Day 252 - Refugio State Beach

This morning I headed out to Refugio Beach State Park.  I wanted to get in a longer ride for fitness, and this spot has some fresh water and has a history of attracting some good migrants.  I got an early start as it was predicted to be very hot today.

After a pleasant ride and arrived at the park a little before 8AM.  I spent a good amount of time watching birds come down to the creek for a drink and a bath.  There was a good steady stream of birds, some migrants, but nothing unexpected.  It's a little early in the season for warbler migrants but one never knows when that unusual bird is going to show up.

The most interesting bird of the morning was out on the ocean, where I saw a rather disheveled looking Common Murre very close to the shore.  Not sure what the problem was, but I suspect there was one or this bird would not be found so close to the beach.

A few photos from this morning:

Song Sparrow

Common Murre

Osprey

After today the year's total still stands at 243. 

Today I rode a total of 52.1 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 251 - Chasing The Uncountable

Yesterday afternoon an email post came in of an American Bittern at Lake Los Carneros.  This would be a pretty rare occurrence.  This species used to live in the area but nowadays we just get the odd migrant now and again.  There was no description of the bird and I did not recognize the name of person submitting the report so I was a bit skeptical.  We happened to be driving nearby so I stopped and took a look anyway.  I found a Green Heron in the area where the Bittern was seen.  This was sort of what I was expecting to happen.

I sent the submitter an email asking about the sighting.  Instead of the expected reply (I didn't know what I was looking at), I got a response that said "it was a bird found in a yard in Ventura County and I released it there".  Well I sure was not expecting that!

Unfortunately, since it was transported here, the bird is not countable by the American Birding Association (ABA) Recording Rules.  Here is the pertinent section:

B. “Wild” means that the bird’s occurrence at the time and place of observation is not because it, or its recent ancestors, has ever been transported or otherwise assisted by man for reasons other than for rehabilitation purposes.

This morning I decided to go looking for it, even though it would not count towards my year total (or Santa Barbara County list for that matter).  There was nothing else on the bird radar and I thought it would be a fun bird to see - I have only seen this species in Florida.  Perhaps something else interesting might turn up.

So I arrived at Lake Los Carneros early and starting looking through the reeds at the edge of the lake for the Bittern.  They are good at hiding and can be hard to find.  I also had no idea if the bird would have stuck around or not.  I looked around the lake for almost two hours and did not locate the Bittern.  There was a good variety of other birds to be seen.  Three Eared Grebes were the newest migrant arrivals that I saw.

I did make one interesting discovery.  As I was nearing the end of my search at the lake I saw a bird flying that had rufous colored wings.  I thought that was unusual, so I took a closer look and it was a Common Ground-dove.  A totally unexpected sighting!  I got some good looks but the bird took off before I could get the camera on it.  This is a bird I have already seen this year, but today was only the second sighting I have ever had in Santa Barbara County so that was kinda neat.

A few photos from today:

Greater Yellowlegs

Eared Grebes

Great Blue Heron - Catfish For Breakfast

American Coot

California Thrasher

After today the year's total still stands at 243. 

Today I rode a total of 24.8 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 248 - Common Tern!

I finally caught up with a not-so-common Common Tern.  It only took two attempts.

Late yesterday afternoon I got a message from Peter Gaede that there was a Common Tern flying around over the Bird Refuge.  Not wanting to miss this, I hopped on my bike and with the help of a nice tailwind covered the 5 miles to the refuge in about 15 minutes.  Unfortunately there was not a tern to be seen.  I checked along the beach on the way home thinking it might be resting there with other terns.  No luck - there were plenty of the terns common to our area (Elegant and Royal) but no Common Terns.

Then this morning Nick Lethaby reported the tern was flying over the Bird Refuge, so I once again dashed down there.  No tailwind this time so it took a couple minutes longer.  I arrived and looked around for about 5 minutes, but no tern.  Then it appeared, and flew around over the water for the next hour or so until I left.  Bird #243 for the year!

Taking photos of terns in flight is above my pay grade, but I did manage a couple of distant shots that show the ID features that separate this from a Forster's Tern.  The upper side of the wing is a darker gray, with a darker patch along the front of the wing (carpal bar).  The dark region on the top of the head continues down the nape of the neck.  The outer tail feathers are dark.

I also include a better photo taken last year at Goleta Beach.

Common Tern

 Common Tern

Common Tern, Goleta Beach Sep 2014

After the addition of this 1 species, the year's total stands at 243.

Today I rode a total of 14.6 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 247 - A Goleta Morning

This morning, with nothing in particular to chase, I set out for Goleta Beach.  On the one hand it seems a bit boring to keep visiting the same spots.  On the other hand by statistics the places I keep revisiting have the best chance of containing new birds.  There is one other thing and that is every day is different - as I was reminded once again upon my arrival at the slough area of Goleta Beach Park.

There were tons of birds collected there, especially Egrets and Herons.  I counted about 20 each of Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets, as well as 12 Black-crowned Night Herons.  They were fun to watch.  There were not tons of shorebirds, but a good variety.  The most interesting birds for me were 2 American Avocets and a Pectoral Sandpiper - fall migrants passing through.

Some photos from Goleta Slough:

A very birdy Goleta Slough

American Avocet

American Avocets

Pectoral Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

After Goleta Beach I headed over to Lake Los Carneros.  It too was quite active with a nice variety of birds.  I tallied 52 species in about an hour and a half.  The number of warblers and ducks are increasing, a sure sign that winter is coming.  No new birds today but a thoroughly enjoyable morning!

Some photos from Lake Los Carneros:

Lesser Scaup - Female

Long-billed Dowitcher

Ring-necked Duck

Western Scrub Jay

Wilson's Warbler

After today the year's total still stands at 242. 

Today I rode a total of 24.9 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 245 - Solitary Sandpiper (Not)

I was not really planning on going birding today.  That changed when an email report came in that there had been a Solitary Sandpiper seen at the bird refuge (seen, then ominously not refound).  This would be a good bird to track down.  In less than 40 minutes from the time the report was sent I had arrived at the Bird Refuge.  This included changing a flat tire.

I made my way to the end of the path where the waders have been hanging out on the newly exposed mudflat.  I looked around for an hour, but the Solitary Sandpiper did not reappear.  There are places for it to hide, so hopefully it will stick around show itself soon.

I had actually been thinking of visiting the Bird Refuge to try and find those interesting-looking Teal I saw here last week.  On my way out I found some of them.  In the meantime their plumage has continued to change.  I saw what looked pretty solid for 1 male and 3 female Blue-winged Teal.  There was one bird I was guessing to be a Cinnamon Teal, but I got some good advice that it is actually a Pintail.  I am finding these ducks with eclipse plumages to be very challenging!  They are generally not shown in the field guides, and internet searching can lead to misleading results.  

There's always plenty to learn when you're looking at birds.

A few photos from today:

 Pintail

Blue-winged Teal (Male on left, Female on Right)

Willet - brownish bird in the center is an immature

After today the year's total still stands at 242. 

Today I rode a total of 13.1 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 244 - A Common-ish Tern

When I left the house this morning I was not really sure where to go on this foggy morning.  I decided Goleta Beach and arrived there well before the crowds of people were crawling all over the beach disturbing the birds.

One bird I am hoping to catch up soon is a Common Tern, which despite the name is not very common around here.  In each of the last couple of years I have found one here at Goleta Beach.  A problem for me is that I often have difficulty separating them from Forster's Terns, which are in fact much more common in these parts.

As I was checking out the gulls and terns on the beach a smaller tern landed nearby, and when I looked at it I thought it may well be a Common Tern.  I took a number of photos and did a bit of studying in my Field Guide but could not decide which species I thought it was.  Given that the bird was molting I found it even more confusing than usual.

Due to the miracle of modern technology I was able to send off the photos below to some of our local bird gurus.  There was a bit of back and forth but the consensus seemed to be a Forster's. (Thanks Nick and Wim!)  In non-breeding plumage the Forster's Tern has a black patch around the eye which does not extend around to the back of the neck.  You can see in the top photo the black is certainly darker around the bird's eye.  After arriving home and doing more research I also think the bird's legs are a bit longer, the bill is a bit fatter, and the head is a bit rounder than I would expect for a Common Tern.

Close, but not close enough.  Perhaps someday I will become more adept at this tricky ID.  Experience always helps and that's tough to get when you only see 1 Common Tern per year.

Forster's Tern

Forster's Tern, rear view

Also at the beach today:

Long-billed Curlew

After leaving Goleta Beach I rode out to the more western parts of Goleta, closely examining the rising kettles of Turkey Vultures.  This is something I do anyway - someday one of these will be a Black Vulture or Zone-tailed Hawk!  There has actually been a Black Vulture seen in Solvang (30 miles away) the last couple days so I was more interested than usual in checking out the vultures.  I was surprised at how many vultures I saw cruising around.  I was not surprised that they were all Turkey Vultures.  Someday ....

After today the year's total still stands at 242. 

Today I rode a total of 32.9 miles

More later,

Glenn

Day 243 - A Quick Visit To The Beach

Lately the tide has been rather high during the day, but today there was a low tide around 6PM so I made a quick jaunt down to Shoreline Park and the Harbor hoping to see some shorebirds.  There have been a few reports of a Black Oystercatcher around, and this would be a great bird to see - I have not seen one on the mainland in Santa Barbara County, only at the Channel Islands.

Unfortunately for the birds lots of people had also figured out it would be low tide so there were far more people than birds on the beach.  I also made a quick stop at the harbor breakwater.  The most interesting thing that I saw there were 5 Black Turnstones.  They were more interested in feeding than posing for pictures.

Black Turnstone

After today the year's total still stands at 242. 

Today I rode a total of 6.9 miles

More later,

Glenn