Hi all,
In the morning yesterday Max, Jeremy, and I took some friends out Refugio rd, in hopes of seeing some migrant action. We didnt have a ton of migrant action, but found most of the expected birds. Notable kisses were Nashville warbler and cassins vireo. The best bird of note there was an interesting hummingbird, which the consensus on is a hybrid annas x costas hummingbird. At first glance, it had a strikingly purple gorget and we thought costas, but then it repositioned and looked more like an Annas. Upon closer inspection, the shape and gorget seem overall intermediate between the two species. Heres a checklist with some photos and more detail https://ebird.org/checklist/S133723394
Next I stopped by Coal Oil Point, where I counted an impressive total of 71 surfbirds, which is the most Ive seen at one time. A few other migratory shorebirds were present, but the shorebirds were definitely the most interesting. At Devereux I looked for the mysterious reddish egret without any luck. More musings on that at the end.
The other nice birds to see were a western tanager and 2 common loons migrating over at the bottlebrush row at the student health building at ucsb, where there was also decent hummingbird activity with one probable adult male rufous hummer. Lastly an estimate of 900 brant seen migrating incidentally from Elwood in the evening.
As for the possibility of a reddish egret, I know many people have looked but I think we should still keep an eye out at any suitable habitat. Ive now heard 3 separate reports of a weird egret/heron. First, my professor who is familiar with the common birds told me he saw a dark egret while biking through NCOS last week. Then w ebird report came through, even though there was no proper documentation. Lastly, a bird photographer friend said a buddy of his reported seeing an orange-ish great egret recently, also at NCOS. Not enough to be definitive, but it does raise my suspicions.
Happy birding, Alex Castelein UCSB/Isla Vista