For our next group outing we’ll head back to the western part of the Carpinteria Bluffs. Starting at the Bailard Avenue parking lot, we’ll walk the coastal trail to the harbor seal overlook and back. Late November brings wintering birds to the Bluffs, like Say’s Phoebes and Western Meadowlarks in the grassland and loons and…

Join us on Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. for the next Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting. This month, we’ll take a closer look at a bird we see almost every day: the Turkey Vulture. Turkey Vultures are easy to take for granted, rocking on their tilted wings over the foothills and the Bluffs. But there’s…

For this month’s group outing we’ll return to Toro Canyon County Park for an easy hour of birding around the park’s parking lots and picnic areas. Mid-October brings fall migrants through the oaks and sycamores, and wintering birds like White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Townsend’s Warblers are settling in for the season. It’s…

Join us on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. for the next Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting. This month, we’ll talk about chasing: what it’s like to hear about a rare bird and drop everything to go look for it. In just the last few weeks, Santa Barbara County has hosted a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Golden-winged…

For our next group outing we’ll try a new spot: Rincon Beach County Park, at the Bates Road exit off the 101 at the south end of Carpinteria. Mid-September is peak season for migrating shorebirds, and the beach north of Rincon Point is a great place to see them. We’ll start by birding the bluff…

Join us on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. as Carpinteria Birdwatchers meetings return! This month, we’ll take a close look at vireos — an easily overlooked family that rewards birders who know where and when to look. We’ll start with the three species you can reliably find in Santa Barbara County: Hutton’s Vireo,…

Update: We had a lot of fun birding for an hour, mostly around the Sanitary District offices. eBird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S383665689 Our monthly outings resume after a short summer hiatus with a visit to a new spot near a familiar waterway: the 6th Street area near Carpinteria Creek, including the area around the Carpinteria Sanitary…

For the past 30 years I’ve been part of an ongoing survey of bird populations at the Carpinteria Salt Marsh, a survey that dates back to the 1970s. Every survey includes a count of all the birds we can find, along with a map showing where each species was seen. Over 50 years those maps…

With lots of travel happening I’ve been unable to schedule a time for a Carpinteria Birdwatchers outing in July. As a result, we’ll be skipping this month’s outing. You can still go birding — and you should! 😀 Just not as part of a Carpinteria Birdwatchers outing. We’ll be back with a monthly outing in…

For our next group outing we’ll return to the 8th Street footbridge over Carpinteria Creek. This low-energy outing offers excellent opportunities to observe birds in the nearby foliage and along the creek, all while staying comfortably on the bridge. With summer warming up, a shady morning of birdwatching from the bridge sounds just about right….