March 28 --- Sunrise with Bill Stewart and Salton Sea birds

On the morning of Friday, March 28,  Bill Stewart and I headed over the the Headquarters area of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area to check out the birds at sunrise, which was around 6:45am. It was, in a word, amazing -- no wind and partly-cloudy skies, and Cormorants were flying in V formation --sometimes a hundred or so in a flying wedge -- and both American White and Brown Pelicans were flying high, or gliding in a sinuous "S' wave over the water. And the Pelicans were flying together, too --

Here are some other photos from that morning and the previous evening -- 

Black-bellied Plovers (that's not dirt on the camera sensor; those "spots" are flies and gnats)

Bonaparte's Gulls in breeding plumage 

Western Grebe

Eared Grebe in breeding plumage; the Salton Sea hosts thousands of Eared Grebes during spring migration

An American White Pelican banking on approach

A Great Egret in breeding plumage

A Great Egret, with 2 Great Blue Herons lined up behind him

A Caspian Tern with a catch of the day evades a California Gull

Just before Bill and Anne left, Anne pointed out a Yellow-headed Blackbird at the campground, attracted by bird food seeds she had spread on the ground --

After Bill and Anne left -- heading for Calico ghost town, about 150 miles to the west -- I cleaned out the back of my truck, for the FIRST time since I left San Pedro last May. The 20-pound bag of bird seed that I had got from Wild Birds Unlimited had broke, so I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the truck bed and rearranging items. In the late afternoon I went back to the Headquarters area of the state recreation area and got a good photo of a Bonaparte's Gull with its breeding "black head" and also was rewarded with a nice Salton Sea sunset -- 

And a pastel one with a Great Blue Heron --