Date: 12/1/25 7:50 am From: Rob Hofberg via groups.io <rhofberg...> Subject: Re: [sbcobirding] Campus Birds
The general low bird population is depressing. I have yet to have a good
day of passerines this autumn. Water birds seem to be the only birds in
good numbers.
On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM Conor McMahon via groups.io
<conormcmahon22...> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> This morning I took advantage of the last day of Thanksgiving break to
> check some flowering trees around the depopulated UCSB campus, hoping to
> find some stuff which might stick around for the CBC. I mainly birded the
> northwest quadrant of campus, including the Coral Tree Cafe, bus loop, 'Old
> Gym Wetland,' Counseling/Career Services bottlebrush, Thunderdome tipus,
> and Student Health eucs/bottlebrush. I also did a very cursory look at
> Pearl Chase Park and the bottlebrush/aloe near the Chancellor residence.
>
> The Nashville from the tipu lot seems to be sticking around for at least
> its third winter, assuming it's the same bird. I didn't see the Lucy's
> which stayed here the previous two winters alongside it (and haven't seen
> it on a couple prior checks this fall). I had a small but wide-ranging pack
> of Swinhoe's White-eyes seen at various spots in the NW of campus. There
> was also one Western Tanager in some eucalyptus north of the bus loop.
>
> Lots of Eucalyptus are flowering, in roughly decreasing order:
> lemon-scented gum, blue gum, red ironbark, red gum, and red box. Most of
> the bottlebrush have a few flowers but not a ton, and weren't especially
> birdy. Only a few coral trees had any flowers. The tipus were reasonably
> active but not bustling. The sweet gums both by the campus bus loop and
> near where I live have just started to bring in some finches, too, so worth
> keeping an eye out for Siskins etc.
>
> I've been trying everywhere I go and have continued to strike out on
> orioles. Hopefully some more are found before the CBC.
>
> Best,
> Conor McMahon
> Goleta
>
>
>
