San
Diego Audubon Society Salton Sea Summer field
Trip
Aug 3,
2002
Guide - Bob
Miller, organized by Bill McCausland
A morning of summer
birding!
72
species (list follows at end
of page)
Click on
thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.
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Black-crowned
Night-Heron
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0700 at the SB Salton Sea NWR was unbelievably
nice for an August morning. We walked out the Rock Hill Trail
picking up Abert's Towhee, Verdin and the other regulars. This
BCNH was a showy treat. Especially fantastic was a pair of the
very few Wood Storks seen this year that flew in to steal the
show.
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On the ponds we had lots of American Avocet and Northern Shovelers
with a few Ruddy Ducks still in sky blue bill. Conspicuously absent
for the day were Gull-billed Terns.
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Imm. and adult Wood
Stork
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Yellow-footed Gull
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On to
Obsidian Butte for our first nice look at Yellow-footed Gull. Five
Ruddy Turnstone, numerous Marbled Godwit and more were on the
"rocks" while several Lesser Nighthawks were flitting
around on the island.
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We then
headed up Garst and over to Davis Road where we had possibly two
Peregrine Falcons. At the end of Pound Road we had great looks at
"large-billed" Savannah Sparrows. Back into our
air-conditioned bird blinds and we were headed to Calipatria for
lunch. The last vehicle in the line would not start and the
battery exploded on us. It's called life
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Caravan at Obsidian
Butte
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Well posted Lesser Nighthawk |
and stuff
happens! Thankfully no one was hurt so we got everyone into
Calipatria for lunch and a hasty good bye as we were off to locate
a new battery. On our way back out we came across this Lesser
Nighthawk for a few candid and one awesome pic (above).
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