Date: 8/27/26 11:45 am From: Florence Sanchez via groups.io <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Weird morning on COPR beaches
Not only was the warm, muggy weather unusual (for 6:30 a.m.), the bird population was also somewhat bizarre. The low tide occurred well before dawn, so I was prepared to deal with the incoming tide, but that did not account for everything.
First, I noted a higher than usual number of Western Sandpipers on the beach. Next, I had Short-billed Dowitchers for the first time in a few weeks since the adult that were there departed (23 total, all juveniles). But I saw almost no Snowy Plovers on the beach this morning and had only 1 Black-bellied Plover, even on the Ellwood portion of the Beach. After I turned and started my return trip, a flock of about 45 Black-bellies flew west and landed on the beach behind me for a brief time, then took off east again and I did not find it again. I also had no Sanderlings until I was well East of Coal Oil Point itself on my return trip.
There was no Gull flock on the beach, nor any Tern flock, though I did have fly-bys of Elegant and Forester's Terns. Nothing was resting on the sand behind the boundary ropes either.
I checked Devereux after leaving the beach and there were almost no shorebirds there. I spotted what was probably the Neotropic Cormorant (based on size) at the end of a small group of cormorants on the playa that was north of the main group.
Florence Sanchez
