Viewers of this blog may be wondering why it’s called “The
Goleta Birder” since there have not been any posts about Goleta! This reflects
both the fact I have been out of town a lot the last few months but also the
fact that the birding around Goleta so far in fall migration has been pretty
putrid. I have been out checking the beach at Coal Oil Point, which is our best
local shorebird spot, on most days. When talking with Florence Sanchez, another
local birder, I likened the recent birding there to the movie “Groundhog Day”
since every visit I seemed to see the same variety and number of birds!
Desperate to escape this, I decided to make on September 2 to make a sweep up
through various shorebird spots in the northern part of the county, starting
(and ending) with the Santa Ynez River estuary (SYRE) and then heading up to
the Santa Maria Valley and river estuary. Note that the photos in this post are
mine, which is why they are so bad …
Upon arrival at the SYRE, I was delighted to see numerous
shorebirds feeding along the section by the sandbar that had sealed off the
estuary from the sea. I quickly found three previously-reported Baird’s
Sandpipers and there were 86 juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers along with
reasonable numbers of other regular shorebirds. The high-water levels in the
estuary upriver had already flooded a fair amount of the salicornia marsh,
which is attracting a good number of dabbling ducks including the first
returning Pintail and Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals.
On the way out of the park, I decided to check a cattle
feedlot that attracts a lot of blackbirds. While scanning the blackbirds, I
noticed that the feedlot had attracted a few Mourning and Eurasian Collared
Doves. I was just musing about the possibility of these in turn attracting a
White-winged Dove – a “common vagrant” to Santa Barbara – when one flew in and
landed on the fence!
I then headed up to the Santa Maria Valley and started
surreptitiously checking various agricultural areas for suitable ponds or
short-grazed pasture. I eventually found a suitable pond that had many Western
and Least Sandpiper with about 14 each of Greater Yellowlegs, along with a
single Lesser Yellowlegs. A couple of Wilson’s Phalaropes were among the dozens
of Red-necked Phalaropes. I then noticed a couple of juvenile Pectoral
Sandpiper, my first of the fall migration. Leaving these behind, I went to
check the surrounding area for more suitable shorebird spots. Failing to find
any, I stopped again on the way back to double check my yellowlegs count and
immediately noticed a shorebird with a distinctive big-bodied, hunched profile.
Getting the bird in my scope immediately confirmed my suspicions that it was a
Ruff – a juvenile male in fact. After a burst of these in the county around
2004-8, I hadn’t seen one in the county since, a big inditement of the poor
shorebirding here, as Ruff is one of the commonest Eurasian shorebird vagrants
to the Pacific coast of the USA.
After some further searching, I found another good pond that
had a good variety of birds. There were over 400 Red-necked Phalarope and 100
Short-billed Dowitcher and less common birds included five Lesser Yellowlegs,
four Pectoral Sandpipers, two each of Solitary and Baird’s Sandpipers and a Red
Knot.
I then headed out to the Santa Maria River Estuary. This was
formerly a legendary spot for rare shorebirds back in the 80s and 90s but a
combination of access restrictions and habitat changes have made this a distant
memory. These days the river mouth is mostly a tule-fringed lake and it is
rarely possible to get close to any shorebirds unless they are right on the
sandbar.
One consolation is that there are more breeding waterbirds
now the mouth is mostly closed and I soon found an Eared Grebe with a single
chick tucked on their back. This is a species that seems to be breeding a
little more frequently these days. A group of mergansers consisted of five
juvenile Common Mergansers that presumably bred locally and an over-summering
Red-breasted. There were a lot of terns around the river mouth, mostly Royal and
Elegant but including some medium-sized terns. These were rather distant much
of the time but patiently waiting an hour was rewarded with good looks at
almost all of them – a remarkable (for these days) count of 11 Common Terns. I have
not had such an on-shore count of this magnitude for at least 15 years.
While waiting for the terns to cooperate, there had been a
few flocks of Marbled Godwits and Whimbrels flying around and landing in
various spots. At one point, I had heard a Wandering Tattler calling but
assumed it was just flying over as there is no suitable habitat in the river
mouth. However, when I heard the call again some minutes later, I guessed it
was in fact hanging around. I then located it flying with a Ruddy Turnstone in
a flock of Marbled Godwits.
All-in-all, it proved to be one of the best days I have ever
had for uncommon and scarce shorebirds in the county.
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