Ack!!
Well … I did not find what I was looking for on my sunrise hike this morning (Saturday). I found something rather different.
After a late night on Friday, I did not want to go too crazy and get up at any ridiculous hour to go on a mega hike (that was Plan A). Plan B was to get up a bit later and just go down to Folsom Lake again for sunrise. The clouds did not co-operate, however. I’m glad I did get up, and I enjoyed a lovely morning hike down by the river/lake, and I enjoyed the sunrise on a very chilly November day, but I did not even bother to take my camera out of my pack.
With no photographs taken, I was hoping to see some wildlife on my way back to the trailhead. I thought maybe a bobcat or coyote would be pretty cool. I did not see any of those. I did see quite a few flycatchers swarming around the spot where I was at sunrise, but I did not bother to take my camera out to shoot them. I did think about it, but they’re so very hard to get close enough to photograph, and they’re darn fast. The trail back to the car followed the river up towards the old Salmon Falls bridge. There are some enormous (and very unsightly) houses hovering over the river along here, and the trail comes close to a couple of them, following right along the fence line of one. As I rounded the corner, enjoying the scenery of the river, I came smack dab into an amazing sight straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. More than 20 turkey vultures, all lined up in a row along the fence line, and they were very close to me. Okay, well this is definitely worth getting my camera out. The sun was right in my face though, so I had to work my way slowly around to get a better angle to photograph the birds. I counted 20 vultures in a row sitting on the fence posts, and there were more flying around. I stayed there for quite awhile, watching them and photographing them. Vultures are certainly not the prettiest bird you will see, and I normally would not bother to photograph them, but this was a special experience.
After getting as close to them as they would let me, I finally retreated back to my camera bag and continued on. The problem, though, was that the trail now continued right beside the fence line where the vultures were all sitting in a row. They looked so happy just sitting there, I really did not want to disturb them (which I certainly would have, if I had continued on the trail proper). So I decided to let them be, and went off trail, down towards the river, and then back up and around the vultures. Aren’t I such a nice guy?
Here’s another one showing all the vultures lined up in a row along the fence:
