Salton
Sea & the Coachella and Imperial Valleys
Feb 24,
2002
Guide-Bob
Miller
A full day of birding with Francois Trudel from Ottawa, Ontario. Beginning
in Thousand Palms and circling the Salton Sea. For more pictures
from this trip click
here!
93
species (today's list follows at end
of page)
Click on
thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.
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Black Phoebe
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Phainopepla
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By 0615 we were headed South and birding through Coachela Valley.
Our first destination was Lincoln Ave. and 67th, an old place called
The Rattlesnake Ranch, where we were able to find the Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker that had been on the RBA for a few days. We also had good
looks at Phainopepla, Black Phoebe and Cactus Wren here. A huge
flock of Ring-billed Gulls on the roadway was interesting. The wind
was starting to kick up and we missed on the Northern Parula and
Cedar Waxwings that had been near here a few days prior. We picked
up Gambel's Quail along Lincoln as we made our way to Johnson Road.
At the end of Johnson we had our first good look at the Salton Sea.
Great looks at Eared, Western and Clark's Grebes as well as very
close looks at Long-billed Dowitchers were had here.
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Ring-billed Gulls
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Long-billed Dowitcher
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There are
numerous GBHE nests here at Johnson Rd. The remnants of a past
ranch site jut surreally out of the water. Shade structures and
old equipment provide perches and what was once a dike around a fresh
water pond is now an island in the Salton Sea.
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Great Blue Heron
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American White Pelican
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At the
Salton Sea State Park we had fine looks at this Lesser
Black-backed Gull (top) that has wintered there for the last three
or four years. These
AWPE soaring over our heads and all of the typical gulls for the
Salton Sea at this time of year were seen at the State Park too.
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| At Wister Waterfowl Area HQ on Davis Road we were
treated to this striking male Vermilion Flycatcher and an obliging
Ladder-backed Woodpecker. We birded down Davis Rd and through the
Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR, then across Obsidian Butte and along
the sea wall. |
Vermilion Flycatcher
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We were now into miles of agriculture and still ticking off new
birds at every turn. This field of flowers was a real eye catcher.
We made a stop at the Barn Owl "Condominiums" for the typical ten
second look at one of the residents before it moved in slow motion
to the back of it's room! With the sun setting fast, we realized that we had
only seen White-faced Ibis as distant little black lines on the
horizon and we were not in a position to remedy that situation!
"Help I'm birding and I can't stop" ran into a deadline
for a conference meeting so we high tailed it back up the west shore
to the Marriott
just in time.
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Flower fields in
Imperial Valley
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The birders!
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