Hi Everyone,
Last weekend, February 8th & 9th, thirty birders and our trip leader, Bob Miller, checked-out many areas around the Salton Sea and Brawley. We had a fantastic time! The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed each other’s company while birding and the after-birding socializing with great friends. Some new friends too! We found 101 bird species. Some of our favorite sightings included the two Great Horned Owls at two different locations, the Gila Woodpeckers, several Neotropic Cormorants with Bob’s wonderful ID explanation, the Sprague’s Pipit, the two Lesser Flamingos, the two(3?) unexpected bright male Vermilion Flycatchers, and the huge flocks of Snow Geese, Ross’s Geese, and Sandhill Cranes. Rarities included the color-variants: Dark-morph Snow Goose and Dark-morph Ross’s Goose. Here’s our weekend list of bird species:
Snow Goose
Ross’s Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Gambel’s Quail
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Clapper Rail
Sora
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster’s Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
Anna’s Hummingbird
Costa’s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Gila Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Verdin
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Sprague’s Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Abert’s Towhee
Lark Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer’s Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Finch
House Sparrow
Lesser Flamingo
JIM BECKMAN
I especially would like to thank Bob, Hal & Dianne, Penny, Jeff, and of course, all of the birders who helped to make this fun-filled field trip, a huge success!!
