On a clear day, you can see the light shimmer on the Salton Sea from Tahquitz Peak Lookout Tower. I'm always surprised by the number of people I speak to while I'm up there who have never been to the Salton Sea and who don't realize that this special place is right down the road from Idyllwild.
One of the absolute best places to go birding in January is the Salton Sea! Millions of birds migrate through this area while thousands of birds reside here for the Winter.
A few days ago, we returned for a day of birding .We began at the north end of this 35 mile long lake. White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, Seagulls, Great Blue Herons and Double-crested Cormorants were abundant along the shore.
I first focused on this Black-necked Stilt. He alternated between alertness and attempts to sleep as he stood on one leg. I'm sure nap time progressed when I left.
There were lots of these diving Eared Grebes. They are fun to watch. After they reappear from their dive, they fluff up their back feathers and become a puffball.
While walking around the edge of the lake, I heard the lazer space gun call. At least that is what it sounds like to me. The hunt began for this neat bird.
Success! The Cactus Wren came out of hiding.
While looking for the wren, we saw the golden orange variant House Finch in the middle of a palm tree.
I wish I had recorded this Spotted Sandpiper to music. It's easy to imagine him with ear buds as he is in constant bobbing action!
Before we headed to the south end of the lake, we caught this Green Heron with the wind blowing through his feathers. Priceless moment!
When we arrived at the Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge at the south end of the lake, it was lunch time. Before we had one bite, a Roadrunner raced by immediately followed by the Abert's Towee, Gambel's Quail and a cute little rabbit. Unfortunately, the Roadrunner was too quick for me!
Undeniably, the most dramatic spectacle was the display of thousands of Snow Geese when they took flight!
The handsome Northern Shoveler was by far the most abundant duck when we were here.
The Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs are similar except that the length of their bills and legs vary. Unlike the numerous presence of Shovelers, we only saw one of these Greater Yellowlegs along the shore.
We spotted a couple of Green-winged Teals that were hard to photograph since they were constantly foraging with their beaks submerged.
In contrast, the American Avocet forages by sweeping its long, upturned beak side to side.
Missing from the shore today were the Long-billed Curlews. Their incredibly long beaks are amazing. I saw them in November when I was here.
Another fantastic bird that I saw in November but missed on this trip is the Burrowing Owl. You can't help but smile when you see these owls!!
We didn't miss one of my very favorite birds - The Sandhill Crane. We arrived to their roosting site at the end of the day and were lucky to have some of them fly over our heads calling to each other.
During the day, we saw a few Loggerhead Shrikes but it wasn't until a full day of birding had passed that I was able to capture one. Notice the impressive beak! This bird's nickname is Butcher Bird since it impales prey that it cannot eat immediately on thorns or barbs to retrieve at a later time.
The day ended too quickly! There were so many more birds to see and to try to photograph but the sun started to disappear behind the distant mountains.
No doubt, we will return!
