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- Cliffs
- When you get to the gate at the end of the
parking lot, walk around it and on your right you will see the
caretakers' home, who live there in exchange for watching over the
reserve. Walk further along the path until you come to the
entrance gate. On your left, you will see the Santa Barbara
Channel and the Channel Islands. Oil platforms located in the
channel extract oil from the petroleum in the channel. Sea Lions
are often seen paddling through the nearshore surf, and in spring,
migrating Grey Whales are seen traveling through the
channel.
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- Rocky
Intertidal
The rocky intertidal is part of a large reef that
is southeast of the point. It is only exposed at low tide, and it
contains many animals such as limpets, mussels, and their predators,
moonsnails, seastars, and octopi.
Sandbar
The sandbar between Devereux Slough and the ocean
keeps the slough closed from saltwater for most of the year. Winter
rains can raise the water level, thus letting the estuary drain into
the ocean.
In this picture, water from the slough is
draining out into the ocean. The slough usually takes about three
hours to empty.
When the slough is closed off from the ocean, an
endangered species of birds called Snowy Plovers nest on the sandy
beach. The reserve is one of few places where the Snowy Plovers nest.
They like freshwater and saltwater close to their homes, as well as a
wide expanse of beach between them. The fine for disturbing them is
$10,000 per bird.
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- Snowy Plovers camouflage with the
rocks on the sandbar. The red circles show the birds so you can
notice how hard they are to see.
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- Salt Marsh
Community
- As you reach the end of the fenceline, turn
right and follow the path until you see a pond surrounded by a
small salt marsh community of pickle weed and small reeds. Look
for blackbirds calling from the reeds.
- Vernal Pools
- Walk further up the path, past an air-quality
monitoring station, and follow the adjoining path through a grove
of eucalyptus and Monterey cypress. You will soon see the man-made
vernal pools, a project established by UCSB, located on a grassy
flat.
- Walk up the path, past the pools, and you will
see the golf course on your left and the slough on your right.
Follow the road back toward the parking lot, and you will see half
of a bridge, where researchers analyze the slough.
- Black-Crown Night Herons nest in the trees
at the end of the bridge.
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