Date: 9/15/26 3:45 pm From: Florence Sanchez via groups.io <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] COPR Beach and Dune Pond Sept. 15
No luck on re-finding the Pectoral Sandpiper Nick Lethaby saw last night. The sandpiper flock at the ponds muddy edges was quite distant, but a darker-breasted (and slightly larger) individual should still have been apparent even though binoculars. A birder who was there before me also had the same experience, When I left, Armando was scanning through the long lens of his camera but hadn't picked it up.
There were lots of birds on the beach and a few terns as well, but nothing rare. It was a bad day for pedestrians and dogs going through the flocks and it was almost impossible to get an accurate tally of the species that were there.
After I left the beach, i checked out Devereux Slough to see if the Pectoral SP might have joined up with the sandpiper flock there, but that flock was constantly on the go and never came into good view this morning. Part of the reason was the continued fly-over by the local Osprey.
Other places worthy of checking for this bird are NCOS and the UCSB Lagoon. I have seen a Pectoral at each spot in past years. At UCSB, it was when the Lagoon was covered with large mats of algae. The Pectoral apparently like to forage on them (I also saw this behavior in Yellowstone NP).
Florence Sanchez
PS--There were Red-breasted Nuthatches calling from the trees at the broken bridge pull-out at Devereux this morning.
