An oncoming snowstorm forced cancellation of our scheduled visit to Mono Lake – a strange briny oasis in California’s dry Great Basin, and a vital habitat for millions of migratory and nesting birds. We did get a chance to briefly pass part of Mono’s shoreline as we headed home, and I stopped long enough to make this early morning photograph of a watchful hawk scanning the surface of the lake’s glistening water for its next meal. Using a 432mm telephoto lens, I took my reading off the water, and abstracted the image down to its bluish-black essence to capture to mood of the moment. It is an eerie scene, but then Mono Lake is said to be one of the strangest lakes in North America.