Lee Vining Canyon Birding: American Dipper, Warblers & Tioga Road

Lee Vining Canyon is a glacial canyon on the east side of the Sierra Nevada in Mono County, above the town of Lee Vining and Mono Lake. Tioga Pass Road (State Route 120) climbs through it toward Yosemite. Lee Vining Creek runs down its floor to Mono Lake, which gives the canyon a strip of streamside vegetation that birds use heavily in spring and summer. Mono County's tourism office describes the canyon's riparian habitat as home to woodpeckers, swallows, warblers, bluebirds, thrushes and chickadees.

Why the canyon is so productive

The Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua describes Lee Vining Creek as running from "the high alpine mountains of Yosemite and Tioga Pass" down through the canyon. Below the canyon it reaches the sagebrush scrub around Mono Lake. A single morning can cover a wide elevation range, and with it several distinct bird communities. That variety is the reason the Chautauqua runs a dedicated "Birding Lee Vining Canyon" field trip.

Birds to look for

Bird	Where and when	Source
American Dipper	On the creek. A Mono Lake Committee naturalist saw dippers building nests here in early May.	Mono Lake Committee; Bird Chautauqua
Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler	Listed for the Chautauqua canyon walk	Bird Chautauqua
MacGillivray's Warbler	Reported in the canyon in early May	Mono Lake Committee
Fox Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee	Reported in the canyon in early May	Mono Lake Committee
House Wren	Reported in the canyon in early May	Mono Lake Committee
Townsend's Solitaire, nuthatches	Listed for the Chautauqua canyon walk	Bird Chautauqua
Woodpeckers, swallows, bluebirds, thrushes, chickadees	General riparian corridor	Mono County

Kenn Kaufman's Audubon overview of the Eastern Sierra birding trail singles out the American Dipper, "an aquatic songbird that once captivated John Muir," as a bird of the region's rushing streams. In the same piece he lists Green-tailed Towhees in foothill thickets and Townsend's Solitaires at higher elevations. Lee Vining Canyon offers both.

A note on the American Dipper

The dipper is the bird many visitors hope to find here. Cornell's All About Birds describes it as slate-gray, with white eyelid feathers that flash when it blinks, and calls it "North America's only truly aquatic songbird." It perches on midstream rocks and logs, bobs rhythmically, then dives and walks along the stream bottom to hunt aquatic larvae. Dippers build mossy, domed nests on boulders, cliff ledges and bridges, and white-splattered rocks mid-stream can signal that one is nearby. Since nest-building has been seen here in early May, give a bird carrying moss plenty of room.

Timing your visit

Spring arrivals: the Mono Lake Committee's May 2019 report describes Neotropical migrants arriving on their breeding grounds in early May, with birds singing and nesting.
Early summer: the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua runs its field trips in June. The Lee Vining Canyon trip is a morning outing (7:30 to 11:30 a.m. in its listing) with moderate hiking and about 20 miles of round-trip driving.
Best overall window: the Mono Lake Committee says late spring through early fall is the best time to see and hear the largest number of Mono Basin species.

Combining the canyon with Mono Lake

Because the creek flows into Mono Lake, the canyon pairs naturally with a lake visit. The Committee's field report found Yellow Warbler at the Lee Vining Creek delta, Lewis's Woodpecker and nesting Ospreys at Mono Lake County Park, and Black-billed Magpie and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher near town. See our Mono Lake birds guide for gulls, grebes and phalaropes, and the trail sites list for June Lake and Mammoth to the south.

Practical notes

Tioga Road is a mountain highway. Pull fully off the road to bird, and watch for traffic on narrow sections.
The canyon floor has campgrounds along the creek. A photo guide to the canyon notes Big Bend Campground beside Lee Vining Creek.
The Mono Lake Committee information center in Lee Vining is a good first stop for current conditions and its free bird walks.