Our November 2018 rapid-assessment waterbird survey at the Salton Sea marks the start of the third year of bi-monthly surveys of fourteen 1km x 1km survey boxes along the shoreline of the sea.

http://ca.audubon.org/news/latest-survey-results-salton-sea?fbclid=IwAR36qrpczXa3tzqrFGEl76z8fO72ywLqlBFXYwBx4LWQunI80od-cb9D5_o

The Imperial Valley and Yuha Desert belong to the greater Sonoran Desert. Spanning more than 100,000 square miles, the Sonoran covers much of the American southwest, including parts of California, Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Its territory is home to a rich biodiversity of plants and animals, including more than 60 mammals, 100 reptiles, 350 birds and over 2,000 native plants. It is a tough place to live, with summer highs of 118 degrees and an average rainfall of between 3 and 20 inches — the extremes for which are mostly seen right here in Imperial Valley!

https://www.ivpressonline.com/news/local/community/vanishing-circles-new-exhibit-highlights-disappearing-wildlife/article_2b5a771e-fa9b-11e8-a633-9fb76d9fe6ac.html

Dr. Tim Krantz, the scientific authority on the Salton Sea, sighs when asked how the decline of the sea makes him feel.
"I've been working on the Salton sea now for 21 years now, I must say it’s like watching a super slow motion train wreck it not a pretty picture," he says.

https://www.9news.com.au/2018/12/15/20/26/salton-sea-california-forgotten

The white sand beaches of Carcass Beach are deceiving for it is not sand but rather the ground up bones of birds and fish that lend the beach its color. Located on the southern coast of California’s Salton Sea, Carcass Beach is known for being covered in, well, carcasses. The sand is dotted with the bones of ill-fated fish and birds.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/carcass-beach

The Salton Sea is a vast, shallow body of water percolating in the hot desert inland of San Diego and a key stopover point for many birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway. Over the years, as other wetlands along the flyway have been lost to development, drought, or other causes, it has taken on an outsized importance for migrating birds. Nearly all of California’s population of eared grebes, for example, stop over at the lake, and at least a third of all the white pelicans living in North America dip in and out of its waters on their migratory travel.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/12/salton-sea-drying-up-bird-migration-health/?fbclid=IwAR1H_EI9DGWw5MX_v3_g1II1qhhmlU2Emp0JiV_taP8Kj4xY63W11u1UtDg