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.
