Memories of the Salton Sea at Red Hill

2017-04-20 Salton Sea: Bowles Road to Red Hill

I spent the night at Bowles Road and woke up early to find a swarm of tree swallows all around me. It was a bright and clear morning, so I took out my camera and chased pixels. Swallows are very flighty subjects and difficult to capture well, but I tried my best.

Later, I drove to the visitor center at Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge and visited with the head ranger Chris and gave him updated information about the progress of the Mammal Atlas. I asked him about a good place for breakfast, and he recommended Buckshot Diner in Niland. I followed his recommendation and had an enjoyable meal there.

After breakfast I drove to Red Hill Marina Campground to look for Lesser Nighthawks roosting. I was not disappointed as I found several of them roosting in Mesquite along the road into the camp. A day pass at the camp is only $2, and well worth it for a visit with these birds. On my way to Red Hill, I passed a Great Horned Owl on a power pole and snapped a couple of frames before the bird tired of me and flew off. 

2017-05-28 Red Hill At The Salton Sea

Traveling south after my expedition with the San Diego Natural History Museum to Horse Thief Springs in the Mojave Desert (read more of that trip HERE), I could not bring myself into a bee-line for home. I thought a pass by the Salton Sea might be worthwhile. When I travel, I try to find highways I’ve not traversed before, but I’m running out of them in the lower half of California. The route I followed that day was a mix of new and old pathways that carried me through the Mojave and Colorado deserts, and included the Pinto Basin in Joshua Tree National Park past Cottonwood Springs.

South of Cottonwood Springs the Mojave transitions to the Colorado desert and the Joshua Trees seen further north are no longer present. The elevation drops dramatically from 3000-4000 feet to several hundred feet below sea level. Thanks to the tectonic forces of the San Andreas Fault system running through the Coachella Valley and into the Gulf of California, the Salton Sink is one of the lowest places in the Western Hemisphere. If we were to remove all the water from the Salton Sea, I believe the pit would become the lowest point of all. Not even Bad Water, in Death Valley could match it.

At the Salton Sea, the heat of early Summer is not the peak of birding season, but I knew Lesser Nighthawks would be there. The Red Hill Marina is a reliable place to find them when the weather is at its hottest. There is a funky campground at Red Hill run by Imperial County where for $20 you can get electricity and water hookups. I don’t trust the water, but with electricity I’m able to use my air conditioner to defend against the oppressive heat certain to be visited upon me.

After establishing camp I made two passes through the grounds, once in the afternoon and another the following morning. Present were Great-Tailed Grackles, Eurasian Collared and Mourning Doves, Hooded Orioles, Say’s and Black Phoebes, Black-Tailed Gnatcatchers, Verdin, Abert’s Towhees, Northern Mockingbirds, and of course, the nighthawks.

Nighthawks are a tricky subject for photography. During the heat of the day, they roost under the thickest growth that the small Mesquite trees here offer. When approached, they often take flight, usually in the opposite direction of the approach. In this situation, the lilting, buoyant manner of flight these birds use, made the flight shots I attempted more challenging. They floated low between all the structures in the camp. When one is lucky enough to spot one perched, a slow, cautious approach, gathering images, and moving forward a foot at a time for more shots, is the best formula for success.

I used the hottest part of the day to hunker down under the protection that the AC in my RV provided and processed the images I’d collected in camp. There was only one other camper parked nearby. Just a short walk from the site I chose, a couple from Wickenburg Arizona had set up camp under the only shade tree in the immediate vicinity. Those few other residents staying on the grounds were in their semi-permanent digs in another area of the facility. The couple from Wickenburg had been coming to camp here for 25 years, but only for a few days at a time. Carrying my camera gear past their site was cause for conversation, and I spent considerable time visiting with them. Before I broke camp, I took my laptop over to their RV and shared the images I’d collected during my stay.