If you’ve been following my updates to this post you’ll know that I’ve spent most of my birding time over the past month watching the family of snowy plovers near the mouth of Carpinteria Creek. The eggs have hatched, the female bird has departed, and the male bird and the three chicks are still going…

I wanted to give an update on the latest snowy plover news, and I thought I’d put it in the form of a timeline that I can update going forward. These are just the relevant events that I know about; others may have more information. If you forward me more details I’ll be happy to…

Late yesterday afternoon Tom Beland texted me to let me know that the snowy plover nest we’ve been watching at Carpinteria State Beach had hatched. Three baby plovers were roaming around the vicinity of the nest site and taking shelter under the adult male bird. Unless I’m mistaken this is the first successful hatching of…

As of yesterday the snowy plover nest near the mouth of Carpinteria Creek is still going strong, with the female bird incubating during the day and the male bird presumably around somewhere, though I haven’t seen him on my last few (brief) visits. But he’s good at disappearing, then popping up right underfoot when I’m…

Although Snowy Plovers previously bred along Carpinteria beaches, they had ceased to do so by 1960. In 2013 Adrian O’Loghlen found an adult with two fledglings on the beach just west of Carpinteria, but that had been the only documented breeding record in the last 60 years.* Until now! Two weeks ago, on May 10,…

Dave Ledig is a Carpinterian who is also project leader for the California Condor recovery program with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. During a conversation last Friday he told me that he and his wife Julie had recently observed a pair of Black Oystercatchers nesting on the beach near the harbor seal pupping site…

Update: There have been so many cool bird surprises along the Carpinteria coast in the last few weeks that I’ve decided to make our next meeting all about them. We’ll cover banded bird reporting and not one but two species that have recently made historic nesting attempts along Carpinteria beaches: Black Oystercatchers and Snowy Plovers….

I’m not sure why, but this year there have been more Purple Finches in our yard. One thing I’ve noticed is how much the female* Purple Finches vocalize. I learned growing up that male birds sing and females don’t, but it turns out that’s wrong. It is often that way for temperate-zone species, apparently, but…

I’ve been experimenting with using my camera to take bird videos, and this House Wren singing near the entrance to Toro Canyon Park this morning is my latest attempt. I love listening to them sing.

Still working on making it fully functional, but Carpinteria Birdwatchers now has its own website.