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We
also visited the trailhead to Borrego Palm Canyon early, and were surprised
to find this Great Egret stalking lizards in the parking lot and
pupfish in the little pond. In this shot (left) the egret has just carefully
stalked and grabbed a Side-blotched Lizard (which we couldn't even see
until the egret grabbed it); the lizard is halfway down the gullet in the
photo. An egret away from water recalls prehistoric dinosaurs to me — the
look in its eye is scarily reminiscent of the 'raptors' of Jurassic
Park.
We had no great rarities in Anza-Borrego — although birds like Bell's Vireo and Crissal Thrasher are quite local — but I was pleased with various photographic opportunities, the results of which are selectively shown below: |
Verdin
Borrego Palm Canyon Anza-Borrego SP |
Costa's Hummingbird
Visitor Center grounds Anza-Borrego SP |
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Canyon Wren
Sentanac Canyon Anza-Borrego SP |
We ran into Paul Jorgensen, contributing author to Barbara Massey's 1998 book, Guide of Birds of the Anza-Borrego Desert, at lunch one day; a Ventana Wildlife Society T-shirt I was wearing provided the introduction. He invited us to their annual spring hawk watch late that afternoon, where volunteers scan the skies at predetermined times and places (below). The Anza-Borrego hawk watch has discovered a major passage route for Swainson's Hawk (right), sometimes recording hundreds in a day. We saw only two dark-morph birds — both flew into evening roosts in date palms and would leave the next morning (and the photo is actually of a different SWHA seen the next day in Imperial County) — yet it was a fine opportunity to meet local birders and learn of their projects. |
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Conditions were not good for migration on 14 April, but we did come upon this female Gila Woodpecker (below) working on a nest hole in the Brawley cemetery. In California, this species is restricted to the Colorado River and the Imperial Valley. | |
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So will wrap up the trip report with nice photos of two owls, one from each county (below): Burrowing Owl (left) at Fig Lagoon, Imperial Co., and a Long-eared Owl at the tamarisk grove near Yaqui Wells, Anza-Borrego SP, San Diego Co. This adult owl was perched at the opposite end of the grove from the Long-eared Owl nest that has two fledglings. |
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And we head home to Monterey, hoping the rain there will be gone, and leaving beyond Paul Jorgensen in the desert, at his hawk watch as the final rays of the sun hit the distant hills . . . |
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RETURN TO START OF TRIP REPORT: Coastal & Montane SAN DIEGO COUNTY |
All photos © 2006 Don Roberson; all rights reserved.
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