Peter Thompson coordinates our twice monthly bird walks which usually take place on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month.
Contact Peter at by e-mail for additional information. If you are interested in volunteering to lead one or more of these walks, contact Peter, because he LOVES volunteers to lead BONUS walks to new and/or unusual areas.
Also be sure to check out our monthly Field Trips.
Subscrbe to the SBAS events calendar, learn how on this page.
Bird Walks and Field Trips are BACK!
We will do everything we can for a safe experience, but covid is always a risk. Additionally, SBAS may decide to cancel events should pandemic conditions warrant it. For these reasons, we ask that:
- All attendees be vaccinated, each participant bring a mask to the event, and social distancing be practiced to the greatest extent practicable.
- Masks be worn in car pool situations.
- Prior to attending any bird walk or field trip, please go to santabarbaraaudubon.org/activities for directions and event updates.
- Friday, October 13, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk: Rocky Nook Park
Rocky Nook Park is a lovely oak woodland studded with tall sycamores trees. Mission creek runs along the eastern edge making this park a great riparian habitat where vagrants often are found.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk: Rocky Nook Park - Friday, October 27, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk – Elwood Mesa Sperling Preserve
With a size of 230 acres, the Ellwood Mesa Sperling Preserve is the largest publicly owned coastal preserve on the Santa Barbara South Coast. It is part of the 650+ acre Ellwood Devereux Open Space – a multi-agency open space that includes COPR, NCOS and the Ellwood Butterfly Grove. This sprawling coastal landscape is home to, and migratory stop-over of many avian species.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk - Elwood Mesa Sperling Preserve - Friday, November 10, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk – Stevens Park
Stevens Park is nestled in the San Roque canyon. The route we will take follows the San Roque creek which provides nice riparian habitat. The trail goes under the Foothill Blvd bridge where there can often be sightings of White-throated Swifts.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk - Stevens Park - Friday, November 24, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk – Ellings Park
Elings park is a 250 acre private non-profit park open to the public. Known mostly for it’s athletic, cultural and natural environs, it hosts varied habitat and trails that can lead one to many places that birds call home.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk - Ellings Park - Friday, December 15, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk – Santa Barbara Harbor
Santa Barbara Harbor is a busy place during the day, but one can find many species of shorebirds, gulls, terns and water birds which take advantage of the quiet hours of the early morning.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk - Santa Barbara Harbor - Friday, December 29, 2023 - Friday Bird Walk – San Marcos Foothill Preserve
San Marcos Foothills Preserve is an open space encompassing 200 acres. It offers exceptional views of the channel Islands and the Santa Ynez mountains. It provides habitat for Roadrunners, White-tailed Kites, American Kestrels and several species of Hawks. It is also home to many grassland and chaparral bird species.
Full details here: Friday Bird Walk - San Marcos Foothill Preserve
