Sal del Rey, 4/14/07

Things were kind of slow this morning at Sal Del Rey unit of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR. Many of the shorebirds have packed up and left. At least the wind kept the biting flies away. Best bird was my FOS Bullock's Oriole by the parking area. Snowy Plovers were scattered along the shore.



Sal del Rey is a hypersaline salt pan and was once a source of salt for colonial Spaniards and Native Americans. The white crust is salt.



Here a side by side of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs at the cienega.



Northern Bobwhite 2
Eared Grebe 700
Turkey Vulture 8
Harris's Hawk 1
Swainson's Hawk 1
White-tailed Hawk 1
Crested Caracara 2
Snowy Plover 18
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 60
Sanderling 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Western Sandpiper 80
Least Sandpiper 80
Franklin's Gull 6
Gull-billed Tern 1
Mourning Dove 8
Common Ground-Dove 5
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 2
Ash-throated Flycatcher 1
Great Kiskadee 4
Couch's Kingbird 2
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 2
Horned Lark 1
Tree Swallow 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4
Cliff Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 10
Verdin 2
Cactus Wren 1
Bewick's Wren 1
House Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Curve-billed Thrasher 1
Cassin's Sparrow 2
Lark Sparrow 6
Pyrrhuloxia 2
Great-tailed Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
Bullock's Oriole 1

Turtle tracks to oblivion.