Hi everyone,
Friday afternoon, Sophie Cameron, Alex Castelein, and I drove up to Cuyama for an overnight birding trip.
Our first stop was at the Caliente Ranch wetlands, where we found 2 solitary sandpipers together in the shallow pond on the north side of Hwy 166, approx (34.990260, -119.800037). The pair allowed nice views as they foraged on the mudflats for several minutes, then eventually flew off.
We then made a stop at the Cuyama WTP, where there were western and least sandpipers, spotted sandpipers, 2 greater yellowlegs, and cinnamon teal, among other things. Alex spotted a yellow-headed blackbird flying by that Sophie and I unfortunately didn't get eyes on.
As darkness cloaked the valley, we drove to Ballinger Canyon to camp for the night. We could hear the trills of lesser nighthawks from our campsite, so decided to cruise Ballinger Canyon rd. in hopes of finding more. After not too long, we spotted a nighthawk sitting on the road. It soon flushed and was met with a second individual. We watched the pair of nighthawks fly around above our heads while we could hear another singing in the distance, so there had to be at least 3 in the area.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of our birding along Ballinger Canyon road in the morning was a gorgeous and confiding black-throated sparrow that sang for us near (34.8823388, -119.4509115), on the north side of the road about half a kilometer (by road) southwest of the campground. There may have been a second individual spotted, but we were unable to see both simultaneously to confirm. It would be really interesting to see if they breed here this year; per eBird data it appears they haven't been seen in Ballinger for 8 years. In addition to the black-throated sparrow, there were several Brewer's, black-chinned, and Bell's sparrows singing in the general area.
A brief stop at Santa Barbara Pistachio after Ballinger yielded some yellow warblers and a warbling vireo amongst the horde of house sparrows.
Hoping to turn up a Scott's oriole and more north county goodies we made stops at Deer Park and Quatal canyons, but didn't have any luck at turning up anything new. By this point, it was quite hot outside and activity was reduced.
Surprisingly, Cuyama dairy was devoid of blackbirds, and our hopes of finding another yellow-headed (bananahead) were squashed.
Throughout our extensive meandering along the valley's roads we kept wary eyes out for Swainson's hawks, but turned up nothing notable in the raptor department other than a single golden eagle soaring above Kirschenmann rd.
As is often the case with spring birding, the incidental reptile encounters were quite good. Without intentional effort we stumbled across a San Joaquin coachwhip, leopard lizard sp., Blainville's horned lizard, and a gopher snake. As expected, the wildflower show was astonishing.
We had places to be in the evening, so left Cuyama around 2 pm on Saturday, wrapping up a very fun birding trip.
Happy Birding!
Max Laubstein
Isla Vista |