Bonny Sono Salton Sea WLR (part one)

 Going on another birding trip had been on my bucket list for quite a while. Today was the day.  The Salton Sea has been for years an important area for wintering/migrating birds. 

More information about the history see here: Salton Sea .

It is an hour drive (71mi) from our location and I started out soon after sunrise to use the cooler moving air. By mid noon the ground will be so warmed up that the air will look wavy on photos.

More about Bonny Sono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge. There is lots of information and further links to find on that page.

When I arrived there were already three cars in the parking lot. Walking slowly on Rocky Hill Trail I tried to keep tap on all the birds I could possibly see.

On a nearby meadow were thousands of Snow Geese (Schneegänse), 

a few Cattle Egrets (Kuhreiher) 

and Great White Egrets (Silberreiher ).

(

Snow Geese grazing

While I was taking photos a group of other visitors arrived 

and the whole flock of geese soon filled the air.

On nearby ponds showed even more ducks and geese.

Snow Geese and Northern Shoveler Ducks (Löffelenten)

 Some were familiar to me but others not. Like these Black-necked Stilts (Amerikanischer Stelzenläufer)

The White-faced Ibis (Brillensichler)

Unfortunately several of these ponds have dried out 

and the Salton Sea itself has shrank very much (drought) so that the water which once lapped up at the rocks in the foreground is now way out behind the line of shrubs. 

Only with my long camera zoom one could make out more birds in the distance.

I never climbed up to the rocky outcrop's outlook because I had planned to go to the second refuge as well and the temperatures were rising fast. 

While ambling back I briefly saw a Greater Road Runner (Wegekuckuck) in the distance, 

head turned in the wrong direction, looking away from me.

A Blu-grey Gnatcatcher (Blaumückenfänger)

Usually they are fast moving little birds, but this one sat patiently and looked at me for quite a while.

Verdin (Goldkopf-Beutelmseise)

Back on the parking lot I head some doves and small birds in the shrubs and decided to stay a while in the shade and wait what would show up. 

I was lucky, a Gambel's Quail (Helmwachtel )was looking for seeds

among some tiny Common Ground Doves (Sperlingstäubchen)

Here ends the first part of my birding adventure.

After a brief lunch I left for the second part of the Wildlife Refuge a few miles away.