Autumn is many birders’ favorite season, in part because many young birds migrating south for the first time take a wrong turn, and in Santa Barbara, we get more than our fair share of these rare lost birds. Fall migration begins as early as June, when the first adult shorebirds begin their epic southward journey from as far north as the Alaskan tundra. A few songbirds are also on the move, but most of these are wandering a relatively short distance from where they fledged. Wilson’s warblers and western tanagers are already in evidence along coastal creeks.
But now is the time for the shorebirds, or waders as they are known in the U.K. One such species, the western sandpiper, is already appearing locally along mudflats or the edges of ponds, where they glean insects and other small creatures. The first juvenile sandpipers are passing through our region, with most of the adults having already moved through. Because of the drought, and also because much mudflat habitat has been destroyed, a good place to look for these birds can be along beaches, such as those around Coal Oil Point.
As well as the western sandpiper, there is another tiny sandpiper, the least, and these two species often occur together. The least is a little smaller and is indeed the smallest shorebird in the world. It weighs in at about one ounce. These sandpipers are collectively known as “peeps,” for when they are too far away to identify to species or the birder is too lazy to look closely. There are a number of differences, the easiest being that the least has yellow legs while the western has black.