Date: 11/11/26 4:50 pm From: Florence Sanchez via main <sanchezucsb11...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Santa Maria Birding Nov. 11
I birded several places in Santa Maria today and found a few species worth mentioning.
At Jack O'Connell Park, I found 6 Wilson's Snipe in the grass at the west end of the park, right by the sidewalk on Wet Main Street. The continuing male Vermillion Flycatcher also put in a brief appearance on a pole at the edge of one of the sewage treatment ponds.
I then went down the road to the Guadalupe Dunes Park. Right at the entrance, I spotted two sparrows on the ground just beyond the kiosk. One of them was a White-Throated Sparrow. Then in the river (as viewed from the road above) I found a female Canvasback Duck. The estuary itself was full of waterfowl and I spent over an hour combining through the flocks to see what was there. Some groups on the far edge of the estuary were too tightly packed an distant for me to identify all the species present, even through my scope, and others at the eastern end were hard to identify because of the glare, but most dabbling duck species were represented. There must have been at least 200 Ruddy Ducks in the center of the estuary, by far the most numerous species. Also lots of Grebes, large shorebirds, and Gulls (six species). I was especially looking for Redheads but did not find any in the duck flocks I was able to sort through.
I checked out the A Street ponds but there was little of note in them except 4 Snipe in the vegetation at the edge of the large pond.
I finished at Waller Park and checked out the huge resident waterfowl flock. Nothing remarkable in it, but the now-feral Snow Goose and Aleutian Canada Goose were still present and enjoying the bread line.
Florence Sanchez
