For Lynn and I our four-day trip to the Salton Sea area commenced with our departure from Ventura on Tuesday morning, March 9, Lynn’s birthday. About four hours later we arrived at the Salton Sea National Wildlife Recreation Area Visitors Center on the north-west shore of the Salton Sea. After collecting ourselves in the vast, largely vacant, parking lot we headed behind the center’s few buildings (most closed due to Covid-19) to an overlook area above a large lagoon. I walked up to the railing and observed the lagoon alive with numerous birds, many obviously new species for me. I was about twenty feet from a young man with binoculars and a substantial camera on a tripod. He gave a friendly nod. He was soon joined by another young man with binoculars who looked over at me and asked, “any luck yet?”. “No, I just arrived really”. Another pleasant nod. Soon it was clear they were looking for one bird in particular. “Have you seen the Garganey?” one called to us a few minutes later. “No, no idea what that is”. “Well, come on up and I’ll show you if you’d like”. “Absolutely!” we replied. They pointed out a female duck, about 50 yards away, swimming slowly by the edge of the lagoon close to similar looking female ducks. Our guides noted the Garganey is slightly smaller than the others, and its head a different shape. Lynn locked in immediately with her binoculars and with a few more directions I found it through my camera. Later, via the photos, we could zoom in and see the subtle differences that identifies this bird. Per Sibley West it is very rare, and hard to identify especially the female. We imagine the birders who helped us had received some kind of alert about the presence of the Garganey, and maybe assumed we had too, at least at first.
We returned to the same spot at the end of our second day, and there she was, still swimming leisurely close to the edge of the lagoon, never too close to the observation area, hanging with the blue-winged teals. No sign of any other Garganey, female or male.
Thank you kind birders for the gift of sharing such a rare bird sighting! I think it was even a bigger hit for Lynn’s birthday than the new kitchen faucet I gave her prior to departure. ;>)
Dean
The Big Year 2021 