La Sal del Rey

Being a volunteer here at Santa Ana sure has its perks! One of them is the opportunity to go on field trips that are just for the volunteers. Our field trip today was to La Sal del Rey (which translates to King’s Salt).


Getting ready to depart

La Sal del Rey is 6000 acres. It was purchased in 1992 to protect the 530 acre salt lake and the surrounding habitat. It is recognized in the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a ‘Site of International Significance’ for migrating shorebirds by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. It is a stopover for migrating ducks, geese, shorebirds, Sandhill Cranes and is also an important wintering area for the Long-billed Curlew.

It sits atop an estimated four million tons of salt and the lake is 10 times saltier than the ocean. Right now it’s approximately 4 feet deep, 1 mile across and 5 miles around.

We started at 9:00 a.m. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. We got to drive all the way in to the birding platform. The public has to park about a mile away and walk in.

First stop was the birding platform that was built last year.

Fresh water from an artisan well.


Salty shoreline

Snowy Plover

Savannah Sparrow

Lesser Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs

Nilgai, White-tail Deer and Feral Hog tracks

Birds seen there and on the way: Eared Grebe, Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Wilson’s Snipe, Least Sandpiper, LB Woodpecker, Snowy Plover, Wilson’s Phalarope, Ring-billed Gull, RT Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Bewick’s Wren (heard), RC Kinglet, E. Phoebe, Am Pipit, Savannah Sparrow, Common Ground-Dove, N. Bobwhite Quail, N. Harrier, Loggerhead Shrike. Also: Leopard frog, Indigo Snake.

We stopped at Rudy’s for lunch on the way back. We had a wonderful time. It was nice to be able to get together with some of the other volunteers.