Friday, June 4, 2010

Stage Gulch Rd., Petaluma - June 1, 2010

Walking Distance: 2.4 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 9 min (6:43 - 7:52 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Side of road, dirt pull-out area, near intersection of Stage Gulch Rd., and Lakeville Highway, Petaluma

Not much of a shoulder to walk on, but Stage Gulch was a nice scenic "farm" road. Heads up for fast traffic.


At the start of the walk, I saw a turkey vulture sitting in a tree, being pestered by a smaller bird. The vulture was probably was getting too close to the bird's nest. The vulture, after being repeatedly being dive bombed in the tail region, finally spread its wings and took off. All this was happening while a curious sheep looked on.

The rest of the walk I was serenaded by warning calls from red-winged blackbirds every several yards. I was not a turkey vulture, but the sight of a pedestrian on a road like this, was probably an unusual site for these birds. And you can't be too cautious if you're raising a family I guess.

I covered about half of Stage Gulch Road this evening (turning around at JLT Ranch) to walk back to Lakeville Highway. The cows in the pasture looked pretty content from what I could see. I'll come back to walk the rest when there is more light.

Wildlife Sightings:
3 turkey vultures; 10 darker birds (orioles?); 50 sheep; 37 red-winged blackbirds; 7 little brown jobs (LBJs); 56+ black and white cows; 1 unidentified flying bug; 5 blurs in the bushes (not sure what they were); 1 fairly small brown patterned snake; 1 large brown hawk; 1 small cloud of gnats.

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