Date: 9/7/26 10:20 am From: Florence Sanchez via groups.io <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] UCSB Beach, Sept.7
I hadn't checked the beach north of the steps leading down from Lot 6 in a few days, so I decided to give it a try this morning in spite of the high tide. I had to roll up my pants, take off my shoes, and wade through the surf at the bottom of the steps to do so but it was an interesting walk once I started.
The high tides have cleared most of the kelp wrack off that beach since my last visit and I was afraid the shorebirds might have departed with the kelp, but that turned out not to be the case. As I've reported before, this stretch of beach seems to be particularly popular with Marbled Godwits. I had 32 of them this morning. In spite of the lack of kelp, there still were plenty of Least Sandpipers (29) and Semi-palmated Plovers (28). Other species found included Willets (4), Black-bellied Plovers (13), Whimbrels (2), Long-billed Curlews (18), Western Sandpipers (7), Short-billed Dowitchers (9), and 3 Sanderlings for the first time here.
I saw no terns fishing in the bay today. I didn't file a report for this location on August 30, but I had 2 Least Terns that morning. They quickly departed and I could not find them elsewhere while searching later in the area.
Conditions are similar to those of the year we had the Curlew Sandpiper. in subsequent years, we've had NO bird activity in fall along this stretch of beach so I don't know why things are different this year, but maybe we'll get something unique here this year.
I find myself wondering after several forays both here and at COPR: Where are all the Sanderlings? I usually have found good flocks of them by this time of year but numbers have been very low so far.
Florence Sanchez
