Santa Barbara County Birding Day 2, July 31

After spending the night near Santa Barbara, we woke up and hit a few beaches along the coast.  Brewer's blackbirds were pretty common on the beaches, and weren't bothered by beach-goers.  This is a bird we rarely get to see so it was awesome to get an up-close look!

male Brewer's Blackbird

Nearby, a flock of gulls was relaxing on shore.

First Year Western Gull

First Year Ring-billed Gull

Adult Western Gull (has only one eye)

 

Our next stop was Santa Barbara Harbor.  This was an excellent stop!  A jetty with a walkway on it protects the marina and harbor, and the ocean-facing side is lined with huge algae-covered rocks.  About half-way down the jetty, we started seeing Wandering Tattlers and Black Turnstones!  All the people walking on the jetty had no idea they were there because of a big cement wall that acts as a wave-breaker.  A few people peeked over the wall to see what we were photographing and got a glimpse of them!

Black Turnstone, the Ruddy Turnstone's evil twin, balancing on slanted rocks

At a few beaches in the area, hungry Black Turstones were running around after waves, picking up and eating small mussels and sand crabs.  They seem famished, and are recent arrivals on the Santa Barbara coast right now.   We also saw a Surfbird fly over, but didn't get a good look at it.

Black Turnstone on the beach

This Black Turnstone were so preoccupied with eating

that a huge wave plowed right into him! (and me)

This one has a small mussell

These Wandering Tattlers (lifer) were on the ocean side of the jetty in groups of 3 to 4. 

This tattler perched on a rock as I hid nearby.

Afew Tattlers narrowly escaped incoming waves.

The tattlers would run to shore after every wave, and would be chased back up again by it.

The Wandering Tattlers were also frantically eating, and this one caught a huge sand crab!

While I was photographing shorebirds, Alex found this Common Merganser fishing

 in the marina.The water was so clear you could see him hunting underwater!

Butterflies were far and few, but we did find this

small Western Pygmy Blue fighting the wind.

Next we took a trip to the nearby Museum of Natural History, where they had an excellent

 collection of bird taxidermies. In the museum gardens, Oregon Juncos were hopping around.

We decided to go back to Santa Barbara Harbor since the birds were cooperative and the lighting was great.  We found a flew small flocks of Western Whimbrel on shore, and throughout the evening, more flew by, likely migrating down the coast. 

Western Whimbrel in Santa Barbara Harbor

Double-crested Cormorant, a common bird of the harbor

As the sun started setting, the turstones and tattlers settled in to dark rocky crevasses.  Alex and I took a walk down a small sandy beach, and found this Long-billed Curlew foraging along the shoreline.  He knew we were watching him, but didn't seem to care as we inched forward for some great photos.

 Long-billed Curlew foraging on beach

The curlew eventually flew towards Alex, but was flushed back towards me by some people.

When he landed he showed a quick glimpse of his bright rufous and cinnamon underwing,

which seemed dramatically red in the setting sun. We spent the night again in Santa Barbara.

WISN Surveys near Kapplan, LA and Jennings, LA

Today we finished our surveys near Kapplan and moved northwest to our next township near Jennings, LA.  We started out the day with this first year Wilson's warbler (no black cap).

Wilson's warbler

Next, I found 8 snipe on my side of the survey in a pasture.  The snipe all hunkered down at first at the site of the truck, but eventually started feeding again.  We took ten minutes to do an acitivity budget.  About 6 minutes into the observations, killdeer and bluejays started alarm calling nearby, and all at once, the 8 snipe froze.  They stayed alert for about 10 seconds, then surprisingly started falling asleep, like they hadn't just been eating.  In about 2 minutes, they started feeding again.

Wilson's snipe feeding (bill in ground)

Wilson's snipe resting

Later in the day, these brewer's blackbirds were hanging out on a wire.  There was at least one male and one female, mixed in with other blackbirds.  I have seen them on this trip before, but wasn't able to confirm it until now with these photos.  Notice the yellow eye, and also the thinner bill (than common grackle) and shorter tail than common grackle.

male Brewer's blackbird

female Brewer's blackbird

cowbird (top) and female Brewer's (bottom) comparison

As usual, there were many dark ibis, and this flock contained both glossy and white-faced, which are hard to tell apart this time of year.  Also in the photo is a laughing gull.

glossy and white-faced mixed flock

During another transect survey, this large flock of red-winged blackbirds was flying back and forth from fields to a tree.  Most in this flock were female.

red-winged blackbirds in tree

Also, there were many boat-tailed grackles around.  There are also great-tailed grackles in the area, but I haven't seen them yet.  These birds are both unmistakable, with very long tails that are usually fanned out.

boat-tailed grackles

I was also able to photograph this question mark butterfly outside the truck, despite the gusting winds.  This is my second butterfly species of the year.

question mark butterfly