2013-03-26 Thrasher Hunt

County Road S-2, or the Great Southern Overland Stage Route, runs along the desert floor at the foot of the local San Diego mountains. The route is one of my favorites in the county. Scissors Crossing, where State Route 78 crosses, is a wonderful bird location. Here San Felipe Creek settles into a wide cienega before it drops into a narrow rocky canyon and then seeps under the desert sands for most of the rest of its journey to the Salton Sea.

I didn’t linger long at Scissors Crossing, just long enough to enjoy the company of a Loggerhead Shrike I met there. I was interested in finding La Conte’s Thrashers and I was told I might find them along the route to the south. I made stops along the road including a tour at Agua Caliente County Park where I met some nice birds at the oasis there.

I did not find the La Conte’s Thrasher this day, but the birds I met were California Thrasher, Loggerhead Shrike, Sage Thrasher, White-Winged Dove, Costa’s Hummingbird, Hooded Oriole.