New River Ponds, Salton Sea

Salton Sea
Sept 29, 2001
Sunny & Hot, 85-105

Henry, Suzanne & Adriana, took a fine half-day trip to survey the New River Ponds and check out Red Hill Marina & the Bubbling Mud Pots.
79 species total (list follows at end page)

Click on thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.

Our first good birds were a pair of cock Ring-necked Pheasants just east of Holtville. Along the same canal bank we got some fine looks at our first of about 15 Burrowing Owls.

Common Moorhen

The Imperial Ponds were loaded with a variety of bird life, including Cinnamon Teal, moorhens, dozens of egrets, two Black-crowned Night Herons, a pair of Forster's Terns, seven Black Phoebes, a Loggerhead Shrike, and a Willow Flycatcher!

The numbers at the Brawley Ponds weren't as productive, but we still got very nice views of stilts, a Greater Yellowlegs, Least Sandpipers, phoebes, and Song Sparrows.	Brawley Ponds
Black-necked Stilt	After a quick snack, we meandered to Red Hill Marina, where the shorebird numbers were very impressive. The ponds on the east side of the access road had hundreds of Black Terns, stilts, and avocets.
A nice surprise were these Black Skimmers, which feed in a very unique fashion. They fly along the surface of the water with their beak wide open, the lower mandible slicing through the water and "skimming" off insects.	Black Skimmers

Among the many terns were a number of Forster's terns, already in winter plumage. A few Caspian terns were also on the ponds. It was easy to compare the size differences between the three species.	Forster's Terns
Long-billed Dowitcher	Shorebirds were represented by all the common wintering species, including this Long-billed Dowitcher. The only species we saw only once was a single Semipalmated Sandpiper.
Before heading back to Yuma, we made one final stop to see the locally famous "Bubbling Mud Pots", a place that neither Suzanne nor Adriana had seen before.	Henry & Suzanne
Adriana & Suzanne	We walked around the geothermal pots, listening to the carbon dioxide and other gases escaping and gurgling through the liquified mud. In some areas they smelled of rotten eggs, but most emitted no odor. As always, it's a fascinating place to visit! Mud Pot


#	Species Name
1	Pied-billed Grebe
2	White Pelican
3	Brown Pelican
4	Double-crested Cormorant
5	Black-crowned Night Heron
6	Green Heron
7	Great Egret
8	Snowy Egret
9	Cattle Egret
10	Great Blue Heron
11	White-faced Ibis
12	Blue-winged Teal
13	Northern Shoveler
14	Ruddy Duck
15	Mallard
16	Snow Goose
17	Cinnamon Teal
18	Common Moorhen
19	American Coot
20	Black-necked Stilt
21	American Avocet
22	Semipalmated Plover
23	Killdeer
24	Black-bellied Plover
25	Spotted Sandpiper
26	Western Sandpiper
27	Greater Yellowlegs
28	Least Sandpiper
29	Long-billed Curlew
30	Long-billed Dowitcher
31	Willet
32	Marbled Godwit
33	Ring-billed Gull
34	Caspian Tern
35	California Gull
36	Black Skimmer
37	Black Tern
38	Forster's Tern
39	Turkey Vulture


#	Species Name
40	Red-tailed Hawk
41	Osprey
42	Northern Harrier
43	American Kestrel
44	Ring-necked Pheasant
45	Inca Dove
46	Common Ground-Dove
47	Mourning Dove
48	Rock Dove
49	Greater Roadrunner
50	Burrowing Owl
51	Costa's Hummingbird
52	Belted Kingfisher
53	Northern Flicker
54	Gila Woodpecker
55	Say's Phoebe
56	Black Phoebe
57	Western Kingbird
58	Willow Flycatcher
59	Barn Swallow
60	Tree Swallow
61	Verdin
62	Marsh Wren
63	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
64	Loggerhead Shrike
65	Northern Mockingbird
66	European Starling
67	Common Yellowthroat
68	Orange-crowned Warbler
69	Wilson's Warbler
70	Great-tailed Grackle
71	Red-winged Blackbird
72	Western Meadowlark
73	Yellow-headed Blackbird
74	Bullock's Oriole
75	House Sparrow
76	Abert's Towhee
77	Savannah Sparrow
78	Song Sparrow
79	House Finch