California Day 4: The Strange Shores of the Salton Sea

It's safe to say that there are few places in the United States stranger than the Salton Sea- which is impressive considering we're a country that specializes in weirdness in many ways (see: NASCAR, the US Constitution, the entire state of Utah). It lies in the incredibly hot, dry and dusty Imperial Valley, and was just as dry as the rest of the valley until 1905, when some meathead dug an irrigation canal from the Colorado River too deep and created a huge artificial lake. Though the "sea" is progressively shrinking, it's still one of the main centers of winter agriculture in the United States, and its shores are covered in farmland. 

The night I spent by the Salton Sea was no less strange than the general area. As it turns out the most affordable place to stay in the area was in Slab City, a former military camp that's been turned into an RV camp and off-the-grid quasi-anarchist commune. My lodging was a tiny barn in the back lot of a compound of makeshift houses made from tarps, defunct RVs, and ramshackle boards. The host was a man named Spyder, who looked exactly what you would expect someone named Spyder looks like. I shared the compound with about a dozen Slab City residents, mostly drifters and outcasts who do better living in the middle of the desert without electricity or cops than they do most other places in the world. Some get money from Social Security, some from doing odd jobs around town, and some, apparently, from running AirBnb side hustles. As Spyder put it, "mostly a bunch of old fucks who don't give a fuck." 

Spider's Place in Slab City

I could have spent a full day with the Slab City community listening to talk of desert living and stories from jail, but unfortunately I'd only booked one night there, and there were birds to see. Besides being important for agriculture, it turns out that a giant lake in the middle of a dry valley is also a mecca for birds, and the Salton Sea is one of the most important wildlife areas in the country, with over 400 species of birds recorded from its shores. In the summer it's the only place in the US where Yellow-footed Gulls can be found, while it holds a number of important desert birds year-round. Birding is best on the southeastern shore of the lake, where the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge was established with the help of Cher's weird ex-husband. That was my destination for the morning, and so I bid my goodbyes to the Slab City crowd and headed out toward the sea.

Along the way to the reserve I drove by some agricultural fields with big groups of grazing Cattle Egrets, with decent numbers of White-faced Ibis, which was a lifer for me, mixed in. A few Long-billed Curlews, another lifer, flew overhead, while on the ground was a small flock of Great-tailed Grackles. As I drove onwards, I spotted flocks of American Pipits and a Greater Roadrunner, though unfortunately I didn't get a picture.

Male Great-tailed Grackle 

Female Great-tailed Grackle

White-faced Ibises and Cattle Egrets

At the National Wildlife Refuge was a nice set of feeders that had some desert specialties including Gambel's Quails, Common Ground Doves, Verdins, Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, and Abert's Towhees. There was a viewing platform nearby where I could see a huge flock of Snow Geese, and I got another quick look at a Greater Roadrunner. Another great part was a pair of adorable Burrowing Owls hanging out by their drainage pipe roost. 

Abert's Towhee- like a California Towhee but even more boring-looking

Gambel Quail

Common Ground Dove

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Burrowing Owls!

Desert Cottontail

By then I'd seen most of my realistic targets for the Salton Sea area, but what I was still missing included Loggerhead Shrike and Ridgway's Rail. The friendly rangers at the NWR visitor's center gave me some tips for where to see them, so I set off for the Ridgway's Rail spot while looking out for other birds along the side of the road. I came across a small flock of Greater Yellowlegs by a roadside puddle, and later saw some Western Meadowlarks, Horned Larks, and another Burrowing Owl that skittered into its burrow before I could get a picture. At long last I finally spotted a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a telephone wire- not quite as imposing as its name suggests, but still a good lifer. 

 

Greater Yellowlegs

Western Meadowlark

Loggerhead Shrike

My final destination that morning was a spot called Unit 1, on the southwestern shore of the sea. Unit 1 proved to have some of the highest avian density of any birding site I've ever visited, with massive flocks of thousands of ducks and geese in its various artificial ponds and pools. There was a huge flock of about 700 Snow Geese with at least one Ross's Goose mixed in, nearly 1,000 Northern Shovelers, dozens of Cinnamon Teals, hundreds of Green-winged Teals and Northern Pintails, and a few Mallards, Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, and Gadwalls. There were shorebirds in abundance as well, with many Black-necked Stilts and Long-billed Dowitchers, and a few Marbled Godwits, Killdeers, Least Sandpipers, Wilson's Snipe (which I photographed for the first time), and American Avocets, the last of which was a lifer for me. The one thing I didn't see or hear was Ridgway's Rail, which was a disappointment since that was one of my most sought-after California birds, a rare and declining rail found in only a small number of spots in the Southwest. 

Mostly Northern Shovelers being spooked by a Northern Harrier

Northern Harrier going after ducks

Wilson's Snipe

Long-billed Dowitchers

Cinnamon Teals

More Long-billed Dowitchers

American Avocets

American Pipit

Black-necked Stilt

White-faced Ibis

Snowy Egret

Horned Lark

The shore of the Salton Sea- water is only barely visible off in the distance, as the sea has been progressively shrinking

I could have stayed there all day, but I'd forgotten to fill up my water bottle and with the hot desert sun beating down on me I was on the verge of passing out. I dragged myself back to the rental car and headed to the nearest shopping center to get some electrolytes and a quick lunch, then started the drive northwest towards LA. The drive north was a surreal one, through the dry scrubby countryside on the eastern side of the Salton Sea, with the calm waters of the sea on the left and the low mountains beyond. 

I wasn't done yet with birds for the day, however, and I made a stop in the late afternoon at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area where there was a small lagoon and some walking trails through the desert. The most noticeable birds were hundreds of Blue-winged Teals in the lagoon, the biggest numbers of that bird I'd ever seen. They were as skittish as Blue-winged Teals always are however, and flushed about every 10 minutes whenever someone looked at them askance, making it hard to get good pictures. There was apparently a vagrant Garganey that had been hanging out there over the winter, but naturally that day was the only day that week that the duck was nowhere to be found. I'd seen many of them in the Philippines so it wasn't too disappointing, but it would have been a good addition to my US list. There were, however, some other good birds, including a small flock of Bonaparte's Gulls and lots of American Pipits, the latter of which got me the best pictures I've gotten of one yet. The usual desert birds were around as well, including Verdins, Abert's Towhee's, Gambel Quail, Cactus Wrens, and a beautiful Phainopepla. The sunset was clouded, but nonetheless the evening view over the Salton Sea and the mountains beyond was subtly beautiful, a nice goodbye to the ethereal landscape of the Imperial Valley.

Blue-winged Teals

Bonaparte's Gulls

American Pipit

Phainopepla

Verdin

I drove the rest of the evening to get to LA, where I spent the night in yet another AirBnb. The next day was my last in California, before flying off to Oregon and then to Asia for the remainder of the winter break.