Skunked at Salton Sea -- No birds!!

kdog

Ok, I lied. This place is nuts!!!


However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. Daybreak dawned over the Salton Sea and four intrepid Dgrinners are wiping the sleepy sand out of their eyes in this remote corner of the California desert.

Note the birds. Normally when you see flocks of birds overhead like this, they're usually going somewhere else. However, these birds are arriving RIGHT HERE.


William's probably shot a 1/2 gig of pictures before anybody else has their camera out of the bag.


Russ starts warming up on some closeups of a tripod head. :scratch


See all those dark spots on the sand? Here's a closeup:

It seems the Tilapea are dying off in huge numbers because the salinity of the lake has increased lately.

Interesting tundra. It's spongey and comfortable under foot.


The birds keep coming...

ShepsMom

Those are quiet nice. I love the second shot the best. Did you go fishing while there?

kdog

ShepsMom wrote:

Those are quiet nice. I love the second shot the best. Did you go fishing while there?

Thanks, but you might want to save your vote for later. We got a lot more pictures to go here.

Where'd we leave off? Oh yeah, Angelo starts clicking away, and Russ has moved onto other targets. :bluduh


Through the haze, you can see some kind of platform. The air is thick with birds.

dallas

Beautiful Joel, I can hardly wait to see the rest, and post a few also, but since I just arrived home I'll have to do it later. We'll show those Florida boys...........

kdog

dallas wrote:

Beautiful Joel, I can hardly wait to see the rest, and post a few also, but since I just arrived home I'll have to do it later. We'll show those Florida boys...........

Thanks, William. I can't wait to see yours, Russ', and Angelos shots as well. We'll ought to be able to milk this shoot until summer.

kdog

Upon closer examination, the birds turned out to be mostly Snow Geese.


Thousands of them winter here, and they keep arriving throughout the morning.



There are things in this world that seem so simple and yet so mysterious. One of these mysteries is the synergistic way in which the birds travel. They travel in huge flocks, they travel in small groups, and they travel in pairs, but rarely alone. No matter how large the group, they seem to move as a single fluid entity, coordinated by some unseen and yet incredibly efficient means of communication.




"Hey watch it there, bud!"

Maestro

Wow. You have some great shots there!

kdog

There are only so many ways to shoot snow geese, and the morning was spent. Time to find some lunch, and to explore the south end of the Sonny Bono Nature preserve which a kind docent recommended we visit.

The trip was only 7 miles, but took a long time to get there because we kept stopping to shoot hawks on the telephone poles. They're quite abundant in this area, but pretty skittish as well. By the time you pulled over, they were already in the air.



The south end of the preserve is much more remote. We were literally the only ones there. There were snow geese here as well, but the focus here were the pelicans. There were lots of them -- as in almost every pelican in America spends the winter here. No kidding.
















There were smaller birds as well in quiet reflection.

BeachBill

kdog wrote:

I'm not much of a bird man, but WOW! I love this image!

kdog

Maestro wrote:

Wow. You have some great shots there!

Thank you, sir!

-joel

gsgary

WOW i wish we had birds like that in the UK

Angelo

stop hogging all the glory! give the rest of us a chance to post!




nice shooting with you. thanks for organizing the trip.

JohnDC

Joel and all --- Glad to see you scored. Sorry I missed it. Still in Florida. --- John

kdog

BeachBill wrote:

I'm not much of a bird man, but WOW! I love this image!

Bill, thanks very much. I think there's no greater compliment than that.

-joel

kdog

gsgary wrote:

WOW i wish we had birds like that in the UK

Thanks, Gary. The Salton Sea takes a bit of doing to get there. However, it was certainly worth the trip. I can't wait to go back.

Regards,
-joel

kdog

Angelo wrote:

stop hogging all the glory! give the rest of us a chance to post!



nice shooting with you. thanks for organizing the trip.

Hey, I got tired of waiting

Great meeting and shooting with you. The trip turned out pretty well considering the initial waffling on the dates. I look forward to seeing you again on the next outing.

Now, let's see those pictures!!!

Cheers,
-joel

kdog

JohnDC wrote:

Joel and all --- Glad to see you scored. Sorry I missed it. Still in Florida. --- John

John, thanks for all the info on the places to stay and visit at the Salton Sea. It proved very useful! I'm sorry you missed it too. Next time. I definitely want to go back there.

Have fun saving the whales in Florida.
Cheers,
-joel

davev

Great shots.
In 4 months, when it warms up a little, some of these birds might come
back to Minnesota.

kdog

So by this time it was getting pretty late, and Dallas had the idea to drive down dirt agricultural roads and go looking for Burrowing Owls. So after a rest and repast of cookies and a beverage that one should never consume while taking pictures, we drove out into the endless farmlands.

The natives looked friendly enough.


None of us were quite sure what a burrowing owl's nest looked like, so we drove slowly down the road looking at the dirt banks next to the irrigation canals. Suddenly I noticed a dirt clump that looked at me as I was driving by.


I got off two crummy shots of the guy and noticed and my CF card was filled. Even worse, my camera bag was in the trunk. Needless to say the little fella didn't stick around long enough for me to reload. :bluduh

Not to worry -- I hear Russ and Dallas scored big time with the owls on Sunday, after I left. So we should be seeing some great shots of them "real soon now".

At least I got my shot of a red tail, high up on a pole. How high? He was so high they'd made a sign just for him.



[THE END]


Thanks for looking.
-joel

Harryb

Outstanding set Joel. Looks like a great place to shoot.

jwear

looks like you boys did good really nice shots --I talked with dallas about the owls looking forward to those shots --great job my man

kdog

davev wrote:

Great shots.
In 4 months, when it warms up a little, some of these birds might come
back to Minnesota.

Thanks, Dave.

We'll send the pelicans back when you send some eagles down. Deal?

Cheers,
-joel

Angelo

and I'm STILL processing shots


some really fantastic shots Joel. Seems you did better AFTER I left

kdog

Harryb wrote:

Outstanding set Joel. Looks like a great place to shoot.

Thanks, Harry. It's certainly a great winter time place to shoot. I'm not sure what the summers are like there. It's at sea level, and the temps hit 120F regularly in the summer I hear. At least it's a dry heat.

Cheers,
-joel

kdog

Angelo wrote:

some really fantastic shots Joel. Seems you did better AFTER I left

Thanks, Angelo. I must say the southern area was pretty cool.

After seeing William's burrowing owls, I really need to go back there soon. Maybe we need to do a reshoot in a couple of weeks.

Cheers,
-joel

ShepsMom

WOW, That's a bird haven!! Love the shots, they all great!

kdog

jwear wrote:

looks like you boys did good really nice shots --I talked with dallas about the owls looking forward to those shots --great job my man

Hey, Jeff. After seeing Dallas' shots, I'm seriously thinking of going back in a couple of weeks to get those owls and find that falcon. Wanna go?

-joel

Angelo

kdog wrote:

Thanks, Angelo. I must say the southern area was pretty cool.

After seeing William's burrowing owls, I really need to go back there soon. Maybe we need to do a reshoot in a couple of weeks.

Cheers,
-joel

I might need more time to get that putrid smell out of my brain!

some of mine are here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=483649#post483649

riddim_maker

WOW! :jawdrop Now how am I to post anything after seeing your fantastic post....:D
Seems like both you and Dallas scored big...outstanding and I'm sure Angelo's post is not far behind.

What a weekend!!!

Haven't had a chance to process anything yet, but I 'm hoping to post by tomorrow, although, this is a tough act to follow.

Skippy

kdog wrote:

Upon closer examination, the birds turned out to be mostly Snow Geese.

Thousands of them winter here, and they keep arriving throughout the morning.

I love this one!
What attracts so many Pelicans and Geese to the area?
I'm just stunned at the amount of birds there .... incredible !
...... Skippy
.

anwmn1

Some great shots Joel, I think I might venture out next time as well seeing the wide range of things to shoot.
Not a birder but I am sure I could keep busy out there.

Great Post!