Date: 12/1/25 8:19 am From: Miguel Christie via groups.io <christiemiguel...> Subject: Re: [sbcobirding] Campus Birds
Much the same in the Lompoc área, Mark. Even White-crowned Sparrows are
scarce ...
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025, 07:50 Rob Hofberg via groups.io <rhofberg=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
> --
> ---
> Rob Hofberg
> Santa Barbara
>
>
