Date: 4/25/24 9:37 am From: Hugh Ranson via groups.io <zonetail1...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Birding by Bike
Yesterday, 4/24/24, Mark Bright and I participated in a Big ¾ Day by Bike.
We didn’t do any birding in the dark. The goal was to have fun, to get
exercise, to see what birds were out and about, and to do it without
burning any gas. We began on Santa Barbara’s Westside at 7:30 am and
returned at around 6 pm. We cycled 41 miles and saw/heard 121 species. We
saw no rarities.
Our route: Modoc Road to the bike path along Atascadero Creek; over the
Patterson Bridge to Goleta and Lake Los Carneros; Cathedral Oaks to Bella
Vista and Evergreen parks; Winchester Canyon, where we couldn’t pull out
White-winged Doves; Farren Road to the gate; Ellwood at the end of Coranado
then on to NCOS; Devereux Slough and Coal Oil Point; Anisq’Oyo’ Park in IV;
Area K and environs at UCSB; Campus Lagoon and Campus Point; Goleta Beach
and Slough; then home.
This is the fourth such expedition I’ve done in recent springs, but the
first with company. That certainly made it more fun and made the cycle home
less painful! Most interesting to me were the misses on this trip. In past
years I’ve always had Yellow-rumped and Townsend’s Warblers, and often
lingering “crowned” sparrows, but not-a-one yesterday. Non-breeding
migrants in general were in short supply apart from quite a few on-the-move
Western Kingbirds. Another big miss was Scaly-breasted Munia–I had mixed
feelings about that one. No Chestnut-backed Chickadees. The wind came up in
the afternoon which made looking for land birds difficult.
A few highlights: Western Flycatchers were singing and calling at almost
every stop and we heard them several times as we were cycling. I’d estimate
we heard at least 30. Farren Road had males of both Lazuli Bunting and Blue
Grosbeak, and the only Vaux’s Swift of the day flew over at the gate. There
were 2 Red–breasted Nuthatches at Bella Vista. There were a few lingering
ducks: American Wigeon at NCOS, and Ring-necked at Area K. We heard both
Sora and Virginia Rail at Lake Los Carneros.
