Carp Without Cars

For our next meeting we’ll go back to a topic that can always use more study: Gulls! Join us Thursday, August 27, 2020, at 4 p.m. for part 1 of this two-part topic, as we talk about basic gull facts and the “Big 4” locally common species. We’ll cover part 2, with the “Slightly More Exotic 5″, in the following meeting.

Zoom meeting info:

Topic: Gulls part 1: Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting for 2020-08-27
Time: Aug 27, 2020 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85087797181?pwd=eC9sR1RtOVRQYmVPV3QzY1gyR2FFZz09

Meeting ID: 850 8779 7181
Passcode: 004784

YouTube livestream:

Links mentioned during the meeting:

• J. J. Audubon and the Bird of Washington Fraud with Matthew Halley – ABA podcast with Nate Swick and Matthew Halley
• The fable of Audubon the scientist – blog post by Matthew Halley
• Audubon’s Bird of Washington: unravelling the fraud that launched The birds of America – Journal article by Matthew Halley

You can also view the slides from the meeting.

By request, the next Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting will cover thrashers and blackbirds. Join us on August 13, 2020, at 4 p.m. to learn more!

YouTube livestream:

Link mentioned during the meeting:

• An article on the renaming of the Thick-billed Longspur
• An article on a recent study showing a link between neonicotinoid pesticides and grassland bird declines
• A Los Padres Forest Watch page on how to comment on the Reyes Ridge logging proposal: The extended deadline for submitting a public comment is tomorrow (8/14).
• Andrea asked about Lanayah, my son’s post-rock/doomgaze band whose shirt I was wearing. You can view the video for their song “Three Javelins”; it isn’t the most representative of their music, but it DOES have birds. :-) If you’d like to hear more Lanayah their latest album is on their Bandcamp page.

The slides from the meeting are viewable here.

For the July 30, 2020, online meeting of Carpinteria Birdwatchers we’ll continue our review of Santa Barbara County shorebirds, this time covering the larger species. See you Thursday at 4 p.m.

YouTube livestream:

The topic for the 7/16 meeting will be peeps: those cute little shorebirds (along with some other small shorebird species, like small plovers and Sanderlings). The first few southbound Western Sandpipers have started to show up on our beaches and mudflats, so it’s a great time to get ready for the fall migration.

YouTube livestream:

Links mentioned during the meeting:

• If you wish to contact Valerie Bentz with the Carpinteria Valley Association, who spoke during the meeting about the removal of eucalyptus trees for the new skate park project near Carpinteria City Hall, you can email her at vbentz@fielding.edu.
• John’s eBird checklist from July 9 at the “Carpinteria Police Station Tams”
• National Marine Sanctuaries online seminar on “Seabirds 101”, July 23 at 3 p.m. Pacific.

You can also view the slides from the meeting.

After last week’s meeting about grassland birds I decided to revisit a grassland birdwatching site I hadn’t been to in some time: the Point Sal Trail near Orcutt. For this week’s meeting I’ll present a trip report about my visit, including photos and sound recordings of the birds I found there.

I don’t expect my trip report will take a whole meetings’ worth of time, so I’m hoping some other participants might be willing to share about a recent trip they’ve made as well. If that doesn’t work out we can also just have a shorter-than-usual meeting.

I’m looking forward to it. See you there!

— John Callender

YouTube livestream:

Links mentioned during the event:

• Bird Names for Birds petition: “Nomenclatural changes for a more welcoming ornithology”
• AOS statement on the possible renaming of the McCown’s Longspur
• Macauley Library information on sound-editing tutorials
• Updates to eBird’s My eBird page
• John’s eBird lists from the Point Sal Trail: List 1, list 2, list 3, list 4, list 5