Date: 8/8/25 4:12 pm From: Florence Sanchez via groups.io <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Coal Oil Point and Sands Beach, Aug. 7
Long-billed Curlews and Black-bellied Plovers continue to dominate. There were fewer Semi-palmated Plovers and small Sandpipers on the Island Vista beach than I've found on all previous visits, but the number of SP Plovers at the west end of the beach has almost tripled: from a previous high of 28 birds to 68 this morning.
The tern flock is growing with Elegant Tern now the dominant species. It was hard to get an accurate count because they were behaving in typical tern flock fashion: Settling down, flying up, and coming down again in a different spot with new birds seeming to join the group and others leaving. My best estimate was 47 Elegants and 20 Royals, plus 4 Caspian Terns and a juvenile tern I could not confidently identify. Armando also had a Forester's Tern on another part of the beach.
The Dune pond is getting more use from small sandpipers. I strongly recommend a scope (or long-lens camera) to view them properly. Those individuals that come to the nearest edge of the pond can been seen pretty well through binoculars (I had Western, Least, and a single Spotted Sandpiper in view there) but those on the far shore need greater magnification. I had 3 Yellowlegs, one of which appeared to be slightly smaller, but without a scope I cannot be sure if it was the Lesser Yellowlegs Nick saw after me or not.
Florence Sanchez
