South-end Salton Sea Trip Report: 6-7 Feb. 2010

Caliche. Ka-LEE-chay. Also know as hardpan. It’s a layer of calcium carbonate, impenetrable to water, near the top of the soil. It’s common in deserts and it’s good to know about when birding the south-end Salton Sea area during or after a rainstorm. When wet, this stuff glues itself to your tires (shoes, too!) in a layer an inch or more thick, immediately turning them into slicks for as long as you remain on dirt. Back on pavement, you’ll think you’re driving through gravel as it flies off your tires and rattles your floorboards.  Loads of fun.

Red-winged & Yellow-headed Blackbirds (L.Johnson 2/10)

But the birds were good. We found many of the local target birds in between the light showers. Some, like Snow Goose and Cattle Egret, were in huge numbers. Others, such as No. Shoveler, No. Pintail, White Pelican, White-faced Ibis, Long-billed Curlew, Ring-billed Gull and Red-winged Blackbird are common around LA County, but not in such huge numbers. Even the Gambel’s Quail, Sandhill Crane, Mountain Plover, Yellow-footed Gull, Common Ground-Dove, Burrowing Owl and Abert’s Towhee were in larger than usual numbers. Saturday’s birding ended at Unit 1 in the SW corner of the sea: the cranes and geese ululating and honking; the geese and White Pelicans swirling in the sky. The Clapper Rail, calling from it’s reedy haunt, would not come out despite our enticing clicks and croaks.

Sandhill Cranes & Geese (L.Johnson 2/10)

Dinner was at Christina’s, a little Mexican restaurant with delicious food to which we were introduced a couple of years ago, located a few blocks east of the tracks in Brawley on the north side of Hwy 78 (Main St.). I highly recommend it.

After breakfast, Sunday birding started at Ramer Lake, searching for Crissal Thrashers to no avail. We skipped Finney Lake, expecting it would be caliche-impassable, so we set off towards the Calipatria Prison where we found a field full of Killdeer and Mountain Plover about a half mile south of the prison. In an attempt to get closer to the MoPl’s, we came close to getting bogged in the caliche. While looking for a suitable spot to turn the cars around we stumbled on our only Lapland Longspur and 2 Mountain Bluebirds.

The day ended before noon where it often does, in Brawley’s Cattle Call Park. Gila Woodpeckers in the palms, Vermilion Flycatcher busy at work, a Prairie Falcon in the distance and, just before we left, a Zone-tailed Hawk flew in and perched in a tree. It’s hard to top that, so we left. We stopped at Oasis Date Gardens in Indio (old Hwy 195 between Airport Rd. and Ave. 62, a few miles north of Mecca) for a date shake and burgers.  We’ve gotten them here for years, but recently discovered that Shield’s Date Gardens (Indio, Hwy 111 between Jefferson & Monroe) makes a better shake.  Both places have great selections of delicious dates.

Except for the Sandhill Cranes, the numbers higher than 20 in the list below are estimates, sometimes merely wild guesses. Birds of particular interest are in bold.