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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hamhed" data-source="post: 3666528" data-attributes="member: 70825">Day 10Our morning began just a few miles away from our Motel 6 in Brawley.   Bird reports led us to some obscure intersection with farm fields that had just the right habitat for wintering Mountain Plovers.  We split up out of the car, Liz going west and I, east.  In no time, she texted me that she’d found them and I joined her to watch a short grass field scattered with feeding Plovers.  Though most were far off, their soft, brown plumage stood out from the short, green vegetation.  We estimated 120, nearly the same amount as the 150 Brewer’s Blackbirds I’d seen in the opposite direction.That set a happy tone for the morning and we returned to Unit One of the Sonny Bono refuge.  Snow Geese often hold a Ross’s Goose or two but we did not find any though our efforts at a species we’d seen several times were not prolonged.  We spied a juvenile Bald Eagle, thinking Golden Eagle at first, more harriers, a few Green-winged Teal, a Common Yellowthroat and all the birds of yesterday.   Our target was the Ridgway’s Rail but none even sounded off for us on this visit.  On our way north to the Visitor Center, we stopped at two unintended locations.  The first roadside view held 300 Long-billed Curlews, making our previous count of 60 look inconsequential.   At another, a half-dozen Kestrels darted and hovered over a field of what we think were American Pipits but couldn’t quite be certain of our identification.  We reached and walked for a couple of hours around the nearby fields and ponds to a promontory called “Rock Hill”.  There was the usual assortment of Snow Geese, ducks, herons and egrets, a flyby Caspian Tern, dowitchers and one Belted Kingfisher.  Passerines included a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Song Sparrow, Say’s and Black Phoebes, Ladder-backed Woodpecker and Marsh Wrens.  Still comparatively warm, we enjoyed the outing.The day was aging rapidly.  With time for one last site, we revisited the Alamo River where we had seen Soras and heard the Ridgway’s Rail.  The slowly fading light as evening approached timing was apparently the missing ingredient for being able to actually see the Rail.  Standing as still as possible and speaking in whispers, we eventually good views of one and believe there was another close by.  Bird lists here:<a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41265251" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41265251</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279510" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279510</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41270326" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41270326</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41271134" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41271134</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279458" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279458</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279822" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41279822</a></blockquote>

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