East of the Sierras

I'm at a meeting near Mammoth Lakes, CA, for a couple of days.  Here are a few pictures from the drive yesterday (taken from Route 89 and Route 395):

 

I stopped briefly to stretch at ~8,000 ft. along Route 89.  When I stepped out of the car, I heard Townsend's Solitaire's (Myadestes townsendi) singing!  (See one perched above.)  The next bird I heard was a Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), and then a Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli).  A nice trio!

 

Cloud shadows

 

 

This damselfly flew in and landed in the parking lot at a rest stop in Antelope Valley (Mono County).  It's either a Great Spreadwing (Archilestes grandis) or a California Spreadwing (Archilestes californicus).  It flew off, and I couldn't find it again, so I'll need to check in with some experts to see if they can identify it from this photo.

 

 Mountain snow 

 

Mono Lake

Images of the day

A few images from the day traveling to San Juan Island and a short walk on the island:

 

Purple Martin near the ferry dock.

 

The skies cleared just in time to see the Olympics from the ferry. 

 

Shoreline near Friday Harbor.

 

Close-up of a still-to-be-identified darner.

 

Full moon rising at the end of a beautiful day.