On the advice of a couple of WINs, who said it was a great birding place, I drove up to Finney Lake. It's part of the Imperial Wildlife Area. I drove around the lake and saw lots of cormorants, egrets, grebes, and gulls. I loved it that there was almost no one there, and Joey and I had the lake and the birds to ourselves. But the stink from the cattle across the road, drove me away. Maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, but it was too much for me.
Nearby, however, is the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, which was a real treat. I saw 5000 snow geese in an alfalfa field that evening, which is a sight I won't ever forget. And the experience of snow geese flying in kaleidoscopic patterns overhead, which kept happening all along the Rock Hill Trail, was amazing. The best part of the trip home, however, was the evening I spent on the beach at the Salton Sea and all the pictures on this post are from there. Although it looks like a sandy beach, in reality all the white is a salty crust. Feels more like a crust of snow when you walk on it, than sand. This lake has a very high salinity level, and it gets higher with each year. But the salt doesn't seem to bother the birds. And something about the salinity of the water makes the sun sparkle on it in an almost magical way.
Joey loved running up and down the beach, and in circles in the "sand". More than any of my previous dogs, she is a runner. One of her greatest joys is to run full-tilt, and I am making it a point to try to find places where she can be off-leash and do that on a regular basis. This evening it was just me and Joey and thousands of birds on the shore and on the water and in the air over the sea, and a beautiful sunset over the sparkling water.
"sigh" 
And then, as I headed for home, the moon rose over the snow geese on the water. Perfect ending to a perfect evening. "sigh"
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