30 August 08
Chasing One Bird but Finding Others
We got a call about a possible green-tailed towhee along Putah Creek. We decided to head out for it after tacos but went first through Willowbank Ditch, where we found a little clump of warblers.
It has been brutally hot the past few days and has cooled down a lot, but after lunch it was still hot enough in the sun that any self-respecting towhee would be resting under a coyote brush. We found a fat carp and two black phoebes.
On the way home, though, I came across a major roost of turkey vultures in a eucalyptus patch in Willowbank. They were a little too high for me to do good foot studies, but it was fantastic to watch them, sitting and moving from perch to perch.
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Pica — So you found the TV roost! It’s been there as long as I have lived nearby — 10 years. In hottest summer one can find it by smell. This time of year there are also dustings of molted feathers on the path under the trees… Another convening of birds that is developing in south Davis is a small flock of turkeys. They frequent the grassy banks of (original) Putah Creek along the path between, more or less, Regatta and DaVinci Court. Biking home on Friday, around 6 pm, I counted 14, many of them youngsters. — Sylvia