Date: 8/23/25 4:38 pm From: Dave Compton via groups.io <davcompton60...> Subject: Re: [sbcobirding] Carp Creek Lagoon Reddish Egret
Following up on this bird. It was there when I left the lagoon area to bird
upcreek, probably about 10am. John Callender was with the bird when I left.
Note that, while the bird was in the lagoon, I included it on my
Carpinteria Creek checklist, so did not put it with other Reddish Egret
reports from this location, on the "Carpinteria Creek Estuary" hotspot. I
don't separate the two when I bird the lagoon and upcreek of the railroad
bridge in the same outing.
Some thoughts on how many individuals have been in the county this summer
(and apologies if I'm repeating anything that's been said before and
claiming the idea as my own). The juvenile that was here for about 5 days
in early August (for a couple of days with an older looking bird) looked
really similar to this bird, based on the photos, but I'm not convinced
it's the same one. A similar looking bird was at Villa Creek in SLO County
for several weeks, until about a week ago, and one farther south in SLO
County, photographed yesterday, also looked similar. I'll leave it to SLO
folk to decide whether those were the same bird, but if the bird seen
yesterday is gone, then the Carpinteria bird could be the same one. Note
that the earlier Carp bird and the Villa Creek bird were photographed on
the same date, several days in a row. So, there have been at least two
really similar looking juveniles recently.
The first Reddish Egret in the County this year, according to eBird, is the
one Daniel Farrar photographed at Vandenberg in the morning on July 10 and
reported as gone later in the morning. What could easily have been the same
bird was photographed after 4:30pm the same day in Santa Barbara by Larry
and Carol Rose. Rod Farber and Even Martin photographed a Reddish Egret at
Refugio State Beach on the morning of August 4, hours before Rod was the
first to enter a photograph in eBird of the original Carp Creek lagoon
bird. An older bird showed up later and stayed for at least two days. In
my opinion, it's likely there have been four different individuals in the
county: (1) the Vandenberg/Santa Barbara bird, (2) the Villa Creek (SLO)/23
Aug Carp bird; (3) the Refugio/Carp juvenile; and (4) the Carp Creek 2Y (?)
bird.
If the bird in SLO Co shows up again, then I'll have to rethink this.
Dave Compton
Santa Barbara
On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 9:34 AM Dave Compton via groups.io <davcompton60=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> Non-Slackers,
>
> A juvenile Reddish Egret is at Carp Creek Lagoon, Carpinteria State Beach,
> at 9:30am, 8-23.
>
> Dave Compton
> Santa Barbara
>
>
>
