Thanks to Kyle Braunger’s posting about the Baird’s Sandpipers near Campus Point, I went to UCSB East Beach on Monday at 5pm in search of an up-till-now elusive photo of a Baird’s. The Monday walk was not successful in this regard (there were many walkers on the beach), but it was fun to watch the collection of mostly Elegant Terns at the beach. They were fishing up and down the East Beach waters seemingly undisturbed except for a few gulls trying to steal their fish catch. The Terns were very vocal and active.

(Elegant Terns – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

I returned on Tuesday between 4:45 and 5:45pm, in what turned out to be a more successful walk. After watching the Terns for a short while, I walked down toward the waterfall area of the beach, and came across a pair of birds that I had never seen before. They seemed very young and wary, and kept close to each other. (Later that evening when downloading the pictures, I discovered that they were juvenile Red Knots after referencing my “NG Birds of North America”.)

When I moved on after watching the Red Knots, the Baird’s were still nowhere to be seen. As I was walking back, I saw a flock of disturbed peeps fly past and land ahead of me. This time, dog disturbance worked in my favor; it was a mixed flock of Semipalmated Plovers and Baird’s Sandpipers. A combination of slow-creep and standing-and-watching allowed some reasonable close-up pictures of the juvenile Baird’s Sandpipers (there were at least two).

It seems that most of the pictures on this page include juveniles of the species, and two firsts for me: Baird’s Sandpipers and Red Knots.

(Baird’s Sandpiper – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

(Red Knots – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

(Black Turnstone – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

(Forster’s Tern – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

(Brown Pelican – UCSB East Beach – August 28, 2007)

SLIDESHOWS

The photos in the text are just some of the photos taken. To see all of the photos, please click on the link below.

• Slideshow of photos taken at UCSB East Beach, August 27,28