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End of a Nemesis

 

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.


Crested Caracara

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.

(Western) Cattle Egret

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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