Blue Goose ~ Day 184

November 27, 2014 ~ Palm Desert, CA to Brawley, CA

I had spent the night close to the very busy I10 and got back on the road early on Thanksgiving morning but only for five miles before exiting for an open Starbucks. The traffic is always 90% less before daylight, but I still don’t like to navigate in unfamiliar territory in the dark. Siri helps me, sweet thing. 

It was still dark and two guys were sitting outside the coffee shop, one half-wrapped in a nice Mexican blanket. They were smoking and thus outdoors in the predawn chill.

WWW.RENEWABLEENERGYWORLD.COM

The Salton Sea was formed in the early 1900’s when a development company dug irrigation canals from the Colorado River into the Salton sink. Eventually, heavy precipitation caused the river and canals to flood and spill massive amounts of water into the sink for several years, thus forming the Salton Sea. Though the sea saw decades of success, unfortunately a tiger cannot change it stripes — a desert sea isn't sustainable and nature took its course. Due to its lack of drainage and consistent water flow, salinity levels rose, which led to mass fish deaths. The sight of dead fish lining the beach and the subsequent stench caused tourists and eventually business to leave the area in droves. Now, the area is mostly deserted, with only deteriorating remnants of condos and serving as a reminder of its past.

Environmentalists warn that if the Salton Sea isn’t saved, it will endanger hundreds of species of birds that call the body of water home or use it as a crucial migratory pit stop — but birds aren't the only ones in trouble. As the Sea recedes its toxic sea floor is exposed, which contaminates the arid air and endangers all life in the surrounding area. Restoration efforts have been underway for decades with little progress, but planners now think they have the ultimate solution in geothermal energy.

Throughout this trip I have had the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR on my mind as a definite destination. The name Salton Sea seemed mysterious and exotic to me, like something from Ali Baba. (This is one of several refuges named after a politician whose efforts helped in the creation of a refuge. Sonny Bono, as a congressman, did that for the Salton Sea.)

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Bordered by sand dunes and barren mountains, it was uninhabited until 1901 [Imperial Valley] when the Imperial Canal was opened and diverted Colorado River water into the valley through Mexico. Flood-waters in 1905–07 destroyed the irrigation channels and created the Salton Sea now filled by the New River and irrigation run-off...

(More fascinating stories at WWW.DESERTUSA.COM: History of Irrigation in the Imperial Valley.)

This is one more time I could have easily spent hours following threads on the net. It's all there if anyone is interested: water, southern California, the Colorado River, the Gulf of California, the extreme temperatures, geothermal energy, the agriculture, etc.

In brief, I had started in the Sacramento Valley of California to the north, then passed through the San Joaquin Valley and now was in the Imperial Valley, places I barely knew two weeks ago, having heard of them but not knowing exactly where they were. Now I knew. And the Salton Sea / Imperial Valley surprised me. As I drove down the east side of the lake, it was like those who see Lake Michigan for the first time: it was huge and I often could not see the other side. Also, it was not developed as 14 miles were a State Park with beaches and birds and many access points but no buildings. The sunshine was blinding in the mid afternoon making the lake silver. There was a faint briny, not very pleasant odor, and some flies, which were only mildly annoying and certainly not unbearable. One would need a scope to ID the thousands of birds, but I easily saw White and Brown Pelicans, large herons and egrets. I didn’t try to sort out the gulls or shorebirds here. Also, much of the Imperial Valley looked more prosperous agriculturally than the San Joaquin Valley with little evidence of drought thanks to water from the Colorado River.

Salton Sea - CA

Again, after researching eBird reports and using my iPhone, I moved slowly along wide sandy back roads which all run parallel to canals and ditches. 

Egrets and Ibises near Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR - CA

In one field, hundreds of sheep were attended by a dozen or more Cattle Egrets. Stair-stepping west and south, I eventually came to the refuge headquarters, passing several huge and ugly Cal Energy geothermal plants along the way. The VC was closed, it being Thanksgiving, but it hardly mattered as refuge roads and trails are always open from sunset to sundown every day of the year. The several feeders around the offices attracted a nice mix of birds and I also walked the two-mile Rock Hill trail seeing the common but secretive Abert’s Towhee and the common but not so secretive Verdin (both life birds), along with hyperactive Gambel’s Quail, Common Ground-Doves, sparrows, one Anna’s Hummingbird, thousands of Great-crested Cormorants, gulls, herons, pelicans, egrets, dozens of Yellow-rumped Warblers, a gnatcatcher that I couldn’t positively ID as to Black-tailed or Blue-Gray as this time of year they were not in breeding plumage. They are very similar and one needs to see how much black is on the underside of their long tails, tricky and usually a result of good luck. 

As I left, a very tame Black-tailed Jackrabbit munched weeds right in front of my car.

Black-tailed Jack Rabbit

Adam called and suggested I find a restaurant that had turkey for my dinner. It is his sweet way of showing concern for me. What I found instead was Del Taco and ordered a couple of tacos and a cheese quesadilla, but I forgot to get sauce, so the tacos were blandly generic; the quesadilla was marginal. I ate them in the completely filled-up Walmart parking lot. I never even went into the store to see what Black Friday was all about, but it must have been happening this evening. By morning, there were far fewer cars. It was nosier during the night than I’m used to, but it registered only dimly as I went into and out of the sleep state. 

Surprisingly, there was a Starbucks almost in the same parking lot as the Walmart, so I was set for morning.