Every birder has a few nemesis species that they keep on
failing to see. From a Santa Barbara County perspective, I have a few. Of
these, Crested Caracara has been the most vexing. About 10 months after moving
to the county, one showed up on Vandenberg Airforce (now Space) Base in July
2001. At the time, my understanding was that there was no access to the base
for the generic public. However, after learning several birders had gone into
to see the bird, I found out that you could get a day permit to access the area
it was in. I got a permit but the bird was no longer around when I looked.
Since then, there have been a couple of periods where individual caracaras have
visited the county several times over a period of multiple years. They have
been extremely mobile and I have always been too late to catch up with one.
In the last three years, there has been a caracara moving up
and down the coast between Santa Barbara and San Diego. Several local birders
have seen fly-by views of the bird along the south coast, even from the
freeway! It particularly likes to hang out around Point Conception and
Hollister Ranch at the far west extreme of the south coast. Although these
areas are privately-owned, I have been able to get some access, especially to
Point Conception, where I organize an annual spring seawatch program to census
the migration, especially of loons. Naturally, many participants of the
seawatch team have seen the caracara, but not me!
It has been a very uneventful spring migration so far, both
from a quality and quantity perspective, so when the caracara was reported back
around Point Conception in early May, I arranged a seawatch with Peter
Schneekloth for May 8 with a plan to keep a look out for the caracara, which
had been seen nearby.
The seawatch itself was fairly dull although there was, at
least for early May, a moderate push of Pacific Loons. We ended up with over
one thousand, but other species were in low numbers. We had hoped for a
Franklin’s Gull, which is rare but regular at Point Conception in late April
and early May, but had no luck. While doing the seawatch, we had noticed up to
dozen Turkey Vultures were feeding a few hundred yards away, but regular scans
failed to produce the caracara. We finished the seawatch after two hours as
activity really dropped off in the last 30 minutes and walked over to where the
vultures had been feeding. It transpired that they were feeding on dead
Brandt’s Cormorants, presumably victims of the large seabird die-off happening
due to warmer waters occurring offshore this year. We found a couple of
Wandering Tattlers on the rocks below the bluff, which were my first of the
year and another of the less common spring migrants I had been looking for.
This species is quite regular at Point Conception but more difficult along the
south coast, which has limited areas with suitable rocky foreshore.
We then drove a little east towards Little Cojo Beach. Peter
then spotted the caracara sitting on the fence post right beside the road! It
gave excellent perched and flight views, as shown by Peter’s photos above and below.
Once I had recovered from the overwhelming relief of finally
catching up with the caracara, we headed on to Little Cojo, where we spent some
time looking for Nuttall’s White-crowned Sparrow, which reaches the extreme
edge of its range around Point Conception. We failed to find any, although they
appear to breed regularly at Government Point where we were seawatching. We saw
a couple of Grasshopper Sparrows, including one carrying food, to snag a
confirmed breeding record for the California Bird Atlas.
With the commencement of the California Breeding Bird Atlas
project this year, I have started to spend time locating a few of the more
scarce local breeders, although it is mostly too early to prove breeding for
many of them. On April 30, I drove up Refugio Canyon to the pass and then
headed east along Camino Cielo – the ridgetop road. My main goal was to look
for Black-chinned Sparrows, a localized breeder in the county that prefers
steep chaparral-covered slopes, especially those that have been burnt in the
previous few years. Although I arrived quite late in the morning, since I was
planning to look for butterflies afterwards, I was able to find five singing
birds. A couple of migrant warblers flipping over the ridge top, including a
Hermit Warbler, my fourth of the spring. Normally this would be a bad total,
but several other local birders haven’t seen even one.
A few days later, I visited the Baron Ranch Trail, a nice
riparian area a couple of miles west of Refugio Canyon. I almost immediately
heard and saw a Yellow-breasted Chat well, one of three different birds I
detected in the area. Further up the canyon I had good looks at a displaying
male Black-chinned Hummingbird and, upon reaching the area with denser oaks, a
Northern Pygmy-Owl vocalized a few times. A quick burst of playback brought it
fully into view. This is a species near the extreme south edge of its range in
Santa Barbara County. While it occupies the more expected coniferous woodland
habitat in the mountains of the county, this species, along with Saw-whet and
Spotted Owls, also occurs in dense oak woodland habitat, although the pygmy-owl
is more widespread than other species in such habitat.
Despite the return of some northwest winds, which are key
for good migration in the spring, these were not strong enough along the
Gaviota and Goleta coast to make much impact. I did pick-up a couple of
Swainson’s Thrushes seen well. This is a common spring migrant but difficult in
fall.
I have been continuing to check Goleta Slough regularly and
the last few days have found a couple of the expected spring uncommon migrants
there. First a flock of about half a dozen Yellow-headed Blackbirds appeared.
Then on May 9, I found three Bank Swallows, which I see almost annually here in
wet years during overcast days in May. The rarest species was probably a Cattle
Egret. This species underwent an explosive expansion from the 1960s to the
1980s and at one point there were many dozens wintering in the county. In the late
1980s, the increase petered out and the species began to decline. Nowadays, it
almost never occurs in winter and is probably most regularly seen in May, but
only a few are seen each year now. Based on the history of the species in the
USA, I am curious to see what happens in my native UK, where the species has
massively increased and begun to breed in the last decade or so.
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