South-end Salton Sea Trip Report: 11-12 Feb. 2012

 

SMBAS Links:    Website     Blog     Facebook

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was very gusty at times but at least we didn’t have rain-soaked caliche clogging up the tire treads as we did in 2010. Foam and spray blowing off the waves made birding difficult along the seashore.

We began finding local specialties at the Wister Unit meeting spot: several Verdin, two Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, several Abert’s Towhees, and a large flock of Gambel’s Quail crossing Davis Rd. There was only a single Killdeer at the mud pots, but the hunting ponds were full of ducks, mostly Northern Snoveler, Northern Pintail and Green-winged Teal. A large flock of Barn Swallows perched on a phone wire on Schrimpf Rd. (one birder thought some were Rough-winged) and scattered when a Red-Tailed Hawk soared by.

The Garst Rd. ponds held even more ducks and a large contingent of White-faced Ibis. Although the sea at the road’s end has retreated even farther, we still found loads of ducks, Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets (including one just beginning to develop a red head), Ring-billed Gulls, and a single Forester’s Tern, but no Yellow-footed Gulls. The previously submerged sand bar towards Mullet Is., once home to flamingos and other long-legged waders, is now exposed and covered with vegetation.

Sonny Bono Refuge HQ provides a great lunch stop, with Abert’s Towhees and Gambel Quail around the picnic tables and at the feeder. About a dozen Common Ground-Doves patrolled the parking lot. We decided to walk out to the pond at Observation Hill, and found it full of the usual ducks, joined by Long-billed Dowitchers, Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Ducks, a few Lesser Scaup, and a great many California Gulls in extremely bright breeding plumage, with bright yellow feet and yellow-orange bills. We had a brief flurry of excitement when one of us – not saying who, to protect the guilty – mistakenly took the really bright and not-so-close Calif. Gulls as Yellow-footed Gulls. Well, they did have yellow feet, but otherwise, they were too small and too gray. (I admit it – it was me.)

Just outside the park HQ we found a Burrowing Owl hiding inside a plastic culvert-like thing with just his head poking out. We then checked out a Snow Goose flock and found some Ross’s Geese among them  At nearby Obsidian Butte we again didn’t find Yellow-footed Gull, nor around the sea perimeter road to Lack & Lindsey Rds.  Tons of gulls and a few Greater Yellowlegs, but the wind was so fierce that we fled.

By 4:30pm we were at the seed factory on Carey Rd. south of Brawley (between Hwy 86 & Dogwood Rd.) enjoying distant views of about 100 Sandhill Crane. Many cranes feed on the seed & chaff here, so it’s a good place to locate them before they go to their evening roost. The roosting location varies, but when they leave, you can follow them to the roost if you are speedy & lucky. This time, they were in a shallow pond on the east side of Dogwood, but it was on private land and a long view through the scopes.  But it’s always nice to hear them ululating as they fly, even on a noisy roadside.

After dining at the famous Christine’s Mexican restaurant on east Main St. in Brawley, and an early bedtime, we re-grouped the next morning at nearby Cattle Call Park.  After much searching we found a pair of extremely-active-but-momentarily-resting Gila Woodpeckers, the world’s brightest yellow Orange-crowned Warbler, and had a very good – albeit brief – view of the Zone-tailed Hawk, who flew back and forth behind a tree across the valley and was spotted by the ever-alert Alex.  This is the first time I’ve seen this bird this early and without the usual companionship of al flock of Turkey Vultures.

We searched in vain through the roosting & nesting Double-crested Cormorants at Ramer Lake for a reported Neotropic Cormorant. Instead we found an odd duck, actively bathing and keeping out of sight inside the branches of fallen snags. We later agreed that it was a juvenile Eurasian Wigeon.

We then toodled over to Unit One. On the way we stopped and watched flocks of 1000’s of White Pelicans, soaring high overhead. Arnold Small once told me that they’re not getting ready to migrate, as we guessed, but “they just like to get up and exercise their wings.”  At Unit One we found the expected large flocks of Snow Geese as well as plenty of Ross’s, and, not so expected, about 300 Sandhill Cranes grazing in the field.  From the observation tower, we saw in the far distance a great many ducks including about 60 Redhead.  Below us a Sora and several Marsh Wrens called, but wouldn’t appear.

The trip was declared over. We stopped at the date shake place in Thermal, then headed homeward, only to find the mother of all traffic jams on the #10 at the San Gorgonio Pass.  There was a 3.5 hour delay because CalTrans – fixing a few potholes near Banning – encountered still-unexplained problems which turned an expected 6-hour job into a multi-day carmageddon.   [Chuck Almdale]

H – Heard Only
In Bold – Bird of Special Interest

South-end Salton Sea	2/11-12/12	2/6-7/10
Snow Goose	1000’s	6,000
Ross’s Goose	300	500
Gadwall	40	10
Eurasian Wigeon	1
American Wigeon	200	30
Mallard	100	60
Blue-winged Teal		2
Cinnamon Teal	25	4
Northern Shoveler	1,000	1,000
Northern Pintail	1,000	1,000
Green-winged Teal	400	30
Redhead	60	4
Lesser Scaup	3	100
Bufflehead	5
Ruddy Duck	80	300
Gambel’s Quail	30	16
Pied-billed Grebe	5
Horned Grebe	1
Eared Grebe	50
Western Grebe	2
Double-crested Cormorant	200	200
American White Pelican	1000’s	300
Brown Pelican	100	20
Great Blue Heron	30	10
Great Egret	20	20
Snowy Egret	50	4
Cattle Egret	1000’s	1,000
Green Heron	1
Black-crowned Night-Heron	20	1
White-faced Ibis	1000’s	400
Turkey Vulture	20	15
Osprey	1	1
White-tailed Kite	5	1
Northern Harrier	30	20
Sharp-shinned Hawk		1
Cooper’s Hawk	1
Zone-tailed Hawk	1	1
Red-tailed Hawk	40	25
American Kestrel	20	20
Peregrine Falcon	1	1
Prairie Falcon		1
Clapper Rail		(H) 1
Sora	(H) 1	1
Common Gallinule	1
American Coot	50	500
Sandhill Crane	300	185
Black-bellied Plover	10
Killdeer	100	100
Mountain Plover		60
Black-necked Stilt	400	100
American Avocet	500	30
Spotted Sandpiper	1
Greater Yellowlegs	4	2
Lesser Yellowlegs		1
Long-billed Curlew	75	500
Marbled Godwit	30	40
Least Sandpiper	20	50
Long-billed Dowitcher	100	200
Ring-billed Gull	1000’s	5,000
Yellow-footed Gull		4
California Gull	500
Herring Gull	10
Glaucous-winged Gull	2
Caspian Tern	60	3
Forster’s Tern	1
Black Skimmer	1
Rock Pigeon	50	10
Eurasian Collared-Dove	70	60
White-winged Dove	2	4
Mourning Dove	50	300
Inca Dove	2
Common Ground-Dove	12	20
Greater Roadrunner	4	1
Burrowing Owl	1	9
Anna’s Hummingbird	2	2
Costa’s Hummingbird		1
Belted Kingfisher	2	1
Gila Woodpecker	4	2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker	2
Northern Flicker	4	1
Black Phoebe	12	10
Say’s Phoebe	6	3
Vermilion Flycatcher		1
Western Kingbird	2
Loggerhead Shrike	6	2
Common Raven	200	20
Horned Lark		100
Tree Swallow	60	20
Barn Swallow	200
Verdin	9	3
Cactus Wren		2
Bewick’s Wren	1
Marsh Wren	(H) 4	3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	3	2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2
Mountain Bluebird		2
American Robin	20
Northern Mockingbird	25	2
European Starling	100	50
American Pipit	40	100
Orange-crowned Warbler	3
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Audubon	30	20
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Myrtle	1
Abert’s Towhee	10	12
Savannah Sparrow		4
Song Sparrow	4	4
White-crowned Sparrow	60	50
Lapland Longspur		1
Red-winged Blackbird	1,000	10,000
Tricolored Blackbird		1
Western Meadowlark	60	200
Yellow-headed Blackbird	5	30
Brewer’s Blackbird	40	200
Great-tailed Grackle	50	40
Brown-headed Cowbird	30	20
House Finch	100	30
Lesser Goldfinch	4
American Goldfinch	7
House Sparrow	100	30
Total Species	103	92