Walker Creek Ranch - July 2024

At the end of July (and very early August) I was working at a summer camp in the Petaluma area.  I brought my binoculars hiking almost every morning.  Most of the birds I saw were turkey vultures, but I also saw jays (California scrub; Steller's), sparrows (lark; chipping; dark-eyed junco; California towhee; spotted towhee), swallows (barn; cliff), finches (house; gold), flycatchers (western wood-pewees; black phoebes), woodpeckers (hairy; northern flicker), doves (mourning; Eurasian collared) western bluebirds, chestnut-backed chickadees, California quails, Bewick's wrens, American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, wild turkeys, crows, and ravens!  Almost all the photos are of turkey vultures, which are one of my favorites, and I'm really excited about some of these shots!

Female or immature lesser goldfinch, I think. Possibly an American goldfinch?

A flock of turkeys that wandered the campus

Not a bird, but there's a dilapidated, lichen-covered, crumbling observatory on one of the hills and on an extremely foggy hike I saw 3 or 4 ravens sitting on the dramatic-looking dead tree and it all seemed like some very heavy-handed symbolism but it was just birds being birds.

Speaking of heavy-handed symbolism, these two turkey vultures perched on this gate that I was about to go through, and especially with the moon in the background it felt very intentional, and I had the urge to ask their permission before passing through.

Action shot of the vultures on the gate! There were actually three vultures, but I never got a picture of all three.

Possibly my favorite bird photo I've ever taken - through-the-binoculars close-up of one of the vultures from the gate above.

Another close-up of one of the gate guardian vultures! I love the colors visible in their feathers.

A turkey vulture sunning itself on top of a tree. If you look closely, you might be able to see a cliff swallow flying across the background on the left side, but it just looks like a black dot.