RHH's photos with the keyword: sonny bono nwr

These are the flowers of Sweet Acacia, a shrub native to the American southwest, photographed in the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge near the Salton Sea in southern California.

The area around the Salton Sea is all irrigated desert farmland, mile after mile of crops. This photo was taken south of the sea near the town of Westmoreland. Even the palm trees, in this case non-native, are few. The crop growing the field beyond the palm trees, if I remember, was Swiss Chard.

Tamarisk ramosissimus or Saltcedar is a common shrub in the southwestern deserts of the USA, but an invasive and noxious species. These flowers were photographed at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge on the south end of the Salton Sea.

These Screwbean Mesquite pods were photographed at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge on the south end of the Salton Sea in southern California.

We re still traveling. We left Anza-Borrego Desert State Park last week Thursday and drove to the wildlife refuges on the south end of the Salton Sea. After some really good and authentic Mexican food and a visit to one of the refuges, we camped for night at Obsidian Butte, which more than lived up to its name, the butte formed almost entirely of obsidian, which, for those who do not know, is volcanic glass. The shoreline, which we explored, was littered with huge boulders of obsidian (inset). The high point of the two days, however, was the wildlife refuge, where we saw many different birds including huge flocks of Snow Geese and Pelicans. The stars were the Burrowing Owls. We saw quite a number of these small owls which live in burrows and are usually seen standing guard at the entrance, while driving around the area. We drove on to Joshua Tree National Park and are there now, though we drove out of the park briefly to collect emails. Tomorrow morning we are headed on to Sedona, Arizona, for more hiking and sightseeing.