Salton Sea Birding
Festival
17-18
Feb 2007
Narrator:
Henry Detwiler
A fine weekend of birding the Imperial Valley as a guide for the Target
Tours during the Salton Sea Birding Festival.
215
species--bird list is at the bottom of the page
Click on
thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.
SATURDAY
|
Mountain Bluebird
|
Our first target was the Ferruginous Hawk, and we
saw one on a pole along Walker right away. But it flew south
before we all got a nice look, so we followed it. There we get
good flight views as it headed back to Walker. In the field
across from the hawk were numerous Mountain Bluebirds. In the
far side of the same field someone noticed a couple of birds
flitting about. They were Mountain Plovers! To top off the good
birds in this neck of the valley, we spotted a Prairie Falcon as it
few over the road.
|
|
At the headquarters building, Howard showed us a sleeping Barn owl
nestled in a palm tree's fronds.
Barn Owl |
Barn Owl
Thousands of Snow and Ross's Geese were milling about the surrounding
alfalfa fields. |
|
Peregrine Falcon |
At the corner of Garst and Sinclair, a beautiful adult
Peregrine Falcon posed on a power pole cross beam, providing fine
views for all. |
|
American Avocet
At Red Hill Marina Howard spotted 3 juvenile Yellow-footed Gulls at
the end of the pier, along with dozens of American Avocets and
Marbled Godwits.
|
Target Tours #1 |
|
A quick jaunt over to Cattle Call
Park yielded this beautiful Gray Flycatcher catching insects in the
mesquites. Our time was running out, so we missed the
Red-naped Sapsucker and Vermilion Flycatcher. |
Gray Flycatcher |
SUNDAY
|
Mountain Plover |
On Sunday we once again saw the Ferruginous Hawk along Walker.
At the corner of Gentry and Bowles was a field full of Mountain
Plovers. We set up scopes and watched these plainly marked
marked plovers scurry about and pick off insects from the dirt.
|
|
South of Obsidian Butte we tallied a dozen seasonally-rare
Laughing Gulls. |
Laughing Gull |
Target Tour Group 2
|
Where the sea wall meets the New River delta, thousands of American
White Pelicans, Northern Shovelers, other ducks, and shorebirds put
on a spectacular show for our group of intrepid birders. |
|
Again we had only a few minutes at Cattle Call
Park before we had to return to the Imperial Fair Grounds.
Alas, the Grey Flycatcher was a no-show, but we did get lucky with
a wintering White-winged Dove. Over the two weekend mornings we
tallied 102 birds--a fine collection of the birds of the Imperial
Valley! |
White-winged Dove
Cattle Call Park |
|
