Today was another beautiful day of birding in the Goleta area. I will not bore you with the details of all the birds I missed. Let's focus on the positive things, shall we?
First, standing in one spot I was able to see an Orchard Oriole AND a Tropical Kingbird. In Santa Barbara County that's a pretty neat trick, I think!
Second, from Coal Oil Point I saw Gray Whales breaching. This was very cool!
Third, I saw Cooper's Hawks mating!
Fourth, by chance I met local birder Tom Turner. I have been chasing his bird sightings all over the place this year. By coincidence we exchanged our first email yesterday. Today I meet him in person. Small world when you are looking for birds, I guess.
The chase continues tomorrow. Although things have been a bit slow in regards to adding species to the year's list I must say the outings this week have been very nice. Spring is in the air here, and I am confident I will be seeing some new birds soon.
UPDATE: I took the photo below of the interesting looking Wigeon at Devereux Slough, not sure if it fell within the normal variation for American Wigeon, or perhaps was the male hybrid American x Eurasian Wigeon that has been reported from there. Note the complete lack of green eye patch, and grayish coloring on the back. I sent the photo to local Bird Guru Nick Lethaby, who confirms it looks like the hybrid he has been seeing there. An "odd duck" for sure. Sadly, hybrids do not count as species.
A couple of photos from today:
Great Blue Heron
After today, the year's total still stands at 185.
First, standing in one spot I was able to see an Orchard Oriole AND a Tropical Kingbird. In Santa Barbara County that's a pretty neat trick, I think!
Second, from Coal Oil Point I saw Gray Whales breaching. This was very cool!
Third, I saw Cooper's Hawks mating!
Fourth, by chance I met local birder Tom Turner. I have been chasing his bird sightings all over the place this year. By coincidence we exchanged our first email yesterday. Today I meet him in person. Small world when you are looking for birds, I guess.
The chase continues tomorrow. Although things have been a bit slow in regards to adding species to the year's list I must say the outings this week have been very nice. Spring is in the air here, and I am confident I will be seeing some new birds soon.
UPDATE: I took the photo below of the interesting looking Wigeon at Devereux Slough, not sure if it fell within the normal variation for American Wigeon, or perhaps was the male hybrid American x Eurasian Wigeon that has been reported from there. Note the complete lack of green eye patch, and grayish coloring on the back. I sent the photo to local Bird Guru Nick Lethaby, who confirms it looks like the hybrid he has been seeing there. An "odd duck" for sure. Sadly, hybrids do not count as species.
American x Eurasian Wigeon Hybrid
A couple of photos from today:
Cooper's Hawk
After today, the year's total still stands at 185.
Today I rode 29.1 miles
More later,
Glenn
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