Early Morning Vultures

Low tide, Bodega Bay. Roughly in the center of the image are two birds, a little hard to see in the soft light, but they are the subjects of the story and worth zooming in on if you can. We spotted the sedentary one first, and were able to watch it for awhile from fairly close up (see Extras). Definitely a vulture, and most likely a youngster, with a face only a mother could love. As we stood there, another bird began to circle high above, then in narrower arcs, coming closer and lower until it almost touched the guy on the ground. Then it rose up, made a couple more circles and landed high in a nearby tree. Soon after, the smaller vulture flew up into another tree. The best we can figure is that the bigger bird was making sure the other one was alright, maybe showing it what to do. No language that we could hear, but clearly an exchange of some kind. It was remarkable to watch.

On this last morning walk of the trip we also saw countless quail, a rafter of turkeys, a hunting heron and a sprinkling of seagulls.

We take our time driving home, stopping at several small towns along the way, checking out the bakeries and having a special lunch of barbecued oysters on Tomales Bay. It was a fine getaway.