My big find of the trip. I found this Ancient Murrelet with Ruddy Duck at the small outfall at Obsidian Butte at the southern end of the Salton Sea. It was initially distant but eventually came right into the outfall chasing fish where it was close to the embankment. I reported this bird to the Sono Bono National Wetlands Reserve headquarters and phoned home, the UK, to get the wife to put an e-mail out on Calbirds so at the least the news went out, I didn't have any California Rare Bird Alert Numbers with me.

On return the next day I spoke with Jon Dunn who was on site with a dozen or so other birders and I learnt that this was only the third record for the Salton Sea and the first record for Imperial County, thus I had caused a twitch. Unfortunately the bird was no where to be seen and as yesterday had been a Friday only a couple of birders had managed to get out here to see it, one of which had driven all the way from San Diego on the coast, about 120 miles or so, across the desert.