Burrowing Owl
I visited Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in May. If you’d like to see Burrowing Owls, that’s the right place to go. I saw Burrowing Owls on the side of the road several times just driving there.
According to the Refuge’s website:
“More than 70 percent of the California Burrowing Owl population is found within the Salton Sea ecosystem.”
Near the visitor center is a small canal for transporting water to farms. Unfortunately, it results in a LOT of mosquitoes and flies. While it may be good for birds, it’s not so good for people. Be prepared. I recommend organic bug spray and a Beekeeping Jacket (no joke!). I walked half of Rock Hill trail before turning around and running back. It was awful.
Besides the visitor center, I also went to Unit 1 area at the southern tip of the sea. It is the wrong time of the year for migration so there were no ducks and very few other water birds. Everything was dry. I did see Western Meadowlarks and Lazuli Buntings though. Look at the migration season. It will be more interesting in fall and winter.
Burrowing Owl
Common Ground Dove
Mourning Dove
Western Kingbird
California Towhee
Red-tailed Hawk
Great Egret
Flock of Cattle Egret
Great Blue Heron
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher female
Black-headed Grosbeak
Rock Pigeon
Lazuli Bunting
Rock Pigeon
Terns
Great-tailed Grackle
Western Meadowlark
Killdeer
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
2 h 20 min from San Diego by car
3 h 10 min from Los Angeles by car
There are small fish in the canal.
Here’s what I saw:
Gambel’s Quail (There were some under small bushes)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Brown-headed Cowbird
Mourning Dove
Western Meadowlark
California Towhee
Common Ground Dove
Terns (too high/fast to identify)
Gulls (too high to identify)
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Black-headed Grosbeak
Cattle Egret
Great Blue Heron
Great-tailed Grackle
Killdeer
Lazuli Bunting
Red-tailed Hawk
- There’s interesting articles about Salton Sea area by Audubon.
