Salton Sea Waders

 

Salton Sea area - Waders/Shorebirds

Jim Rose - November 2003

Above - South end of the Salton Sea from Poe Road entrance.  The sea was a flat calm with thousands of waders in the shallows and thousands of ducks further out.  The white birds are American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts. Below - View from Red Hill Landing causeway.  The waders in the foreground are mainly Western Sandpipers.

 

Part of a flock of Long-billed Dowitchers on a small lake near to Finney Lake, a site about 12 miles to the SE of the Salton Sea.

 

	American Avocet photographed on my last day at the Salton Sea when a strong wind whipped up the surface.
Black-necked Stilt photographed when the sea was a flat calm.
	Greater Yellowlegs - Photographed from the car at Red Hill Landing.
A small group of Lesser Yellowlegs were seen at Red Hill Landing, but were rather distant.
	About 100 Killdeers were feeding in a field next to Finney Lake.  The Killdeer were feeding along the edge of the field......
..... while up to 1000 Mountain Plovers were seen feeding in the centre of the field.  While not a good photograph (rather distant and with heat haze), it is perhaps one of the scarcer birds found during the trip.
	Western Sandpiper - Huge numbers were seen around the extensive shallows of the Salton sea.
Good numbers of Least Sandpiper were also seen.
	Spotted Sandpiper - This individual was photographed from the car while driving around the edge of Finney lake.   This species was also seen in the San Diego area.

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