Clark's Grebe, Western Grebe, Peregrine Falcon (20161022) Second part of our Salton Sea run

I was estatic with how the morning had worked out, with the exception of this being the first day of the California Duck hunt. That meant that just about every body of water was going to have hunters, and very little else around. As we made our way nortward along the eastern side of the Sea, we would "pop over" to the water to see what we might be able to find. I was very happy to capture this Clark's Grebe, only the second one that I've seen, the first being a rarity in Calgary.

Next up was this gorgeous Brown Pelly just hanging on the water on its favourite perch.

Just up the road, where there was a little creek entering the Sea, I found this very approachable Western Grebe. This is by far the best image I have ever taken of this particular specie.

Then we found this second Clarks, I included here as you can see the foot in the water. It'll give you some idea how far back their legs are on their body.

Next up, I spotted this beautiful bird of prey hanging out in the shade of the trunk of the tree, keeping an eye our for any oppertunities that might present themselves. I don't have a lot of shots of Peregrine Falcons, so I will shoot them every time I have a chance, even when they are as far off as this bird was.

At one of the other "stopovers" we climbed a viewing stand and I was really happy to be able to grab a couple of shots of this Roadrunner. We had seen a couple other "Runners" but we could never get shots of them.

I thought I would add a couple other images from the day so I threw in this White-faced Ibis with a couple of Snowy Egrets.

Here is a shot of 5 Black-crowned Night Herons that we spotted at the Southend.
There is nothing special about the situation, just that there were 5 of them.

Here is a shot of all three types of white egrets that I have found down here. Today is the first time that I have been able to find Cattle Egrets, they are the most numerous birds in this shot along with one Great Egret and two Snowys.

I'm throwing this next image in only as an evidence shot of a first ever bird for the blog and a lifer for me, a Great-tailed Grackle. This is a female.

So once again here is a shot of two first timers in the same image. A Cattle Egret and a male Great-Tailed Grackle, I really got lucky once again.

That pretty much wrapped up our day on the Sea, but we weren't quite finished. when we got back to Palm Springs we headed up the tram way to the 8500 foot mark. So I took a few shots of the "Springs" at night.

Then when we got back down the tramway, on the walk down to the car, and I do mean down, Laurel spotted this little Katydid! This is the second one I found this year, so into the blog it goes! A great way to finish the day.

It jsut goes to show you that if you keep your eyes open, you can put a little "wild" in your life, even in the dark of night.
Turbo