Santa Ynez Birding

Lazuli Bunting
Originally uploaded by idahobirder

Santa Ynez skies are clearing. The birds are starting to sing, ready to emerge from their shelter under the foliage of the oaks and sage.

Yesterday I saw a lazuli bunting, a bird which migrates here from Mexico during the summer breeding season. Here's a picture of one of these beauties. I think I can hear one singing now, waiting for the rain to end. The song is a high strident series of warbled syllables.

Each male Lazuli Bunting sings just one song made up of a series of different syllables that is unique to him. Young males fly into on the breeding grounds without a song of their own. Shortly after arriving, a young male develops his own song. It might be a unique rearrangement of syllables, combinations of song fragments of several males, or a copy of the song of one particular older male.

Many, many people here in Santa Ynez Valley enjoy nature. There are always opportunities to learn more. I've mentioned the docent training classes at the Sedgwick Reserve. Lake Cachuma has docent training as well. Also, it features weekly birding cruises. Visitors are often treated to the sight of bald eagles who nest on the northern shore of the lake. It's thrilling to see these majestic birds in flight against the panoramic view of the mountains.

The eagles visit us in Woodstock Ranch occasionally. One afternoon as I was driving home I spotted a large bird on the ground. The bend in the road interruupted my view. When I turned the corner, there was a bald eagle feasting on a ground squirrel!

The Wildling Art Museum sponsors two multi-session of bird watching classes each year. They are taught by Fred Emerson, an MD who went back to school at Cornell to become an orinthologist. He's a marvelous teacher.

I have taken his classes at different times of the year to see different migratory species. The spots we visited included Zaca Lake north of Los Olivos to Lake Cachuma to Goleta to the Santa Ynez River as it runs through Solvang.

Santa Ynez has its own Natural History Society as does Santa Barbara. Both offer lectures periodically. Santa Barbara has a wonderful museum of natural history which is only thirty minutes away from Ridgeline Ranch.

All in all, I think this is a great place to live.