West Side of Salton Sea

Today we visited 3 sites on the west side of Salton Sea.  Enroute we spotted our first flock of white pelicans for this trip.

The first site was the most productive, a road following an irrigation ditch past citrus and date palm orchards, then ending at an agricultural dump.  From there we followed the runoff from the ditch down to the shore.  

Along here we spotted our first roadrunner of the trip.

And a greater yellowlegs.

The shrubs were full of songbirds singing. A sora was calling from the reeds.  There were shorebirds on the beach and ducks swimming in the sea.

The next stop was Desert Shores, another moribund development.

 Here we saw eared grebes, a California gull (first of trip) and a Say's phoebe.

Our last stop was Johnson's landing, another forlorn, dried up boat launch.

A group of toy haulers were parked on the beach; their owners were flying parasails over our heads.

So it's not entirely a place only birders could love.

The site was advertised as good for black Terns and snowy plovers, but there was not much activity so we were surprised to find a pair of snowy plovers running up and down the beach.  These birds are rare and endangered, and for us, lifers!

So despite the blurry photo, the bird of the day:

The tennis fans in our family may be interested to know that later in the day we drove right by the Indian Wells tennis courts.  Sorry we didn't stop for a selfie!