Them Crooked Vultures

Turkey vultures

After celebrating yesterday's news that I had secured very welcome full-time employment, I decided to shake off the remnants of my hangover with a stroll around the Government House grounds late morning.
There was plenty going on, and among the first bushtit flock I located 2 orange-crowned warblers and a yellow warbler. Down near the woodland trail entrance there were several yellow-rumped warbler feeding in the garry oaks. Sifting through them, I came across a single black-throated gray warbler.
Along the trails, I encountered yet more YR warblers, plus a hermit thrush and my first ruby-crowned kinglet of the autumn.

From the more elevated areas of the grounds I could see kettles of turkey vultures thermaling over the straits. As I scanned the skies along the coast, it was apparent that there was a major movement of vultures taking place.
It reminded me of being in Gibraltar during honey buzzard migration!   
I counted at least 280 turkey vultures visible at one time, but I cannot even begin to guess at the true number of birds involved.
Amazingly, not a single raptor species was spotted among these spiralling flocks.

Quite a few vultures...

The pics here do no justice to the actual spectacle itself, of course, but may at least give an idea of the scale of movement involved.
I continued to check the oaks and found another cluster of YR warblers, where among them I found a dazzling Townsend's warbler - the first I have seen in the grounds.

More migrants moving through...

It felt like a good morning for searching for migrants this morning, so I headed off to scrutinize the Government House grounds bright and early. The great things about this location is that if the birding's total pants, I can at least be back home in about 3 minutes and guilt-free from not having used the car!
As it happens, it was pretty good; a decent selection of passerine migrants were on site.
A mini-influx of American robins was evident with several clattering around a fruit-filled rowan tree. 3 cedar waxwings were also joining in the feast.
As I walked along the path to the rear of the main building, I became aware of the sound of yellow-rumped warblers calling as they fed high up in the oaks. Scanning through I counted 6, and also discovered 2 black-throated gray warblers (my first in the grounds, as it happens), a pair of orange-crowned warblers and a yellow warbler. At least 4 brown creepers, 2 red-breasted nuthatches, a Pacific-slope flycatcher and a Bewick's wren were also in the flock.
Further down the path I came across 3 Lincoln's sparrows, and soon another 4. All around the trail I encountered yellow-rumped warblers in ones and twos and a Wilson's warbler, plus another couple of Pacific-slope flycatchers. A delightful hermit thrush came out to investigate my pishing, as did a fox sparrow and I saw the first Pacific wren that I have ever come across down there. A bit of local low-scale movement?