Brown-headed Cowbird, Brawley
Brown-headed Cowbird, Brawley
Cattle Egret, Brawley
Common Ground Dove, Brawley
Verdin, Brawley
Red-winged Blackbird, Calipatria
Great-tailed Grackle, Calipatria
Yellow-headed Blackbird, Brandt's Dairy (SE
Salton Sea)
SE Salton Sea
SE Salton Sea
Black-necked Stilt, SE Salton Sea
Western Sandpiper, SE Salton Sea
Least Sandpiper, SE Salton Sea
Great Blue Heron, SE Salton Sea
Greater Roadrunner, SE Salton Sea
Sand Martin, Barn Swallows and Tree
Swallow, SE Salton Sea
First bird this morning was a Great Horned Owl, seen in silhouette at first light near Ramer Lake. At Finney Lake a couple of American White Pelicans flew through and 300 White-faced Ibises flew over. While chatting to a couple of birders in the car park (the first birders I’d met so far) a Bobcat sauntered past us. An exciting new mammal for me, looking a bit like a Wild Cat.
The town of Brawley was disappointing with the 3 main targets (Bronzed Cowbird, Gila Woodpecker and Calliope Hummingbird) all being missed. Residential areas held large numbers of Great-tailed Grackles and Northern Mockingbirds while Cattle Call Park produced Nashville Warbler and a couple of Cactus Wrens. A Killdeer was sitting on a scrape beside a path in the cemetery – an example of the sort of unexpected place this species sometimes chooses to nest.
On the way back to Calipatria there were 100 Cattle Egrets feeding in roadside fields. The Salton Sea area is a place to avoid if you’re not into birding. Hot, ugly, smelly and generally unpleasant, but an amazing place for birds! The worst thing about it was the smell, mainly from dairy effluent (the dairies are huge – 10s of 1000s of cows all crammed in extensive pens). Apparently the smell gets even worse in summer when the sea’s shores are lined with dead and decaying fish. There isn’t much choice of where to stay (not many people visit apart from birders) but we found a motel in Calipatria. They said they had aerated our room, but it smelt like they had taken the “air” straight from the dairies!
A tour of the SE section of the Salton Sea revealed the reason for us visiting this awful place – it was heaving with birds! Waders included 600 Western Sandpipers, 420 Long-billed Dowitchers, 70 Black-necked Stilts, 55 American Avocets, 3 Wilson’s and 32 Red-necked Phalaropes and 5 Snowy Plovers. 100 Black-necked (Eared) Grebes were among the wildfowl which included 800 Ruddy Ducks, 75 Green-winged Teals and 4 Redheads. Four species of tern included 3 American Black Terns (blacker than ours) and 2 Gull-billed Terns.
Black Phoebes and Western Kingbirds were very common round here and a Cassin’s Kingbird was picked out too. Among 250 Barn Swallows were the only Sand Martins (Bank Swallows) of the trip. A Lesser Nighthawk was seen hawking over Davis Road during the afternoon and Burrowing Owls were unmissable with at least 13 seen. A variety of Blackbirds, Cowbirds and Meadowlarks included 4 Yellow-headed Blackbirds at Brandt’s Dairy.
Returning to Calipatria I stopped off at a small pig farm where I hoped to see a variety of doves. Among Common Ground Doves were at least 2 Ruddy Ground Doves. These are normally rarities in California but have been present, and breeding, at this site for a couple of years. There were also Inca Doves here and introduced Eurasian Collared Doves, the latter providing more excitement for the locals than for me!
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