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Bird watching (and wildlife) Santa Barbara (1 Viewer)

Eos9

Well-known member
United Kingdom
Hi - I am currently planning a trip to Santa Barbara for approx 10 days in mid-late March.
I am already hoping to take one or two whale watching trips during my stay but would appreciate any advice on good locations to photograph birds and other wildlife during my visit.
My partner has a bad knee so we are ideally looking for places that do not involve a lot of strenuous hiking if possible.
We shall have use of a car so we are not entirely confined to Santa Barbara itself - a 1-2 hours drive would be ok if need be.
I particularly enjoy photographing Shorebirds but in reality I enjoy all wildlife so any suggestions for good places to visit would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
This response might be coming too late, but just in case you’re still in the throes of your SB trip, hopefully you’ll check out nearby Channel Islands. Lots of seabirds to see there. UCSB also does a local tour program if you are interested: http://copr.nrs.ucsb.edu/about/programs/tour-program. And if you are up for the drive, the Bolsa Chica wetlands is probably most well known for its seabirds in SoCal, but it’s about a 2+ hours’ drive…if there’s no traffic. I’m not entirely familiar with SB, but there’s a local SB blogger worth checking out and hitting up for advice if you haven't concluded your trip: http://birdcamoncheltenham.blogspot.com/

Good luck bird watching, and hopefully you weren't caught out during the huge rainstorm last week!
 
Hi - I am currently planning a trip to Santa Barbara for approx 10 days in mid-late March.
I am already hoping to take one or two whale watching trips during my stay but would appreciate any advice on good locations to photograph birds and other wildlife during my visit.
My partner has a bad knee so we are ideally looking for places that do not involve a lot of strenuous hiking if possible.
We shall have use of a car so we are not entirely confined to Santa Barbara itself - a 1-2 hours drive would be ok if need be.
I particularly enjoy photographing Shorebirds but in reality I enjoy all wildlife so any suggestions for good places to visit would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Not sure how I missed this post. This reply is likely too late, but here goes. A great source of information on all things birding in Santa Barbara County is here:

http://www.sbcobirding.com

From there you will find access to the pretty active local newsgroup and a guide to various locations. Let me know if you have questions about accessibility about any of the sites.

Wim
 
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