Date: 8/7/25 2:36 pm From: Florence Sanchez via groups.io <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Carpinteria Area Birding August 7
Steve Colwell and I checked out various spots in Carp this morning, at times fighting a losing battle with persistent fog that hung around the immediate coast all morning. First stop was the Carpinteria Creek Estuary, where the continuing Reddish Egret was fishing, attempting canopy feeding at times, and generally ruling the pond. The large gull flock on the beach consisted of Western, Hermann's, and California gulls, including some juveniles of each species. We had one pair (adult-juv) each of Caspian and Elegant Terns and a few shorebirds: Whimbrels, 1 Godwit, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, and a Snowy Plover.
We moved away from the foggy beach to check a couple of places inland without finding much of interest. Lake Jocelyn had even fewer birds total than I saw there yesterday and no shorebirds at all, but we found the Lazuli Bunting and Black-headed Grosbeak in the same oak tree where I saw them yesterday. The lemon orchard was bing watered, which brought down lots of common small birds and Steve noticed a very wet female Oriole among them. A Belted Kingfisher made a brief appearance when we arrived.
We returned to the foggy beach area and checked out the Harbor Seal beach. There we found 2 Black Oystercatchers, which was a pleasant surprise. Finally we went to the Carpinteria Salt Marsh park where the fog had lifted though it was still hazy. We found a nice mixed flock of small shorebirds on the wet mud, but they were difficult to identify because of heat haze. There were Least Sandpipers and Semi-palmated Plovers in the group along with a Spotted Sandpiper. I identified a few Western Sandpipers in the group and a couple of them looked to be fresh juvenile birds, but several birds in the flock were just too poorly seen to identify properly even through scope and camera.
The adjacent creek channels provided some good birding: 2 Yellow-crowned Night Herons in Franklin Creek and a Green Heron in Santa Monica Creek. Santa Monica Creek was also full of interesting aquatic life: Leopard Sharks; a different shark of similar size but dark blue-green on the back and reddish on the side; at least one Ray; several leaping fish (Mullets?), and a host of tiny Minnow-like fish swimming all around the bottom-feeding sharks.
Florence Sanchez
