built up as the afternoon settled in. Little did we know that the rest of our trip would bear out the same pattern – winds and minimal birds.
Our main birding stop for the day was at Mono Lake. While birding conditions were not ideal, the scenery was lovely. Lurking in the background were thunder clouds, and we spotted some lightning bolts in the distance. We kept our wits about, monitoring the clouds to ensure we wouldn’t get caught in a storm near a large body of water – not a good spot to be at with lightning!
Mono Lake and distant tufas against a cloudy sky
The next day, weary from a bad night of sleep from a loud thunderstorm, we headed out to the Crowley Lake area. The first stop was a lek, which is where grouse will dance around to woo the females. The leks are active in the spring, but I was hopeful that some Great Sage-Grouse would still be hanging around.
Getting to the lek was confusing. This was definitely an area where local knowledge would have been handy. We drove our passenger car along unpaved roads, faithfully following Google Maps to the eBird hotspot coordinates. We stopped at an unlocked gate that prevented cars from going down the road, so we walked down a path until a snake rattled in alarm, which sent me scampering back to the car. The only birds we saw were meadowlarks and ravens for our effort. I need to research this place more and come back in the spring.
Fields near the Grouse Lek and towering mountains against a brilliant blue sky
We visited a couple other birding hotspots that day. At Crowley Lake, we picked up a Sagebrush Sparrow, although we only heard its loud TINK note. It was otherwise content to stay hidden in the bushes. The lake offered a good pit stop and water fowl to pick through.
The other birding spot was at Convict Lake, one of the most scenic areas of the entire trip. Although not very birdy, and oddly crowded for a weekday, the lake nestled in the mountains was gorgeous.
Convict Lake’s blue waters and majestic mountains
On our final day, we made one last push to find birds that are found at high elevations: Gray-crowned Rosy Finch and Black-backed Woodpeckers. The finches were recently seen at Inyo Craters, which is 9,000 feet above sea level. The elevation made us a little light-headed, so we lightly strolled around the parking lot looking for signs of bird life. We heard a few Mountain Chickadees, but it was otherwise quiet. We slowly drove back along the unpaved path, carefully driving along the edges of wide puddles that would have been easier to navigate in an SUV. One spot along the road was hopeful with lots of birds running around the low bushes. I had read that Gray-crowned Rosy Finches tend to forage on the ground, so we patiently picked through the sparrows that ran in and out of sight, darting around the bushes for food. A Clark’s Nutcracker landed nearby and gave its rattling call, providing me with a great recording to upload to my eBird list. There was lots of bird chatter, but nothing unfamiliar, and soon enough the flock of birds had moved on.
A final birding visit was at a recent burn area where a Black-backed Woodpecker was recently reported. It felt odd staring into a field of burned trees looking for a bird, but these woodpeckers are experts at finding grub that lives off the burned wood. But once again, the trip yielded no sightings of our target bird.
I realized that while fall is a beautiful and calm time of the year to travel in the Sierras, the birds are trying to be low-key as they settle into winter mode. Unlike the spring, birds are relatively quiet in the fall in order to conserve energy and focus on foraging for food without attracting predators.
In spite of this, we picked up eight more species for our 2025 bird list, including a Sagebrush Sparrow lifer – the first time we’ve ever observed this bird. Throughout our trip, we saw beautiful landscapes and witnessed the different personalities of the mountains. Some were bare and rocky, some sprouted dense trees, and others melted into the high desert ecosystem. We ended the trip with fond memories of a magical tour through part of the Sierras. I would like to do this trip again, perhaps in the spring once the snow has melted, to enjoy the breeding season and refreshed birding activity.