Before going out to Santa Cruz Island, we went birding with Ventura Audobon Society:
Santa Clara River Estuary/ Surfers Knoll
Saturday May 29, 2021 8:30 AM
We will walk along the beach from Surfers Knoll parking lot to the estuary. We will hope to see a variety of shorebirds including Snowy Plovers, Ruddy and Black Turnstones and hopefully Surfbirds which are always an exciting treat. We will also tackle some gull and tern identification, so bring your field guides!
There were thousands of brown pelicans, but we were excited to see our first white pelicans on the California coast!
Unfortunately, the surf birds were long gone….
There were two dead seals and several pelican corpses picked clean by turkey vultures and the hawks. We saw a peregrine falcon through the scope.
It was a great group.
We saw two kinds of gulls (Western and American)
As well as:
Terns
Gadwalls
Mallards
Ruddy Ducks
Pied-billed Grebes
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Great Egret
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Least Terns, American Coots, Brandt’s Goose (?)
Red-necked Phalarope
And more tree swallows!
Chris got a great series of Tern photos (First shot with swallow photobomb!)
Gulls Galore!
Pictures by my Sis below!
Ruddy Duck above
Pie-Billed Grebe “Like a puppy,” she said–below
Her favorite Least Terns below…
Her amazing photos of the Tree Swallow below–she was near their boxes!
“There were a bunch of boxes all around the ponds. And the ponds are huge and there are three of them.”
Dewdrop World 
