Blue Goose ~ Day 185

November 28, 2014 ~ Brawley, CA to Ehrenberg, AZ

I got out early to search for Mountain Plovers which were reported on eBird, but first went to Cattle Call Park in Brawley where several locals were walking or running. I found a spot in a parking lot bordered by dense foliage, sat in the sun in my "car blind" and soon saw Abert's Towhees and Verdins (how quickly life birds become common...like our Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in Texas, DHC) feeding with the eastern sun lighting them. It was a glorious morning, exactly like high summer in Michigan but without dew on the grasses.

Leaving this pretty town with its rather unpleasant name,  I started driving around south of the Salton Sea. Most fields were newly plowed or had some crops growing. It was totally flat. I started looking for Mountain Plovers and found the fields where they were reported on eBird; however, it was fallow, an unlikely place for any birds, or so I thought. But I certain I was in the right place and finally saw (in the far distance) a Killdeer and then three more much paler birds. I was too far to really SEE if they were the plovers, even with my scope. I was on the shoulder of a moderately busy road (relative here, but a car / truck per minute went speeding by) and kept willing the birds to move closer. They didn’t but were moving at the same distance parallel to the road (by this time I counted a dozen or so), toward a sign saying “Dead End” so I figured there was an unmarked road running perpendicular and closer to them. Which was true; it was a ditch road, and I got close enough to ID them before they flew.

Mountain Plover near the Salton Sea - CA

It was as pleasant as birding gets….so I hung out in the sun, kind of hoping the plovers would circle back. I got out Pete Dunne and read about this bird (95% of the time, he is spot-on regarding bird habitat / behavior), and he notes that the Mountain Plover "prefers habitat that is so dry, scabby and vegetatively pauperized that most other birds wouldn't give it a second glance." 

I did finally see them again somewhat closer which would have been enough for me, but after 15 minutes I turned to pack up my scope, and saw three of them close enough for a decent photo! as they poked about in the dirt another 10 minutes, satisfying me completely for this life bird. I now I don’t have to put it on my “Birds I Want To See Better” list. 

Another spot I decided to check out turned out to be a green field filled with Snow and Ross’s Geese close up, not spooked, with groups flying in and out. 

Snow and Ross's Geese - Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR - CA

A gentleman in a Road Trek was in a small parking lot. He had two dogs with him, Carmel and Charley (travels with Charley) and a cat. He was kept messing with a bike and a Burley and then rested and drank a beer. He mostly fussed about and told me he couldn’t walk / hike much anymore because he had osteoarthritis. He was from San Diego, here for the weekend in his totally packed RV. He had an 800-mm lens but later in the VC, he wondered what bird he had photographed earlier and showed it to me and the lady behind the desk. She didn't know, but I did. It was a Turkey Vulture, an easy bird if you’re a birder, so I guess he wasn’t. Charley and Carmel were both tied up just outside.  

A couple was fishing in a canal and the Fish and Game warden told them they couldn’t fish there, but they apparently didn’t speak English as they kept fishing until he came back and moved them on. Uck…the water is cloudy, still and has to be full of pesticides. 

I was in awe of the beautiful white geese, which had finally arrived for the winter here only a few weeks ago. 

Athough I didn’t intend to go back to the VC, I did, just because. After all, I have a year. It was open today with a volunteer woman and her husband greeting and helping visitors. They were “snowbirds” from Memphis. A party of ten German birdwatchers were picnicking under a tree, all with expensive binocs and scopes. I watched them while I ate crackers and cheese, wondering if they were on a lengthy American birding tour or what exactly. I should have just asked. They were jolly and social. 

One more Salton Sea sighting: I climbed the ramp to the observation deck near the VC. Halfway up, I stopped, looked around and saw another life bird, a Greater Roadrunner, doing just that, running rapidly across the road disappearing into the scrub. 

Feeling that Sonny Bono SS had totally satisfied my curiosity, exceeded my expectations and offered four life birds, I was ready to move east 75 miles or so through the desert to Ehrenberg, Arizona. Halfway, I came on the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area which astounded me as I drove for miles (like 10) past dunes open to 4-wheelers, dune buggies and assorted small trucks and cars adapted for sand and which were all having a blast ramming around. About a thousand trailers were also parked with full-on recreation happening. It was 85 degrees and total sand.  

Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area - CA

And then the Dips. I had been on a road in the Texas Panhandle with dips but these more numerous and really dippy. One goes up and down short steep roller-coaster-like dips in the road...not able to see ahead until on top of one which is unnerving as the speed limit was 60. One time, a little red car traveling in the other lane pulled out at the top of a dip ready to pass when he saw me and quickly swerved back in. Twice, drivers have passed me on double yellows and I am not a pokey driver. Stupid. 

So dips and 4-wheelers in the sand but I survived and joined Interstate 10 for a few miles through Blythe, California and then across the Colorado River to Ehrenberg, Arizona where I stayed the next two nights. The first night was in a Best Western, right next to a very lively truck stop. I ate a salad and chili at the attached Wendy's, busy with truckers and travelers, one of which was a man with a gun tucked in his waistband, totally in the open, which is legal in Arizona, but which made me shiver. 

As I worked, I watched Fat Guys in the Woods on TV, and after 6 months of eating too much junk food and eating too much in general, I realized I was Fat Lady in Arizona. The pounds creep up until there comes a day of appalling reality. Tomorrow, this all stops...the indiscriminate eating.