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Birds of the Salton Sea by Michael Patten Philip BIRDS of the SALTON SEA BIRDS of the SALTON SEA Status, Biogeography, and Ecology Michael A. Patten, Guy McCaskie, and Philip Unitt UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the University of California Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Patten, Michael A. Birds of the Salton Sea : status, biogeography, and ecology / Michael A. Patten, Guy McCaskie, and Philip Unitt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-520-23593-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Birds—California—Salton Sea. I. McCaskie, Guy II. Unitt, Philip. III. Title. QL684.C2 P38 2003 598′.09794′99—dc21 2002013312 Manufactured in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10987654 321 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) ∞ CONTENTS Foreword / vii A CHECKLIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SALTON SEA / 33 Preface and Acknowledgments / ix The Primary Checklist / 33 The Next Twenty / 33 A HISTORY OF THE SALTON SINK / 1 Lake Cahuilla / 2 THE SPECIES ACCOUNTS / 68 Formation of the Salton Sea / 4 The Geographic Region / 68 Data Collection / 69 CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT ISSUES / 7 Taxonomy and Nomenclature / 70 Current Threats / 8 Subspecies / 71 Proposed Solutions / 9 The Main List / 72 BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SALTON SEA / 12 Nonnative Species / 316 The Fauna of Lake Cahuilla / 12 Hypothetical List / 317 Current Conditions / 13 Appendix: Common and Scientific The Salton Sea and the Names of Plant Species Mentioned Gulf of California / 15 in the Text / 323 Vegetation and Habitat / 18 Literature Cited / 325 The Avifauna / 26 Index / 349 FOREWORD Anybody who has been to California’s Salton Sea known for the wizardry of his precise and system- will have lasting memories, and perhaps a recur- atic approach to finding new and unusual birds ring nightmare or two. The sea assaults one’s and birding places. Phil Unitt was just develop- senses with a potpourri of richly organic odors, ing an interest in ornithology that would lead to eye-popping sunsets, the biting cold of a winter a career and to the authorship of numerous im- morning, or the sauna ambience of a summer portant works, including the monumental Birds afternoon. And there are the birds—the spec- of San Diego County. And the primary author, tacular flocks in the air or rafting on the sea, the Michael Patten, had yet to start kindergarten. All yap-yapping of Black-necked Stilts punctuating trained in different decades, each of these co- the summer heat, the whistling of the wings of authors approaches field ornithology with a dif- winter waterfowl. Birders, hunters, and tourists ferent perspective. They have collaborated to from far and wide have visited the Salton Sea produce a timely and masterful analysis of the to enjoy the spectacle of thousands of geese in birdlife of one of the most important bird areas the agricultural fields and wildlife refuges at in the Western Hemisphere. the south end, along with winter flocks of ducks, Some ornithological exploration of the Salton egrets, ibises, gulls, and curlews. But many Trough predates the formation of the present- birders, and most notably this book’s three day sea, and in many ways true study of the sea’s authors, have learned that the Salton Sea’s avifauna began with Joseph Grinnell’s voyage on steamier, seedier “other side”—the sweltering the Vinegaroon in April 1908. But not until now heat and stifling humidity that grip the region has there been a complete analysis of the odd from May through September—offers even biogeographic juxtapositions that constitute greater rewards: significant yet fragile breeding the area’s avifauna. The inclusion of subspecies colonies of terns, skimmers, herons, ibises, and treatments continues an important tradition that cormorants; northward-wandering subtropical unfortunately has been lost from much of the waterbirds; mudflats teeming with southbound recent literature. shorebirds; even surprise visits by seafaring This book documents the past and present birds such as petrels and albatrosses. avifauna of the Salton Sea at a crossroads in its I first birded the Salton Sea in January 1968. history. Threats to the sea are ultimately derived By this time Guy McCaskie was already well from the decisions by governments, corporations, vii and special interests to accommodate a rapidly ex- arly and thorough effort by Michael Patten, Guy panding human population in the water-starved McCaskie, and Phil Unitt will serve as docu- southwestern United States at the expense of the mentation of what is lost or a catalyst for ongo- natural integrity and unique and diverse wildlife ing research in a region of great diversity. In ei- of the region. The theft of this water—whether ther or both of these roles, however, Birds of the to lavish it upon the lawns of San Diego, to wash Salton Sea will quickly become and long remain the cars of Los Angeles, or to spout it obscenely a classic. from the garish fountains of Las Vegas—has kimball l. garrett robbed the Colorado River delta of its lifeblood Natural History Museum and now threatens the delta’s de facto replace- of Los Angeles County ment, the Salton Sea. The future of the Salton Sea is uncertain. We do not know if this schol- viii FOREWORD PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is at best a rather cheerless object, beautiful in a pale, placid way, but the beauty is like that of a mirage, the placidity that of stagnation and death. Charm of color it has, but none of sentiment; mystery, but not romance. Loneliness has its own at- traction, and it is a deep one; but this is not so much loneliness as abandonment, not a solitude sacred but a solitude shunned. Even the gulls that drift and flicker over it seem to have a spectral air, like bird-ghosts banished from the wholesome ocean. “E’en the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea”; but for the Salton the appointed end is but a slow sinking of its bitter, useless waters, a gradual baring of slimy shores, until it comes once more, and probably for the last time, to extinction in dead, hopeless desert. J. SMEATON CHASE (1919), DESCRIBINGTHE SALTON SEA ON 30 JULY 1911 The Salton Sea evokes myriad images, many in sparking concern, later yielding a fervent push stark contradiction. It is at once unbearably hot, to preserve this important ecosystem before it is foul of odor, and seemingly uninhabitable, yet it lost. But basic conservation efforts require basic is a haven to one of the largest populations of data. Before we can hope to preserve the eco- waterbirds in western North America. Indeed, system, we need to know more about the species its unique biogeographic setting supports more that constitute it—their relative abundances, their than four hundred native species, exceeding the habitats, their places of origin, the last being es- total for many states. Some one hundred species, pecially important for migratory taxa. including the Brown Pelican, the Gull-billed Tern, Birds are the most conspicuous animals in and the Black Skimmer, oddities in the land- the ecosystem, and we have been studying them locked Southwest, see fit to breed in the region. for many years. We pooled our expertise in an Yet all is not well in the Salton Sea. The attempt to produce a treatise that would both water quality has deteriorated, and much native form the foundation for informed conservation habitat has been lost, particularly thickets of decisions and introduce scientists and laypersons mesquite and riparian woodland of cottonwood to the birdlife of this fascinating region. and willow. More alarming, massive die-offs of This book was inspired by many others, but fish and birds have been commonplace, initially it differs from them all. Particularly notable ix influences were The Distribution of the Birds Cardiff and J. V. Remsen Jr. of the Louisiana of California, by Joseph Grinnell and Alden H. State University Museum of Natural Science in Miller (1944), The Birds of Arizona, by Allan R. Baton Rouge, Carla Cicero and Ned K. Johnson Phillips, Joseph T. Marshall, and Gale Monson of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berke- (1964), The Birds of Southern California: Status ley, Charles T. Collins of California State Uni- and Distribution by Kimball L. Garrett and Jon L. versity, Long Beach, Paul W. Collins and Krista Dunn (1981), Once a River, by Amadeo M. Rea Fahy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural (1983), The Birds of San Diego County, by Philip History, René Corado of the Western Foundation Unitt (1984), and Birds of the Lower Colorado of Vertebrate Zoology in Camarillo, California, River Valley, by Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Robert D. Tamar Danufsky of Humboldt State University Ohmart, William C. Hunter, and Bertin W. An- in Arcata, California, Charles M. Dardia of Cor- derson (1991). To varying degrees these works nell University, James P. Dean and Craig Ludwig included detailed information on status, distri- of the National Museum of Natural History in bution, habitat, and subspecies. In the present Washington, D.C., Kimball L. Garrett of the volume, we have strived to incorporate the best Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, elements of each of these books to construct ex- John C. Hafner and James R.
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