Imperial
Valley & the Salton Sea
4 Jan
2004, 36-60 degrees
- narrated
by Henry Detwiler
A chilly, birdy New Year's visit to the Imperial Valley to search for
some regional targets
97
species
Click on
thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.
|
Al and I met Mary Muchowski at Cattle Call Park
shortly after 7:00am, and boy was it cold! Still, we headed
out to find our targets. We were well rewarded with this
handsome Vermilion Flycatcher, and with good views of the
Zone-tailed Hawk in the center of the huge eucalyptus tree north of
the park. |
Vermilion Flycatcher
|
|
Mew Gull at the Salton Sea, at the first bend in the Sea wall north
of the pond at Lack & Lindsey
|
Mew Gull
Al & Mary were quite happy we found this Mew Gull, since it
was a lifer for both of them. It was just north of the pond at
Lack & Lindsey, right were Bob said it would be!
|
| And not twenty feet from the gull, this Reddish Egret
was watching the water pour in from a drain, waiting for a
meal. It was far too intent on finding lunch to be worried
about me. |
Reddish Egret |
|
|
Forster's Terns at the end
of Garst Road, next to Red Hill Marina |
Forster's Tern
While
Al was enjoying his second lifer of the day--Ruddy Turnstones--
through the scope, I concentrated on these graceful Forster's
Terns. |
|
Other shorebirds we saw included Greater &
Lesser Yellowlegs, and these beautiful Avocets. But the
rarest one for the day was the Wandering Tattler we saw again at
the Algae Farm on Hoober, just east Hwy 111.
|
American Avocets
|
|
American Crow
|
A flock of some dozen American Crows came as a
total surprise, since they're quite rare in the Imperial Valley.
These were the first ones we'd ever seen here.
|
| As the afternoon closed in on us, we flushed a
Sprague's Pipit out of a Bermuda Grass field, getting some great
views with binos. And as we drove out along a ditch bank, we
were surprised to find this American Bittern, pretending to be a
reed! It had turned out to be an awesome day! |
American Bittern |
|
