Birding at McGrath State Beach

: The estuary – where fresh water meets the sea – is an important habitat to all kinds of species.

: A pair of American pelicans skims over the water of the estuary. McGrath State Beach is visible in the background.

: Turkey vultures inhabit an important niche – they feed on dead and decomposing animals.

: A male mallard in the marshy area near the thalweg.

: Silent and quick, least terns hunt their prey from the sky and swoop from above.

: Black skimmers

: Black skimmers

: The Black Skimmer breeds in loose groups on sandbanks and sandy beaches in the Americas, the three to seven heavily dark-blotched buff or bluish eggs being incubated by both the male and female.

: A courting pair of black skimmers circles the estuary.

: A California least tern snatches a fish from the estuary as the city of Ventura clings to the hillsides in the background.

: If you look very carefully, you can see a tiny fish in this least tern’s beak.

: Western snowy plovers

: Western snowy plovers

: Western snowy plovers

: Although the black skimmer’s mandibles are of equal length at hatching, they rapidly become unequal during fledging.

: Black skimmer

: Black skimmer

: Skimmers have a light graceful flight, with steady beats of their long wings. They feed usually in large flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish, insects, crustaceans and molluscs.

: Black skimmer

: Snowy plovers have natural predators such as falcons, raccoons, coyotes, and owls. There are also predators that humans have introduced or whose populations they have helped to increase, including crows and ravens, red fox, and domestic dogs.

: Western snowy plover

: These birds forage for food in fields, mudflats, and shores, usually by sight. They mainly eat insects.

: Western snowy plover

: Western snowy plover

: Western snowy plovers

: Western snowy plovers

: Human activity can also affect the breeding of plovers. People drive vehicles, ride bike

: The neck and head of American avocets are cinnamon colored in the summer and gray in the winter.

: Nesting birds will often try to confuse, attack, or distract would-be predators.

: This American avocet is loudly screeching and holding its body at strange angles to draw my attention away from its nearby chick.

: Back off! My chick is nearby!

: American avocets in flight

: The brown pelican is one of only 3 pelican species found in the Western Hemisphere.

: In level flight, pelicans fly in groups, with their heads held back on their shoulders, the bills resting on their folded necks. They may fly in a “V”, but usually in regular lines or single file, often low over the water’s surface.

: The Killdeer frequently uses a “broken wing act” to distract predators from the nest.

: The crowd at the bar (at the sandbar, that is) is always changing.

: A courting pair of black skimmers joins the other birds at the sandbar.

: A close look reveals at least 5 different species.

: Walking along the sandbar, one must slow down and look carefully at the cluster of birds – there are usually more species present than first appears to the eye.

: The Red-winged Blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male is all black with a red shoulder and yellow wing bar, while the female is a nondescript dark brown.

: An American avocet prowls for food while a California least tern captures its food by dive-bombing it.

: A body of water called a thalweg develops between the dunes and the crashing surf. This is a great place for birds to feed, hide, and raise their young.

: An American avocet with its chick

: Upon hatching, American avocet chicks feed themselves; they are never fed by their parents.

: The American Avocet forages in shallow water or on mud flats, often sweeping its bill from side to side in water as it seeks its crustacean and insect prey.

: Dune habitats provide niches for highly specialized plants and animals, including numerous rare species and some endangered species. Due to widespread human population expansion, dunes face destruction through land development and recreational usages, as well as alteration to prevent the encroachment of sand onto inhabited areas.

: American avocet in flight

: The breeding habitat is marshes, beaches, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes in the mid-west and on the Pacific coast of North America. American avocets form breeding colonies numbering dozens of pairs. When breeding is over the birds gather in large flocks, sometimes including hundreds of birds.

: Avocets use their long beaks to probe for invertebrates in the soft bottom at the edge of the water.

: The other name for an American avocet is “blue shanks”.

: American avocet

: American avocet pair

: American avocet

: Caspian terns feed mainly on fish, which they dive for, hovering high over the water and then plunging. They also occasionally eat large insects, the young and eggs of other birds and rodents.

: Caspian terns are the world’s largest tern.

: California least tern

: California least tern

: The California Least Tern arrives at its breeding grounds in late April. Courtship typically takes place removed from the nesting colony site, usually on an exposed tidal flat or beach. Only after courtship has confirmed mate selection does nesting begin by mid-May and is usually complete by mid-June.

: In the bays and lagoons of Southern California and northern Mexico, the favored prey of California least terns include anchovy, smelt, silversides, shiner surfperch and small crustaceans. The terns often feed near shore in the open ocean, especially in proximity to lagoons or bay mouths.

: The California Least Tern hunts primarily in shallow estuaries and lagoons, where smaller fishes are abundant. They hover until spotting prey, and then plunge into the water without full submersion to extract prey.

: Avocets are monogamous and pairs form up in the spring when the female persistently associates with the male until she is eventually tolerated, then accepted as a mate.

: Plover nests usually contains three tiny eggs, which are camouflaged to look like sand and barely visible to even the most well-trained trained eye. Plovers will use almost anything they can find on the beach to make their nests, including kelp, driftwood, shells, rocks, and even human footprints.

: The western snowy plover is a threatened small shorebird, approximately the size of a sparrow. During the breeding season, March through September, plovers can be seen nesting along the shores, peninsulas, offshore islands, bays, estuaries, and rivers of the United States’ Pacific Coast.

: The Brown Pelican is one of the only two pelican species which feeds by diving into the water.

: The White-tailed Kite was rendered almost extinct in California in the 1930s and 1940s by shooting and egg-collecting, but they are now common again.

: The total population of California least terns amounted to 582 breeding pairs in the year 1974, when census work on this bird began.

: The California least tern, which nests at McGrath, is a federally listed endangered subspecies.

: Nesting American Avocets aggressively attack predators, sometimes physically striking Northern Harriers or Common Ravens.

: Usually, the clump of birds you can observe at the sandbar has a high diversity of species.

: Hummingbirds are territorial and will engage in aerial acrobatics with others to defend their turf.

: These fast-moving birds have high-energy needs. They mostly feed on nectar and insects.

: Large birds of prey like this red shouldered hawk keep rodent populations down in the park.

: The killdeer is so named because of the noise it makes.

: The orange patch on the crown that gives these birds their name is usually not visible.

: Orange-crowned warblers forage actively in low shrubs, flying from perch to perch, sometimes hovering. These birds eat insects, berries and nectar.

: A flock of American coots, also called mud hens, sprints across the water after being startled.

: Every year, a symbolic fence is erected around the nesting grounds. Snowy plovers, least terns, and avocets take advantage of the protected space.

: Turkey vultures, shy despite their large size, are commonly spotted at McGrath State Beach.

Birding at McGrath State Beach

Birding at McGrath State Beach

Carpinteria Tide Pools

: A bright green anemone sits alongside red algae in the tidepool

: A tiny jellyfish, trapped in the tidepool, pulsates aimlessly

: This creature (Hermissenda crassicornis) is able to perform a neat trick – it moves the stinging cells from its favorite food – hydrozoans – to the fleshy appendages on its back for protection. The eaten stinging cells are not digested, but instead moved to the tips by way of the brown digestive gland which can be seen extending into the appendages.

: Clams are filter feeders. The open “mouth” in this photo is actually the siphon of a very large clam embedded in the rock. There are two closed siphons alongside it.

: A child investigates an ochre star (Pisaster ochraceous) during low tide

: A Pacific rock crab (Cancer antennarius) – these are all over the rocks and in the pools during low tide – you just have to look carefully!

: Hermit crabs are arthropods, and they carry their skeletons on the outside of their bodies. But their back half is soft, meaning they must borrow a hard shell to protect it.

: A tidepool sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus) hides among ochre stars and anemones

: A close-up view of the skin of an ochre star. Sea stars are echinoderms, which means “spiny-skinned.”

: This little fish got trapped in the pool, and snagged not once, but twice, by two different anemones.

: The Kellet’s whelk snail (Kelletia kelletii) is among the largest gastropods on the central California coast. These snails are voracious predators. This one is surrounded by sunburst anemones and ochre stars.

: Pelicans, gulls, egrets, and more eagerly comb the rocks as the tide recedes, looking for a quick meal

: Hermit crabs have soft hindquarters, making borrowing a shell a necessity for survival

: Swirling sand makes for harsh conditions in the tidepool

: An octopus curls up inside a tiny cup in a rock wall during low tide.

: Nudibranchs feed on hydroids, sponges, sea slug eggs or sea slugs, sea squirts, pieces of fish, other mollusks and sometimes anemones and barnacles. All are carnivorous and feed on a wide variety of animals. The Opalescent Nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis) is one of the few cannibalistic species of nudibranchs.

: Spanish shawl nudibranch, found in the tidepool at Carpinteria State Beach

: The Spanish shawl nudibranch (Flabellina iodinea) is easily one of the most beautiful of the tidepool denizens.

: Ochre stars (Pisaster ochraceous) come in a variety of colors – orange, purple, red, brown, and even pink! Here are several clustered in a tidepool with sunburst anemones (Anthopleura sola)

: This stalked tunicate (Styela montereyensis) is a chordate, meaning it has a primitive spinal cord. One of its siphons is open. Behind it is Phyllospadix, also called surf grass.

: A Pacific rock crab (Cancer antennarius) hunkers down in a tidepool at Carpinteria State Beach, next to a sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola)

: Ochre stars (Pisaster ochraceous) come in a variety of colors – orange, purple, red, brown, and even pink! Here are several clustered in a tidepool with sunburst anemones (Anthopleura sola)

Carpinteria Tide Pools

Carpinteria Tide Pools

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