A California Lake Becomes a Stopover Spot Again
Two hundred miles north of Los Angeles, windswept Owens Lake was the victim of one of the most audacious water grabs in the history of the American West. Now it is the site of one of its most innovative restorations--resurrecting a critical pit stop for migrating birds.
BY JANE BRAXTON LITTLE/PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROSALIE WINARD
When the wind blows across Owens Valley--and it almost always does--it can kick up dust so thick it reduces visibility to mere yards. Most motorists driving by along the east side of the Sierra Nevada miss the lake sprawling beside Highway 395 altogether. Hardly anyone stops to see birds. But when they do they find a sweet paradox. In the midst of the dust-- actually, because of it--shorebirds, diving birds, and water- fowl are thriving at Owens Lake.
A visit at dawn on an unusually clear spring morning is proof. A flock of American avocets is feeding in one of the lake's shallow pools, flaunting breeding plumage the color of toasted marshmallows. All in a row, they sway their slender upturned bills to and fro in search of insects. The flock segues from straight line to smooth circle and back again in a deli-cate ankle-deep dance. A trio of least sandpipers and a pair of snowy plovers tag onto the column, as a crescent moon slips behind the granite peaks of the Sierra. . . .
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