Biking & Birding in Santa Barbara

Maria Ignacio Trail at Santa Barbara. This merges with Obern Trail in Goleta.

 

I’m back. Turns out the grid is inbuilt, anymore, like a subconscious Matrix, but it was nice to let the grey matter take a break for a day or two. To wing it, as it were. Almost everything improves over time—like wine & attitudes, and whiny attitudes, too—and while I followed my own Forrest Gump feather during my power down, my whimsical meanderings ultimately became research for the blog post you’re reading now. My wild goose chase out to Goleta Beach County Park proved anything but, lending flight to my fancy, and providing a flocking good excuse to feather this post with far too many bird idioms.

Some swamp…people!

It must have been all that paragliding I watched last week at Elings Park that caused me to look up. That, or potential bird poop, but whatever the reason, once I’d pedaled my mountain bike to a patch of swampy marshland abutting the Obern Bike path connecting Goleta and nearby Isla Vista, I was bird-dogging the skies. The turf, too, since the next few miles of wetlands before the coastal park proper plays home to feathered friends and terrestrial fauna alike, but in the 80 degree heat of afternoon, the sightings of four-footed critters was scarcer than chicken teeth. The number of birds taking advantage of the cool if murky waters was toothsome, though, and fully close-up worthy. Continue reading →…