Hi all,
First a quick note about the Blue-footed Booby invasion at the Salton Sea with 18 birds reported last week. That number is now up to an unprecedented 70+ individuals at the Salton Sea!!!
The Sandhill Cranes (SACR) have begun to return for the winter. On Saturday September 21 there were 43 showed up south of Brawley near Dogwood and Keystone Roads. Henry Detwiler had a smaller number at Unit One of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR (SBSSNWR) that same day. Friday evening at sunset, Sep 27, I counted 168 coming in to their traditional roost site. Last year there were nearly 1,000 SACR wintering in the Imperial Valley with about 750 of those individuals hanging out south of Brawley. Their numbers should rise quickly and it is quite the spectacle to have hundreds of SACR fly over at once! They stand near four feet tall and their loud calls can be heard for several miles.
A great location to see them in flight is by parking in the area of the wide pullout on Dogwood Road at the warehouse facility just north of Keystone Road on Dogwood Road. Please do not block the gate! I call this spot the Crane Crossing. Every morning, just as the sun rises, and every evening shortly before the sun sets, they come streaming over Dogwood Road. They tend to roost at the waterfowl hunt club on Keystone Road (PRIVATE PROPERTY) but can be viewed from Keystone Road. Keystone and Dogwood Roads are very busy with lots of truck traffic so park well away from the pavement and stand even farther from it.
Video of the SACR flying in to roost on this day can be viewed HERE.
Here is my eBird report for this visit.
Hunt club ponds, Imperial, US-CA
Sep 27, 2013 5:32 PM - 6:49 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments: Started filling ponds 9-26. Water started second pond today. Submitted from BirdLog NA for Android v1.9.2
19 species (+2 other taxa)
Mallard 2000
Northern Shoveler 12
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 7
Cattle Egret 120
White-faced Ibis 400
Northern Harrier 1
Sandhill Crane 168 No juveniles.
Black-necked Stilt 25
American Avocet 6
Killdeer 8
Greater Yellowlegs 35
Least Sandpiper 150
Western Sandpiper 4
peep sp. 200
Long-billed Dowitcher 200
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 3
American Kestrel 1
swallow sp. 2000
Red-winged Blackbird 100
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15270013
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
Hi all,
Went back out to Obsidian Butte last night, Sept 20, for another spectacular sunset and saw 12 of the continuing Blue-footed Boobies.
Went back out this morning, Sept 21, and saw 12 BFBO again but the count might have been as high as 16 as others there might have seen more. While watching the boobies with Chris McCreedy, James and Charlene Castle and Ron Holland,.a lone juvenile MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD streamed past high overhead to the delight of all present. It has been many years since I last saw a MAFR here at the Salton Sea! My pics did not turn out so well but some of the others had some really fine shots.
I then headed south for El Centro and ran into Mark and Camille Stratton along the seawall. James, Charlene and I did some dragonfly watching along the Westside Main Canal. Roseate Skimmer were numerous and I snapped a few pictures of this pair of Common Green Darners as the female was ovipositing eggs in the vegetation as a male Roseate Skimmer buzzed by.
More pictures of Friday’s sunset can be viewed HERE.
Salton Sea sunset from Obsidian Butte
Blue-footed Boobies and Double-crested Cormorants
Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
Common Green Darner male and female w/ female depositing eggs. Roseate Skimmer
Hi all,
The Blue-footed Boobies (BFBO) continue! Picked up my Mom and we made it out to Obsidian Butte just before sunset on Thursday September 19. We were immediately greeted with 14 BLBO in a group fly-by with two flying in the other direction and two standing on the rocky shore for a total of 18 individuals. All appeared to be immature birds so do not head out there expecting to see the brilliant blue feet of an adult. Mike, Brandie, Emily and Andrew came out to enjoy the spectacle with us and there were a few other birders in the area enjoying it as well.
Directions to Obsidian Butte and more information are in my previous post.
More pictures from this day can be viewed HERE.
My eBird report for the visit can be viewed HERE.
Brown Pelicans and an immature Blue-footed Booby
12 Blue-footed Booby
Blue-footed Boobies into the sunset
Brown Pelicans streaming toward Obsidian Butte from Red Hill
Brown Pelicans at sunset
Mike and Andrew at sunset
Hi all,
(18) yes eighteen BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY were found on Obsidian Butte at the Salton Sea about sunset on Wednesday evening September 18. They were reported on eBird by Garrett MacDonald with a group of visiting birders. “Possibly a new high count for CA and the ABA area?”
There is currently an invasion of Blue-footed Booby coming up from Baja California, Mexico and numerous birds have been reported up the California coast and in a few inland southwestern states. An oddity of this invasion so far had been that none had yet been found at the Salton Sea and in the few recorded invasions of the past they were most numerous at the Salton Sea. It appears that most, if not all, of the birds reported across the region are immature.
I made a concentrated search on Sunday September 15 by scouring the southeast shoreline of the Salton Sea from Poe Road to Obsidian Butte and found none. This leads me to believe that they arrived sometime this week as I could easily have missed one or two amidst the massive numbers of Brown Pelican currently on the Salton Sea but 18 together!
Obsidian Butte can be reached by going west on McKendry Road from Gentry Road. This intersection is about 1/4 mile south of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR headquarters at Sinclair and Gentry Roads. Continue onto Obsidian Butte and keep right making a counterclockwise loop around the butte, exiting on the seawall going south. Search the rocks along the shoreline or anyplace where the Brown Pelicans are perched. Keep an eye over the open water of the Salton Sea for birds plunge diving for fish.
Even crazier than that? A few weeks ago a Hawaiian/Galapagos Petrel was found, deceased, in a vacant lot, in the middle of Yuma Arizona!?! That unprecedented find is currently on its way to the San Diego Museum of Natural History for a possible positive identification by taking exact measurements.
Just got a call from Henry Detwiler about 11:45am Sept 19. They are currently looking at 11 BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY on the northwest side of Obsidian Butte. They are near a favorite camp spot of mine, that I created a Google Map for some time ago. If you use the map, stop short of the camp spot and fire ring or you will likely flush the birds off of the huge obsidian boulder they are perching on just offshore.
The map can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Hi all,
On August 11, Los Angeles Audubon Society made their annual summer field trip to the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. A few of the locations we visited were Cattle Call Park in Brawley, Shank Road Wetlands Project east of Brawley, Salton Sea, Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR (SBSSNWR), and Imperial Irrigation District (IID) Managed Marsh.
More pictures from the day can be viewed by clicking HERE
Video of the Black Skimmer skimming can be viewed HERE
A map of the Shank Road Wetlands can be viewed HERE
A map of the IID Managed Marsh can be viewed HERE
Cicada exuviae at Cattle Call Park
Black Skimmer at Shank Road Wetlands Project
Neotropic Cormorant at Shank Road Wetlands Project
Brown Pelican at Shank Road Wetlands Project
Burrowing Owl
Greater Roadrunner near the shore of the Salton Sea
Near Lack and Lindsey on the Salton Sea
Near Lack and Lindsey on the Salton Sea
Lesser Nighthawk at the SBSSNWR visitor center