Salton Sea

I loved the morning walks and two full days of Yuma, in fact, I would have loved to simply stay in one spot to take photos longer, I was thinking ahead to the change in habitat and what birds might be down the road. We loaded our van for the final destination of San Diego with 7 people and 4 generations, a limited pile of clothing and the necessary hodgepodge that couldn't be stored in Yuma for our return trip. An hour and a half later we arrived at Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. As we drove up we saw a pair of photographers near the entrance, who kindly stopped at our vehicle as we lumbered out informing us of the Burrowing Owls they had just been watching.

 

Danielle and everyone else got a good look at the two "Burrowing" or pipe borrowing Owls. 

The visitor center offered many different directions that I wanted to go feeders close by with plenty of birds for me to look at, an opportunity for a walk near the trees and maintenance buildings away from people, and access to the Salton Sea. I started with the feeders!  Luckily Christine grabbed a camera as well while the girls ran off with grandparents.

 

Top (L to R): Ladder-backed Woodpecker and Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Bottom (L to R): Common Ground-Dove and Gambel's Quail

 

I had seen these four species before but I was very happy to have seen them all in an environment where they expected people and were close enough for one of us to get a photo. By the time we spent 30 minutes taking photos of these birds the rest of the family was ready to go.  The parking lot that was about half a mile away from the Salton Sea and any potential for scoping shorebirds or gulls.  Normally the half a mile is not an issue, but when you have non-birding and non-lounging family that half a mile might as well be up-hill, through 30 inches of snow, 6 miles both there and back! No one really wanted to walk with, so I hastily walked to the Sea only to find shorebirds and gulls sufficiently distant to be unidentifiable. The girls had driven the area with Grandparents and spotted a Greater Road-Runner, but considering this was one of two stops I wanted to spend time at on our entire drive west (Hassayampa River Preserve fell through when Eric got sick) I was frustrated. I crawled in the back and decided it was time for a nap to cool off mentally as we drove for Joshua Tree National Park. I suspect my frustration was palpable, for when I woke the family said it would be okay to stop somewhere else if I wanted.

Following up on eBird reports I walked the campground as everyone else walked to the water and paid for a day-pass. A lady came up to me asking if I was a birder and if I was looking for anything specifically.  I told her that I try to be a birder and that I was looking for a wintering sparrow.  What happened next completely blew me away.  She said that she had been reporting them the last three days and was willing to show me where they were!  YES PLEASE!!!! After quick introductions, half the family joined us as we walked through the brush, and then there they were. A couple of Sagebrush Sparrows. They were the target bird for the stop and a new lifer! Christine's photo is below.

Trying to better respect the diverse interest of the family we quickly returned to the van to get down the road further. It was nice chatting with the amazingly kind lady, as it turned out that her daughter lives in the KC area. Tina and I swapped contact information and I hope to always remember the act of kindness that turned the day from okay to amazing. The birding pushed everything else a bit late into the day and we didn't get through Joshua Tree as early as expected.  This merely afforded me an opportunity to get out early the next morning while everyone else slept in.