Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) protects area birdlife and habitat and connects people with birds through education, conservation, and community science. We thank the City of Goleta for helping to conserve our unique open spaces and for continued support of SBAS’s annual Winter Bird Count 4 Kids (WBC4K), one of our key education and community science outreach programs. SBAS is excited to bring the joys and wonderment of birds to young families filled with aspiring naturalists. 

This year, due to Covid guidelines, we pivoted the WBC4K from our traditional in-person group gathering to a “socially distanced” event, where individual families went birding at Lake Los Carneros on their own schedules. We were thrilled by the tremendous community enthusiasm for the modified program. Within twenty-four hours, 100 participants were preregistered. Within three days, all 200 spots were full. The majority of families have children who attend schools in Goleta. Participants received a Birding Checklist to identify birds at Lake Los Carneros, a Bird Bingo card, a signature Santa Barbara Audubon Society t-shirt, and other educational and fun goodies. For those who missed registration, the Bird Checklist and Bingo are available on our website. We thank our fearless event co-leaders, Judy Blue and Joan Cotich, and other Audubon volunteers for their tireless work making this event a success.

We are truly fortunate to have all this birding action right here in our own Goleta backyard. We appreciate the City of Goleta for sharing the beauty of Goleta birding with our community and for providing a grant to support our growing WBC4K. Goodland readers, we invite you to watch our new video Why are Birds Important? and learn more at https://santabarbaraaudubon.org.

Pictured: Councilmember Stuart Kasdin and his son participating in the Winter Bird Count 4 Kids event.