The Lehman Cup*

Comments by Peter on the current record-breaking Big Day:

S.B. Birders:

Yesterday, Mark Billings, Wes Fritz and I went on a birding adventure around the county to record as many species as possible in a 24-hour period, beginning at midnight on 25 April. We followed standard ABA rules (see: http://www.stanislausbirds.org/Events/big-day-rules.htm).

This year, we decided to begin the route in the Cuyama Valley. In order to have a run at beating the current record (190 species, 4/27/07, Ranson/Storrer/Gaede) we had to do some creative thinking as far as locations go, and starting here at night was the first part of the plan. I think it payed off in the long run, and we were able to add some quality birds such as Burrowing Owl, Long-eared Owl and Lesser Nighthawk. We unexpectedly found the nighthawks by call -- a series of long rapid trills -- in Ballinger Canyon. Not getting the easier to find owls and rails meant of course that we were committed to going out that night again, so at this point, it was just a trade-off.

We experienced very strong winds early morning on top of Figueroa Mountain, and were forced to bird the sheltered areas at slightly lower elevations. As it turns out, the birds favored these conditions as well, and we found most of our target species. We missed several of Hugh's birds (Cassin's Finch, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet), but we did find the Clark's Nutcracker near the entrance to Fig Mtn. Campground, as well as 5 Red Crossbills, 10 Pine Siskins, ~10 Hermit Warblers, a MacGillivray's Warbler and a different Hammond's Flycatcher on the south side of the mountain.

The remainder of the day was a race to visit stops between Santa Barbara and Lompoc before dark, and we wound up with an odd assortment of additions and misses. A few highlights included an adult Bald Eagle flying over Santa Ynez, 45 Caspian Terns at the Santa Ynez River Estuary (a rather high count), a Mew Gull and 2 cont. WF Ibis at the Goleta Sanitation Plant, 2 Lewis's Woodpecker's on Farren Rd., a Say's Phoebe in Isla Vista that has successfully fledged young, all eleven of the expected western warbler species, and a group of 5 lingering Golden-crowned Sparrows off of Paradise Road.  Misses included Heermann's Gull, Royal Tern, Forster's Tern, Vaux's Swift, Swainson's Thrush, Tricolored Blackbird and Lawrence's Goldfinch.

We ended our day at the S.B. Harbor, where we picked up a nice assortment of rocky shorebirds (Black Turnstone, Surfbird and Wandering Tattler) and Long-billed Curlew to tie last year's record. The final bird before dark turned out to be the go-ahead bird (191) - the Long-tailed Duck, still present since being seen off and on this past winter!

Our big day ended after 23 hours and 48 minutes of birding, and our final tally after finding Spotted and Saw-whet Owl last night put us at 193.

Peter Gaede
Santa Barbara

Comments by Peter Gaede on the April 2007 Big Day Record:

S.B. Birders --

Last night (4/27) Hugh Ranson, John Storrer and I ended a fantastic 20 hours of birding, big-day style, where we counted a total of 190 species. There were really no major rarity stand-outs, but instead just nice combination of breeding birds, lingering winter visitors, and a few migrants. We started off the day with 5 different owls and Common Poorwill (all before dawn), and ran through the day finding most of our target birds. To our surprise, the timing of stops in the afternoon went especially well, and produced a fair number of new species quickly. Birds that we hadn't seen where we might have expected them began appearing, such as a MacGillivray's Warbler calling and catching our attention near the car as we were getting ready to leave the museum parking lot, a Western Wood-Pewee that was absent from the mountains and foothills but showed up in the lowlands on the Santa Ynez River, and a male Allen's Hummingbird found in a tree behind the USA Gas on Carrillo Street. During the remaining few minutes of light last night we were scrambling to find Downy Woodpecker, American Robin, Vaux's Swift, Peregrine Falcon, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Black Turnstone, the last four of which we never ended up seeing.
 

A few of our highlights were finding 106 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, a White-faced Ibis and two Common Moorhen at the Los Carneros/Mesa wetlands, seeing 6 species of hummingbird, a late Merlin at Devereux Slough, numerous Lazuli Buntings at many locations and all elevations, and a MacGillivray's Warbler at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Most of all, it was a fun day in the field with great birding friends.

Peter Gaede
Santa Barbara

Here is our list of birds:

Comments by Peter Gaede on the May 2004 Big Day attempt:

Wes Fritz and I did our third annual Santa Barbara County spring Big Day yesterday (5/1), and this year we were joined by Jeff Davis and Marshall Iliff. It was a long and exciting day, beginning at midnight and ending at10 pm, and we found a grand total of 187 species. Overall numbers of migrants were low just about everywhere, but we managed to find almost all of the breeding birds along our route. We also had several lingering birds staked out from the past several weeks, and as with most Big Day's, a few surprises.

We began at midnight under an almost full moon and clear skies, and had 23 species before dawn. The quality of the nocturnal birds found was an encouraging way to begin the daylight hours and included birds like Clapper rail, Least bittern, Spotted owl, and N. Saw-whet owl. It was a nice surprise to find a N. Saw-whet owl calling from the exact same location as last year in lower elevation oak woodland, .5 miles past the ranger station on Paradise Road.

The upper elevation portion of our route at the top of Figueroa Mountain was somewhat uneventful but produced small numbers of target birds found no where else on our route - Hermit warbler, Brown creeper, Mountain chickadee, Olive-sided flycatcher, etc.

Scouting at the mid-elevations/Santa Ynez Valley by Wes paid off as we made our way down the mountain and stopped at locations where there were nesting Loggerhead shrikes (Armour Ranch Rd.); Lawrence's goldfinches, Grasshopper sparrows and Rock wrens (Figueroa Mtn. Rd.). We found the continuing Red-necked Grebe at the west end of Lake Cachuma and also added a Horned Grebe here, decked out in full breeding plumage.

Birding at coastal locations produced a few unexpected birds. One of our most interesting was an ibis at Ocean Beach showing characteristics of both Glossy and White-faced, and which we consider to be a probable Glossy x White-faced hybrid. The bird was seen in the marsh vegetation on the right before entering the parking area. Lingering ducks that we found were American wigeon-1 (Devereux Slough); Northern pintail-1 (Ocean Beach); Blue-winged teal-8 (Ocean Beach); Redhead-2 (Sandpiper Golf Course); Ring-necked duck-1; Lesser scaup-1; Long-tailed duck-1 (S.B. Harbor); Bufflehead-8 at three locations; and Red-breasted merganser-3. A few other noteworthy odds and ends were a Franklin's Gull that flew past the S.B. Harbor jetty, a Least Tern at Ocean Beach, and the pair of Ross's Geese at Rancho Goleta. The White-faced ibis that Dave Compton mentioned seeing fly out of basin E-F in a earlier post was undoubtedly the same bird that we saw fly into Area K. Our biggest misses were probably Vaux's swift, Nashville warbler, Black turnstone and Common poorwill.

Peter Gaede
Carpinteria

Comments by Paul Lehman, member of the previous record Big Day team:

Congratulations to those who got the 187 Big Day a few days ago in Santa Barbara County. ....And what took you so long to beat our fairly mundane totals we got variously in the low-to-upper 170s?! We carried out Big Days three times in the mid-1970s (1975-1977). As in this year's event, we also picked the first Saturday in May each of the three years we did it. The "we" was Louis Bevier, Brad Schram, myself, and sometimes a "guest" visitor from out of town.

Back in the mid-1970s our birding in the county was centered along the South Coast, and occasionally up to the Santa Ynez Mountains, Lake Cachuma, the Santa Ynez Valley, and Figueroa Mountain. Forget about the North Coast of the county; that was largely foreign to us until the fall of 1978. As a result, we had a bunch of things staked out along the South Coast in Goleta and Santa Barbara only; things like local breeders, lingering waterfowl, etc. Even Carpinteria had not yet begun to be checked regularly (that was also in 1978). The rest of the route we usually had not scouted at all. Our route was typically night and post-dawn around Figueroa Mtn. and vic, down Happy Canyon, through the Santa Ynez Valley, check Lake Cachuma, go out East Camino Cielo perhaps as far at La Cumbre Peak, back to Kinevan Road, down to the coast to check many sites from western Goleta (including a leisurely afternoon seawatch at Goleta Point) to Santa Barbara and, briefly, Carpinteria. IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I WAS SOON TO LEARN OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS WE WOULD HAVE DONE THINGS VERY DIFFERENTLY! In the 1970s and 1980s we SHOULD have started at night along the North Coast at wetlands and dry hillsides, then gone to Figueroa for late night and post-dawn, then through Santa Ynez Valley, then to Barka Slough (and possibly Buellton) for riparian specialties (and grasslands), then to the various Santa Maria Valley wetland sites, many of which unfortunately no longer exist (e.g., many flooded pastures, Holly Sugar wastewater ponds), Santa Maria River mouth, possibly rocky coast on North Vandenberg AFB, Santa Ynez River mouth, and then (with a quick stop at Nojoqui) high-tail it to the South Coast and hit just the spots we needed to fill in the holes and get the stakeouts we knew existed, and then finish with owling and railing along the South Coast after dark.

I think that route would have beat everything to date, possibly getting 200 if one hit a very good migrant day, river mouths with good shorebird habitat, good scouting ahead of time, etc. The riparian species, lingering waterfowl, lingering gulls, better shorebirds back then, good for all three scoters, shearwaters, etc. that were found then along the North Coast could not be duplicated along the South Coast. And we wasted much time along the South Coast (and up on Camino Cielo) looking for just a handful of species. Figueroa Mtn was also slightly better back then than it is now, as it hadn't yet suffered from beetle infestation, fires, etc. to reduce some of the habitat, and the numbers of montane species and migrants was higher back then.

Best bird we ever had on our three May Big Days back in the 1970s? No question about that: The adult Least Tern well inland at the east end of Lake Cachuma on the Big Day on 1 May 1976. Second place goes to the Dusky Flycatcher near Cachuma Saddle, below Figueroa, on 3 May 1977.

--Paul Lehman

Comments by Dave Compton on the October 2000 Big Day attempt:

Mark Holmgren, Grant Weyburne, Brad Hines, and I did a Big Day in Santa Barbara County today and here are some of the highlights from the 158 species we tallied.

Refugio State Beach campground: one LUCY'S WARBLER, two BLACKPOLL WARBLERS (neither, I think, was the extensively yellow and faintly streaked bird that was there a few days ago), and one VIRGINIA'S WARBLER. These sightings occasioned some discussion about whether any of these were among those birds seen about two and a half weeks ago, when all three of these species first turned up.

Devereux Slough: one SOLITARY SANDPIPER near the north end of the slough.

Figueroa Mountain: one WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER was seen opposite the entrance to Pino Alto picnic area. The bird flew down the road (east) and was never seen again.

Figueroa Mountain Road: three LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS were at three different locations--near the entrance to the Neverland Ranch (across the road from the main entrance to Midland School), and two different locations between about 10.5 and 11.6 miles (Mark had the mile markers written down somewhere).

San Marcos Foothills: one GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was in a small arroyo about 100 meters nnw from the north end of Via Gaitero, with a flock of Chipping Sparrows.

Lake Cachuma, east end, overlook from 154: one BLUE-WINGED TEAL male in eclipse plumage.

Rare birds we MISSED included Prairie and Blackpoll Warbler at Lake Los Carneros, Franklin's Gull and Tropical Kingbird at Refugio State Beach, and Eastern Kingbird at Devereux.

For anyone interested only in rare birds, you can stop reading here. If you're curious about other aspects of our big day, read on.

We began birding at the SB harbor around 6:15 and finished owling about 9pm (with a dinner break just before out last stop). Our route was as follows:

SB Harbor
Garden St./Mission Creek outfalls
Bird Refuge
Atascadero Creek near San Marcos Rd.
a private property spot in south Goleta
Lake Los Carneros
Devereux Slough
San Marcos Foothills (off Via Gaitero near the bottom of 154)
Kinevan Rd.
Cachuma East end
Figueroa Mtn. Rd.
Pino Alto picnic area
Becky Hoban's feeder in Lompoc (the only American Goldfinches of the
day--thanks, Becky!)
Ocean Park
Limbeck (sp?) Rd (quick Horned Lark spot west of Lompoc)
Miguelito Park
Sweeney Rd at about the 1.6 mark
Refugio State Beach
Devereux Slough (again)
Lake Los Carneros (return for Barn Owl)
private property stop off West Camino Cielo for Western-Screech Owl

The Santa Maria area, of course, has some great places, but it's far from those most in our group know best, and on Sunday we would've been waiting at the gate to the Santa Maria River mouth for 40 minutes just waiting to get in. Also, the Vandenberg ponds, which I think is the best fall birding location in the county, is time-consuming and not practical on a big day. Lake Los Carneros, which is a little more time-efficient, was probably the site that delivered the greatest variety of birds, and we spent the most time there--a little over an hour.

The most embarrassing misses were Herring Gull, Bonaparte's Gull (where are they?), California Quail, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Cassin's Kingbird. Although four different kingbird species were sighted at places we visited within the week, we had only one sighting of a kingbird, a flyover Western seen by only two of our group. The only empid we got was a bird not identified to species and seen by only three of our group. We also missed Hermit Thrush, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lark Sparrow, anything resembling a pelagic bird, BN Stilt, American Avocet, Canyon Wren, and Rock Wren.

Other nice birds we DID see were Great-Horned Owl, Barn Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Olive-sided Flycatcher (a late bird at Pino Alto), Phainopepla, Red-breasted Sapsucker (Lake Los Carneros), and Golden Eagle (Pino Alto). Of the 158 species, 151 were recorded by all four participants. Five species were recorded by three of us, two species were recorded by only two participants. Somehow, Brad Hines managed to see or hear all 158 species.

That's all that comes to my addled mind at this late hour of a very long day. Time to sign off and get some sleep. Good night.

Dave Compton

Comments by Dave Compton on the May 2001 Big Day attempt:

For those who are interested, the official tally for the Holmgren-Kelly-Weyburne-Compton big day yesterday is 161. Not bad considering there was little migration, and we busted on mountain birds.

To give an idea of the possibilities this time of year, here are some of our notable misses:

Black-Crowned Night-Heron
Canada Goose
Cooper's Hawk
Wild Turkey
Surfibird
Black Turnstone
Red-necked Phalarope
Greater Roadrunner
Barn Owl (we kind of tired out at the end)
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Horned Lark
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Hermit Warbler
Grasshopper Sparrow
Pine Siskin (lots had been around the week before)

Of course, there WERE some surprises. If we hadn't discovered that big wet area off highway 1 south of Guadalupe, we would've had three fewer species.

Dave Compton

Comments by Dave Compton on the October 2002 Big Day attempt:

Peter Gaede, Brad Hines, Mark Holmgren, and I did a Big Day in Santa Barbara Count yesterday for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory Bird-a-Thon. After 18 hours of driving, jumping in and out of the car, walking, running, sorting through flocks of Bushtits and Chickadees, picking through groups of ducks at hundred yards to find something different, doing sea watches, sorting through Yellow Warblers in eucalyptus trees for something not yellow, and trying to get small owls to call back at our imitations, we finally called it a day (or by then, a night) with 164 species. We were sure we'd have 165, but that screech-owl that was calling at Mark's house the night before just couldn't be made to make a sound for us at 10:00pm.

Best Birds were PRAIRIE WARBLER at the ponds at Vandenberg, right where you first enter the willows; 5 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS (2 at the Santa Ynez estuary; 2 east of the marina at Lake Cachuma; and one at the east end of Cachuma); 6 BOBOLINKS in Goleta; 12 species of raptors (including Golden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and Ferruginous Hawk); and a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE minding its own business at the Mission Creek outfall next to the SB wharf, at 5am, while four guys shined lights in his face.

Some misses were pretty extraordinary, especially considering our final total seemed pretty respectable. We missed Green Heron, Black-headed Grosbeak, Lark Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Whimbrel, and Semipalmated Plover. And of course the screech-owl.

For those interested in more details, read on.

Our route took us around the Lompoc Valley, up Figure Mtn Rd and down Happy Canyon, and along the south coast from Goleta to Refugio (with, of course, the 5am stop at the beach in SB to wake up that goose). We started at Lake Los Carneros at 4am to listen for rails (Sora and Coot only), bitterns (none), and whatever else might be calling that early. We then made our quick trip to the wharf for the goose, hit Kinevan for unsuccessful owling (we did get Great Horned), then on to Lompoc. Our daytime starting point, and probably our best candidate in the county for a Big Sit, was a large pullout on Ocean Blvd. that looks down into the Santa Ynez estuary and out to sea. The 40 species we got here were lower than expected, but numbers were down partly because passerines were quiet and inactive (it was pretty cold). We did get some good stuff here, though--Black Skimmer, American White Pelican--and got our water bird total started pretty well. We followed with a sea watch at Surf Beach (Parasitic Jaeger, Black-vented and Sooty Shearwater, Surf and White-winged Scoter) and a trip down into Ocean Park (Peregrine Falcon and Lawrence's Goldfinch), before hitting our first landbird spot, the ponds at Vandenberg. Among a nice variety here were Ferruginous Hawk, Virginia Rail (making up for a miss at Lake Los Carneros), Prairie and Hermit Warbler, and Tricolored Blackbird. We also hit Miguelito Park and Sweeney Rd (Canyon Wren), before leaving the Lompoc Valley. We headed for the mountains at 10:20 with 114 species.

As well as we did in Lompoc, we couldn't believe our luck driving up Figueroa Mtn Rd. We added birds at every stop. We pulled over to look at blackbirds and Brad spotted a Golden Eagle. We stopped for a couple of sparrows by the road and they turned out to be Rufous-crowned. The next time we stopped for a sparrow it was a Vesper. We stopped for a couple of small birds that turned out to be Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Red-breasted Sapsucker was sitting in the tree right next to the car. We made our only scheduled stop along this road and saw three Rock Wrens.

Figueroa Mountain itself (i.e., Pino Alto picnic area and the summit) was fairly quiet, but we did add most of the expected mountain birds. The ride down Happy Canyon was fairly productive (Chipping Sparrow, Phainopepla, Northern Pygmy-Owl), although we did miss Lark Sparrow, despite looking pretty hard.

Leaving the Figueroa loop, we debated where to stop to view birds at Lake Cachuma. Mark fortunately won the debate and we took 15 minutes out of our schedule to visit the marina, where we added Caspian Tern and Canada Goose, among about seven species. As we headed toward the 154 overlook at the east end, it was 2:08 pm and we already had 146 species. Murmurs of 170 floated about. Spirits soared.

We added only one (American Wigeon) at the east end of the lake, but still felt pretty good. We saw a "Western" Flycatcher in a return stop to Kinevan, but felt like we had spent altogether too much time there in two stops to get just two birds. We then headed to Goleta Beach, where the best we could do was a distant look at a Royal/Elegant Tern. Four tern species and lots of shorebirds had been here about a week earlier. A trip to Goleta Pt. was a little better, but we still missed the Ruddy Turnstone and two tattlers that had been there the previous day. Subsequent stops continued to yield only very small numbers of birds, gradually bringing our expectations down. We saw two new species at Goleta sewage (an unscheduled stop that we made because we didn't have Black-necked Stilt), added two at
Refugio State Beach (both of which we saw subsequently at Lake Los Carneros), and ticked off two more at Devereux (another unscheduled stop to get birds we'd missed). By the time we hit Lake Los Carneros again, expectations of 170 turned to fears of not making 160. But it was birdy here, and although we couldn't find the expected warbler flock, or a Green Heron, we did add three species, including Western Kingbird, and reach 160. We went to our final daytime stop at the Bobolink spot in Goleta and picked up three more, for a total of 163 at sunset. Dinner and a beer preceded another walk around Lake Los Carneros County Park for a last chance at Barn Owl. But we dipped and returned to the parking lot to unload our gear before a last stop for screech-owl. As we unloaded, I heard a harsh screech that I thought was Peter imitating a Barn Owl. I heard the sound again a minute or two later, but this time we all looked at each other and realized it was an ACTUAL owl, rather than someone imitating one. Number 164, and the last bird, for the day. You know the rest of the story.

A couple of more details. Of the 164, all but four were tallied by all four observers. A faulty tripod leg kept me from seeing Peregrine Falcon, but provided much amusement to my cohorts, who ID'd the bird. If not for the sharp ears of Brad Hines, no one would've gotten American Goldfinch. Brad was the only one to record that bird and the only one to record all 164 species. The last time Mark and I did a Big Day with Brad, he was the only one to get all 158.

As always, it was fun but exhausting doing the Big Day. Thanks to all my team members for being such great company. We saw a lot of birds and came away with some good stories (for more on "The Owl I Almost Stepped On," "The Tasty Barn Owl," and "The Friendly Locals on Sweeney Rd," ask me personally.

Cheers,
Dave Compton

Comments by Dave Compton on the September 2004 Big Day attempt:

Hi folks,

I wanted to let you guys know the results of the Big Day that Mark, Peter, Wes, and I did yesterday. We had some nice birds (mostly really early birds rather than real rarities), but nearly everything that was reportable was either on Vandenberg or private property, which is why I'm not posting the results.

The bottom line: 152. I had hoped for 160 or more, which might've been high given the early date compared to previous fall big days (early October), but we missed a lot of easy birds. The weather, while it was neither as windy nor as hot as I'd feared, may have been a factor. But in any case it was uncanny how birds that seemed to be sure things just didn't show up. Late in the day, we didn't have Band-tailed Pigeon, Green-winged Teal, or Black-necked Stilt. So we hit our fallback spots for these birds--all "sure things"--and proceeded to miss the pigeon at Stowe Grove, the teal at Tecolotito Creek, and stilts at Devereux and Goleta Beach. So considering misses like this, getting locked out of Carp Salt Marsh, and having a pass snafu at Vandenberg, 152 doesn't seem so bad.

The route: We did some early morning birding at Carp Salt Marsh (we had to jumped the gate where our lock was bypassed), the Bird Refuge, and a couple of owling spots in the Lompoc-Casmalia Rd/San Antonio Rd. West area. We were at Lake Canyon (aka Pine Canyon Lakes) on Vandenberg at dawn, then birded our way to an overlook on the north side of the Santa Ynez Estuary and to the rocky shore north of Wall Beach (also Vandenberg) after that. We made only a brief stop at the ponds, since it had been dead a couple of days before, and we hit several other spots on the way out of the Lompoc area (Ocean Park, Renwick Rd, F St--no WW Doves!--and Sweeney Rd). Finishing up in the Lompoc/Vandenberg area a little after 11am, We then headed toward Figueroa Mtn Rd by way of a couple of stops off 246 along Refugio Rd. We=birded Pino Alto in the early afternoon, but managed to add some birds there, anyway. We then hit Cachuma (Bradbury Dam, where there was nothing, and the marina). The water is now so low here, incidentally, that the flood gates are high and dry. We finally hit the south coast around 4pm. Here we worked our way west from the Santa Barbara area, starting at the bird refuge, then hitting the Garden St outfall. In Goleta, we hit the S-curve at Atascadero Creek (no grosbeaks or buntings), Stowe Grove, Stowe House, the La Patera Ranch pond, and the dredged portion of Tecolotito Creek, just below Hollister. We finished the daylight hours at Coal Oil Point, then made one last desperate attempt for stilt in the dark at Goleta Beach.

What our route most lacked was migrant traps, although all indications suggested there weren't many migrants around, anyway. Also, we dropped Goleta sewage at the last minute, since by that time the only bird there that we needed was stilt, which we were sure we'd see at Devereux on our way out to Coal Oil Point.

What we saw: The only rare bird accessible to the public was a GREATER SCAUP at the Bird Refuge. This was no doubt our best bird, since it was so early. In fact, the early birds were what seemed to save us (although Mark, Wes, and I didn't get Yellow-rumped Warbler until about 6pm!). Best birds for the day were:

GREATER SCAUP - Male at the Bird Refuge. Found here on Sunday. This makes it eight days earlier than the "exceptional" early date mentioned in Lehman. However, Wes had one of these at the sewage plant during the summer, so you have to wonder if this is a bird that summered locally.

FERRUGINOUS HAWK - Another rather early bird. This one was at Lake Canyon, aka Pine Canyon Lakes, at Vandenberg.

LESSER YELLOWLEGS - Ocean Park.

SOLITARY SANDPIPER - Also at Lake Canyon, standing on a snag or some reeds poking out of the water near the edge of the lower lake.

PECTORAL SANDPIPER - This was at the Santa Ynez estuary, or actually just upstream of the estuary, seen from base, from the road just up the hill from the north end of the old bridge at the top of the estuary.

TROPICAL KINGBIRD - At the pond on La Patera Ranch. If Mark had listened to me, we wouldn't have squeezed this stop in and gotten this bird. This one might be slightly early.

HERMIT THRUSH - Also early. Heard chupping at the pines just west and slightly up the hill from the ponds entrance.

BOBOLINK - One at the little organic farm on Hollister between Turnpike and San Marcos Rd. This seems particularly significant given that no one has been able to find them at the Patterson ag fields for the past week.

BREWER'S SPARROW - Same location as the Bobolink. Mark reported what was presumably the same bird on Sunday.

Other nice birds: Wood Duck (bird refuge), Osprey (Cachuma), American Avocet (Ocean Park), Royal Tern, Barn Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Common Murre (north of Wall Beach), Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Hermit Warbler.

Misses: MANY birds. They included Green-winged Teal, Black-necked Stilt, Band-tailed Pigeon, Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds, Warbling Vireo, Horned Lark, Violet-Green Swallow, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, Brown-headed Cowbird, and American Goldfinch.

Final assessment: We might've worked in another migrant trap somewhere, but I don't think it would've changed much. The early date goes a long way toward accounting for the relatively low total (13 lower than the last fall Big Day I was involved in, on 2 October 2002). In any case, I think everyone had a fun time. Thanks to Wes, Peter, and Mark for putting up with my usual manic Big Day behavior. You guys were fun to hang out with.

Dave

Comments by Peter Gaede on the April 2005 Big Day attempt:

S.B. Birders:

Last Friday, April 29, Wes Fritz, Marshall Iliff and I went out for a big day in the County that lasted about 22 hours. We started the day with Cackling Goose in Santa Maria, and birded Figueroa Mt., the Santa Ynez Valley, Vandenberg AFB, Lompoc, and the south coast, ending with a Virginia Rail at the Bird Refuge. We really had no huge surprises or rarities, just a nice set of breeding birds, a few migrants, and a few lingering winter visitors. Compared to last year, ducks were extremely difficult to find, and aside from the many Anna's and a fair number of Rufous/Allen's, finding hummingbirds presented a challenge. Finch numbers, on the other hand, were almost overwhelming. Goldfinches were present at what seemed like a majority of our landbird stops, and we had Lawrence's at multiple locations. On Figueroa Mountain, we recorded a fair number of Pine Siskins, including a group of 50+, and we had a Cassin's Finch there too. Our total for the day was 181 species.

A few of our highlights included:

FIGUEROA MOUNTAIN
* Red-breasted Sapsucker - a late individual at Pino Alto.
* Hermit Thrush - one singing at Pino Alto.
* Cassin's Finch - Pino Alto

SANTA YNEZ VALLEY
* Sharp-shinned Hawk - Figueroa Mt. Rd.
* Rock Wren - Figueroa Mt. Rd.
* Purple Martin - many at Nojoqui Falls and along Alisal Rd.
* Loggerhead Shrike - Amour Ranch Rd.
* Grasshopper Sparrow - Figueroa Mt. Rd.
* Lawrence's Goldfinch - Figueroa Mt. Rd.

VANDENBERG AFB
* Black Oystercatcher - Wall Beach
* Ruddy Turnstone - Wall Beach
* Red-breasted Nuthatch
* Sage Sparrow
* Lawrence's Goldfinch

LOMPOC
* Northern Pintail - three at Ocean Park
* Blue Grosbeak - Sweeney Rd.

SOUTH COAST
* Pigeon Guillemot - one from Vista Point off of Hwy 101
* Cooper's Hawk - female on nest at Lake Los Carneros
* Red-necked Phalarope - one at Devereux Slough
* Yellow-breasted Chat - two singing pre-dawn (1 a.m.) in Refugio Canyon near Hwy 101

Our cumulative total for 5 spring big days over the last 4 years is now at 223. A few unexpected misses seem par for the course, and this year was no exception. Three that come to mind are Belted Kingfisher, Western Screech-owl, and Cassin's Vireo.

Peter Gaede
Carpinteria

Comments by Dave Compton on the October 2005 Big Day attempt:

Yesterday, Wes Fritz, Mark Holmgren, and I did a Big Day for the Pt Reyes Bird Observatory Bird-A-Thon, and we had a few birds of interest along the way:

First off, we saw both the RUFF and at least one PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVER in the flooded pasture just north of the Guadalupe sewage plant. (See previous posts for directions.) As usual, the Ruff was toward the west end of the pasture. A CATTLE EGRET was also in the area, in the next pasture over. No sign of Bobolink, White-faced Ibis, or American Golden-Plover, although one
or more of these species could still be around.

At Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, we saw a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER Wes had staked out for us. The bird was in a pepper tree on the west side of the mission, near the southwest corner of the building. If you walk around back to the grassy area lined with pepper trees, walk to the northwest corner of this area and then go down the walkway between the outer wall and the mission building. (This bird has caused some discussion among the three of us, and it provides an interesting case, not just of sapsucker ID, but also of the lack of thoroughness of birders wrapped up in a big day. I realize in retrospect that I did not see every feature, but based on what I saw, I believe this is probably a female Red-naped. Since we didn't have any other sapsucker, we can count it toward our total regardless.)

On Figueroa Mtn Rd, we found a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW at the gate of a ranch on the west side of the road, about midway between Highway 154 and where the road begins to wind up the mountain. I can get more exact directions if anyone wants them, but I didn't get the mile marker. At the same location, we had both a GOLDEN EAGLE and an adult BALD EAGLE.

At the Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara, we found two TROPICAL KINGBIRDS. Both birds were on the island immediately south of the parking lot. A COMMON MOORHEN was along the north shore and toward the west end of the lagoon. If you're interested only in rarities, read no further. The rest is about our Big Day total, the conditions, our route, etc.

As for out total, we got 156. This is lower than I would normally hope for on a fall Big Day, but this year, for the second year in a row, we were hampered by scheduling conflicts and weren't able to schedule our Big Day when we wanted to. I think ideal is probably about 1 October. Also, the weather--sunny and windy in the morning and sunny and warm in the afternoon--wasn't ideal for seeing lots of migrants. However, since we looked at the weather report and planned accordingly--not going to a lot of migrant traps--our failure to find many land migrants may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. We did hit a lot of habitats, so we didn't do badly in most areas. We did about as well as could be expected with most categories of water birds, although we did miss a couple of easy birds in these areas, too, and struck out almost completely on pelagics.

Route: We began the day in the Figueroa Mtn area, to avoid having to go here in the afternoon, when we expected the wind would be worse. We owled before dawn (Barn, Western Screech-, Great Horned) and looked successfully for Common Poorwill. We then birded the calm, more open side of Figueroa Mtn as the sun was coming up, before heading to Pino Alto Picnic Area. We also birded up  to the overlook at the summit before starting down the road toward 154. On the drive down, we hit known spots and stopped at places where we saw birds.

Next, we stopped at Mission Santa Ines for the sapsucker, before we went back to 154 and Cachuma Lake, where we stopped only at the marina, since scouting had suggested other locations would be unproductive.

We hit the south coast after 11am, a little later than hoped, and started at the Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara. We also birded the Mission and Laguna Creek outfalls near Stearn's Wharf before we drove on to Goleta.

In Goleta, we birded several stops on Atascadero Creek for land birds, but could find only one good flock in these three places. We also made an unproductive stop at some exotic plantings between an office building and a nursery near S. Patterson and Ekwill, but struck out here, too.

Our other stops in Goleta were Goleta Beach, the Goleta Sanitary District plant, the Mesa x Los Carneros Rd wetlands, Devereux Slough, Coal Oil Point, a pond on a private ranch in north Goleta, and Lake Los Carneros.

By the time we left Goleta, it was 4pm, and we decided to skip a planned stop at Refugio State Beach as we raced north to the Santa Maria Valley. Land birding didn't seem promising, so we decided to go somewhere we thought was sure to supply some new birds. We hit the pasture outside Guadalupe at just after 5pm, then birded the willows near the entrance to the Guadalupe Dunes Preserve, before heading to the parking lot to do a sea watch at the end of the day. After dinner in Guadalupe, we dropped in at Waller Park to find the Ross's and Cackling Geese in the dark.

Good Big Day birds not listed above: American White Pelican (Devereux Slough), Wood Duck (Bird Refuge), Merlin (Goleta Beach--but no Peregrine here), Mountain Quail (the road to Pino Alto Picnic Area), Wilson's Snipe (Guadalupe sewage pasture), Common Poorwill (Ranger Peak area), Nashville Warbler (Pino Alto Picnic Area), Hermit Warbler (near Pino Alto Picnic Area), Pine Siskin (the road to Pino Alto).

Most embarrassing misses: any pelagic sp. except a single jaeger, Northern Pintail, Cooper's Hawk, Black Turnstone, Warbling Vireo, Pygmy Nuthatch, Yellow Warbler (!), Western Tanager, Rufous-crowned Sparrow.

Given conditions, I'm not sure how we could've done too much better. We could've squeezed in some better birding for land migrants, but that would've meant dropping something else good along the way.

Regardless, it was a fun day. As usual, Mark and Wes were great company, and the scenery around Figueroa on a crystal clear morning and at Guadalupe Dunes beach at dusk was hard to beat.

Dave Compton
Santa Barbara

Comments by Dave Compton on the September 2006 Big Day attempt:

Hi folks,
  
Yesterday, Monday, 25 September, Mark Holmgren, Peter Gaede, and I did a fall Big Day for the PRBO Bird-A-Thon. We met at 2am and birded all over Santa Barbara County, until 10pm. The final tally was a very respectable 171. The best we've been able to do previously in fall was 164, so we were pretty happy with this total, although looking over the list again, I'm surprised at how many fairly common birds we missed. Still, we saw some nice stuff, and had a great time doing it. Next year, 180!
  
Incidentally, this year we concentrated on the route around Figueroa Mtn, the area around Lompoc, and the south coast. Two great areas that we decided to bypass were the Santa Maria Valley and Lake Cachuma, the latter being dropped at the last minute. Both areas certainly would've turned up some birds that we missed, but things went pretty well, even though yesterday didn't seem to be a particularly good migration day.
  
Thanks to Peter and Mark for a great time. I can't wait to do it again next year.
  
Dave Compton
Santa Barbara
  
HIGHLIGHTS
  
Stakeouts at Mesa x Los Carneros, Goleta:
RUFF - At least one
TROPICAL KINGBIRD
LESSER YELLOWLEGS
BLUE-WINGED TEAL - female and eclipse male
  
Best new bird of the day:
ORCHARD ORIOLE at Refugio State Beach
  
Other nice surprises:
COMMON MURRE - 130 (!) off Surf Beach, west of Lompoc
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL - One near adult at the SB Harbor Sandspit
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD - One near Lompoc
  
Also:
BOBOLINK - 11 in Goleta, on private property
WHITE-FACED IBIS - Five at Devereux Slough
AMERICAN AVOCETS - Ocean Park, seen from the bluff south of the park
PEREGRINE FALCON - Devereux Slough, Santa Barbara Harbor
WANDERING TATTLER - SB Harbor sandspit (next to last bird of the day)
COMMON POORWILL - East Pinery Rd, Ranger Pk
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER - Figueroa Mtn, near the summit
PINE SISKIN - One at Figueroa Mtn near Pino Alto Picnic Area
  
Owling. It was tough work, but we had some success owling, including
NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL - Two around Ranger Peak and Figueroa Mtn
SPOTTED OWL - One at a known location in the Santa Ynez Mtns
GREAT HORNED OWL - All over Figueroa Mtn Rd
WESTERN SCREECH-OWL - Near the Spotted Owl location and near Midland School on Figueroa Mtn Rd
BARN OWL - After being missed at various locations, finally heard (#170 for the day) at the parking lot at Lake Los Carneros
  
MOST EMBARRASSING MISSES:
American Robin (ugh!)
Black-headed Grosbeak
  
DISHONORABLE MENTION
Surf Scoter
Clark's Grebe
Osprey
Pectoral Sandpiper
Caspian Tern
Vaux's Swift
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Bullock's Oriole

Dave Compton

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