The green-tailed towhee made its reappearance several times this morning at the previously reported location. A SD birder had been there since dawn and had seen it a few times already. We arrived at around 9:30 AM, and the bird flew in at about 10:10 with some juncos. It fed beneath the feeders, and also behind the wooden garden borders, with occasional forays into the bare shrubs against the building. After about 20 minutes, it took off, probably into the adjacent conifers, under which the juncos could be seen feeding. At around 10:45 it, and the juncos, returned to the open to feed, doing some scratching in the leaf litter and grass. It remained in view during a sunny period, giving great looks at the distribution of its various colors. We did not hear it vocalize, though the SD birder said someone had reported it had done so.
As an aside, one of the juncos seemed to have the peach/light brown coloring variant on its flanks--don't know if that might be an Oregon or a pink-sided stray, but it seemed very different from the female slate-coloreds that visit in my yard. (We--including Diana Doyle and Susan Plankis--did not use the blind, so didn't find the missing tripod, by the way.) En route we also enjoyed a brief sighting of snow buntings (not far from Mtn. Lake I think), numerous red-tailed hawks, and one possible rough-legged. Linda Whyte
