Last weekend. There at the edge of the lake.
Two big white birds. I can’t quite make them out with my binoculars. White Pelicans? No. The heads and necks on these birds aren’t white. I need to get a little closer.
Snow geese? No. A little closer?
Wood Storks? No. What else could be that big and that color? Something else strange about these birds. They haven’t moved. It’s a long walk there through the mud at the edge of the lake, but it has to be done. Along the way I find Least Sandpipers
and Snowy Plovers.
I think about the name of this place while I walk. La Sal del Rey. That means “the King’s salt”. This is a Salt lake! As I walk with the prevailing winds to the other side of the lake, the one that takes all the splashes, I see that anything along the edge is salt-encrusted.
I walk all the way there. Those big white birds on the other side of the lake? 
Stumps sticking out of the water. Salt encrusted wood stumps. Mystery birds solved.
Two big white birds. I can’t quite make them out with my binoculars. White Pelicans? No. The heads and necks on these birds aren’t white. I need to get a little closer. Snow geese? No. A little closer? Wood Storks? No. What else could be that big and that color? Something else strange about these birds. They haven’t moved. It’s a long walk there through the mud at the edge of the lake, but it has to be done. Along the way I find Least Sandpipers and Snowy Plovers. I think about the name of this place while I walk. La Sal del Rey. That means “the King’s salt”. This is a Salt lake! As I walk with the prevailing winds to the other side of the lake, the one that takes all the splashes, I see that anything along the edge is salt-encrusted. I walk all the way there. Those big white birds on the other side of the lake? Stumps sticking out of the water. Salt encrusted wood stumps. Mystery birds solved.