January 3 & 4, 1950, Black Butte Reservoir area, N & S Fks of Stony Creek, Glenn and Tehama Counties, Calif. Blue Heron - 1 seen. Mallards - 2F or imm on S. Fk. Vultures - observed singles, and up to 5 in small groups circling over the nearby countryside, and then about 450 I discovered about 160 of them gathered or gathering in the upper half of several very tall Fremont Cottonwoods; they could be seen coming from all direct. ions in almost straight lines to this area of river bottom habitat along the S. Fk. of Stony Creek. The sun had left the valley by this time. They approached singly, not in groups. Watched two squa abble and one chase the other for a couple of minutes through the cottonwoods. At 5 p.m. I returned for a final count as it was nearly dusk, and saw no more coming in - the total was about 220, only 60 having come in during the half hour period of dusk. Checke the vultures at the roost at 9 a.m., and found almost all were still perched in cottonwoods, with one or two moving to other trees, and those perching weren't all in the trees they'd been in last night, but the reason for their disturbance was that a rancher was cultivating the field next to the original roosting trees. That the tractor noise disturbed the birds was shown by them moving whenever the tractor came close to the perches, whereas those birds perched in trees farther from the field were not disturbed, and remained on their perch. Some of the disturbed birds were perched in a small group on a grassy knoll about 1/8 mile west of the roost trees at 930 a.m. This knoll was in the oak woodland. At noon, another check was made of the roost area, and only a few birds were seen perching in the cottonwoods, and a few others were circling over this and nearby areas. Evidently the bulk of the 220 had left the area for the day, about 11 a.m. We saw vultures east and south of Orland. How far this roost draws the birds from, I would hesitate to state. Red-tailed Hawks - sev. in area. Sparrow Hawk - 1/road mile. Valley Quail - 2 coverys of 12 and 18 on S. Fk, and 1 covey of 12 at damsite, and 2 coveys of 14 and 24 birds on S. Fk. at Julian Rocks. Pheasant - just 1 seen. Kildeer - 3 or 4 seen - probably only 12-15 in area. Wilson Snipe - 4 flushed from edge of creek, on gravel bar in S. Fk. Mourning Doves - a total of about 65 seen in area, some feeding on the ground, but most perched in blue oak woodland. Kingfisher - taking insects over waters of S. Fk. at noon, 1-4-50. Red-shafted Flicker - 10-15/mile sq. California Woodpecker - 15-20/sq. mi. Lewis Woodpecker - about 30/sq. mi. blue oak woodland, and almost as dense in white oak-cottonwood open river bottom on S. Fk. Sierra Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - S.v.daggetti - in old orchard area along the presently-dry N. Fk. Nuttall Woodpecker - 2 seen along N. Fk. mainly in oak woodland and near at least some stands of buckbrush. Black Phoebe - mainly near water, and feeding off low rock perches, etc. Say Phoebe- open grassland California Jay - about 5/sq. mi. Yellow-billed Magpie - about 10/sq. mi. saw several flocks of 15-20 feed- ing on the ground. At dusk flushed about 250-300 from Fremont Cotton- wood tops at S. Fk. Bridge. They returned to same tree perches when flushed. Must be night roost, but they were gone when seen at 845 a.m California Plain Titmouse - several individuals - no flocks White-breasted Nuthatch - sev. seen working the blue and white oaks and feeding in litter on the ground under these trees. OVER OVER