[EBB Sightings] Green-tailed Towhee continues in Orinda

Birders:

On Sunday, December 19 Sean O'Brien (and others?) found a Green-tailed 
Towhee in Orinda, the first one ever recorded on the Oakland Christmas 
Bird Count Circle.  The bird was still present at 4 pm today (Sunday).

Drive to Miramonte High School on Ivy Drive in Orinda, and park in the 
westernmost lot.  A hillside with an old orchard overgrown by coyote 
bush will be to the west.  From that parking lot, walk clockwise around 
the football field, past the batting cage to the first base area on the 
ball field.  There you will find a graded fire road that leads left 
(northwest) through a berm and on to a small drainage dominated by an 
oak-bay forest.  You will know you are in the right location if you 
find a small dam in the creek a short distance upstream from the fire 
road and lots of ropes and cables strung among the trees over the 
drainage, about 100 feet upstream from the dam.

Last Sunday the bird was found about 50 feet upstream of the dam on the 
slopes of the drainage.  On two days late last week the bird was found 
by crossing the dam and proceeding on the trail up the drainage past 
the tool shed to a downed fence; the bird was working the leaf litter 
just beyond the fence.  Today the bird was silently working the slope 
of the drainage just downstream of the tool shed.

Good luck.

Dave Quady
Berkeley, California
davequady at att.net