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The Spotted Towhee is a large, striking sparrow of sun-baked thickets of the West. When you catch sight of one, they're gleaming black above (females are grayish), spotted and striped with brilliant white. Their warm rufous flanks inspired their former name (Rufous- sided Towhee) and their striking red eyes can be a surprise when you catch a glimpse of the bird. The Spotted Towhees can be hard to see in the brush and leaf litter that they scratch with their feet to stir up food. If you hear rustling leaves at Four Seasons it is in all likelihood a Spotted Towhee. Your best chance for an unobstructed look at this handsome bird may be in the spring, when males climb into the shrub tops to sing their buzzy songs. Spotted Towhees make a catlike mew call, a little more than a half-second long. It seems to be used for scolding as well by perched or foraging birds. They also have a rattle call, and pairs sometimes exchange a soft, lisping call to stay in contact. Spotted Towhees also give a high, thin flight call. The Spotted Towhee is one of the most common birds at Four Seasons, where they inhabit our landscape and yard shrubbery as well as the riparian forests along our nature trails. If your feeders are near a vegetated edge, towhees will venture out to eat fallen seed. If you want to attract towhees to your feeders, consider sprinkling some seed on the ground. ~ Gerrie Karczynski FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2017 59 Birding CLUB Bird of the Month The Four Seasons Birding Club welcomes beginning and experienced birders to start or hone our bird identification skills. Our primary activity is monthly bird walks along Four Seasons' beautiful nature trails, which follow native riparian woodlands and preserve endangered habitat. We also take field trips to local birding hot spots, discuss backyard bird feeding, and share information on unusual species and behaviors. Our monthly bird walk was on July 1 and we identified 13 species in about an hour. Highlights included our club's first sighting of a Eurasian Collared Dove, an introduced species that in the past 20 years has spread from south Texas to most of the continental U.S., and a few colorful Hooded Orioles. As on all our spring/summer bird walks so far, we encountered several endangered Least Bell's Vireos, a bird that sings incessantly but is notoriously hard to see. We have compiled a list of Four Seasons bird sightings and we've documented a total of 53 species. Some are common, some are rare, some have been seen only as fly overs, and some occur only in our riparian habitat. We hope to get our list on the Four Seasons website as our members scour Four Seasons for new species! We meet on the first Saturday of each month at 8 am in the RCN Lobby, talk about birding, then we go on our bird walk. We walk the nature trails directly from the Lodge, usually to the Crooked Creek Windmill and back (good exercise!), but on our July walk we walked the other way and saw some new species. Bring your binoculars and bird identification guide, or just come to a meeting and ask about beginners' birding gear. For more information and to receive club communications, email Steve Edelman at steve.h.edelman@gmail. com. ~ Steve Edelman Basketball Everyone is welcome. We meet at the basketball court starting at 5 pm on Fridays. Bring your energy and be prepared to have some fun. ~ Richard Hoffman Photo by Richard Crossley Birders on the trail

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