Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: San Jose, 2500 ft., Lat. 31 degrees Date: Oct. 17 Page Number: 2594

6536 Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher (female sign) ad. 6.3g. Shot in low leafless bush. 6537 Bewick Wren (male sign) ad. 8.4.g. 6538 Rufous-crowned Sparrow (male sign)(?) im. 18.0g. Shot in bush at bottom of Live-oak canyon. 6539 Bell Sparrow (male sign) ad. 16.2g. Shot in low leafless brush. 6540 Intermediate Sparrow (male sign) ad. 25.7. Shot in low leafless brush. 6541 Calif. Jay (female sign) ad. 67.5g. Shot in live-oak. 6542 “ “ (male sign) im. 81.4 g. Shot at tip-top of sycamore.

Oct. 18 6543 Ruby-crown Kinglet (female sign) ad. 5.9g. Shot from willow. 6544 Hutton's Vireo (female sign) ad. 11.2g. } Pair “ “ “ 6545 “ “ (male sign) ad. 9.7 g. } Pair “ “ “ 6546 Rock Wren (female sign) im. 13.8g. Shot from lower ledge of rock outcrop. 6547 Bewick Wren (female sign) ad. 9.2g. Shot from prunus subcordata bush. 6548 “ “ (male sign) im. 9.5g. Shot from sage-bush. 6549 Dwarf Hermit Thrush (male sign) ad. 23.0g. Shot in willow.

The barometer tonight (7 p.m.) reads 27.15 in.; it is warm and the sky is partly overcast, cirrous.

Hunted for two hours this morning, 7:30-9:30, down along hillsides below the ranch and then into the willows. The feature of the day was the taking of a pair of Hutton's Vireo, in willows. I found them when scrutinizing a peripatetic band of Bush-tits for possible camp followers. The two were closely attentive to one another, keeping within a maximum distance of 8 feet of one another. They were absolutely quiet and might easily have been passed up for Kinglets.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: San Jose, 2500 ft., Lat. 31 degrees Date: October 19, 1925 Page Number: 2596

There was a little seepage there, and some rainwater in granite bowls in the stream-course. Large numbers of Valley Quail centered there. The following are the birds I saw, by individuals, from memory; but there were so few, I believe I am close & correct. Red-shafted Flicker (2); San Lucas Flycatcher (1, shot); Calif Jay (10±) Audubon Warbler (16±); Ruby-crown Kinglet (1); Spotted Towhee (5); Brown Towhee (4); Green-backed Goldfinch (1); Lawrence Goldfinch (1, seen and heard in flight overhead); Intermediate Sparrow (20±); Bell Sparrow (2); Calif. Thrashers (3); Shrike (one, very shy, seen and heard repeatedly, but refused to be stalked); Bewick Wren (3); Rock Wren (2); Valley Quail (40±). Horseback is a good way of taking a census, as it increases the range of vision, though chances of hearing high-pitched voices are less because of the squeakings of the saddle, rattle of the bit-chain, etc. I rather think that a foot in most productive, as a person can stop instantly, in perfect quiet, and listen and look; while the horse takes time to come to a standstill and even then fidgets. Of mammals, I saw one Jack Rabbit, and one Bush Rabbit, the latter, as usual in Adenostoma bush. Large bare areas in the mesa, adjacent to sage-bush and juniper, showed great amounts of Dipodomys sign — of the same sort as where I am trapping, near the ranch; this is of the heermanni or paramintinus kind and not of the agilis brand, it seems to me.

S3 Page 59

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: San Jose, 2500 ft., lat. 31° Date: Oct. 23 Page Number: 2602

6589 Thomomys (female sign) 123g. 207 x 58 x 29 x 5. In sandy bottom, where bermuda & salt grass grow. 6590 “ (female sign) 96g. 190 x 57 x 25 x 4. “ “ “ “ “ “

This forenoon I worked the washes and foothills north of the ranch one to two miles, against the lower range of mountains toward Socorro. In a broad shallow wash down west from those mountains found a well-marked yucca association: a kind of yucca, of stalks 6 to 8 feet high [= buccata?]; low clumps of cholla cactus, greasewood, sage-brush, some alder and rhus laurina bushes. Here I found the following birds: Shrike (one, perching from station to station in yucca tips on bare burned bush tips - too shy to approach closely enuf for a shot); Cactus Woodpecker(one, shot, on yuccas, calling characteristically, finally lit in a big desert tea bush); Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (one company of about 5, in buckwheat, greasewood and sage; kitten-like calls I now think quite like birds in Southern California; hard to see, and soon scattered and became quiet - lost); Ball Sparrow (few, about 6 all told, seemingly in pairs); Brown Towhee (2); Bewick Wren (2+); Say Phoebe (1); Intermediate Sparrow (commonest of the birds - perhaps all 25 told).

Then worked the willows down-stream from the ranch. Saw a Red-breasted and a Red-naped (shot) Sapsucker close together. Heard a Lawrence Goldfinch in flight overhead, as also a Green-backed Goldfinch. Saw one Russet-backed (?) Thrush.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: to Colnett, Sat. 31 degrees Date: Oct. 28 Page Number: 2608

6641 Savannah Sparrow (female sign) im. 16.7g. Shot in salicornia. 6642 “ “ (female sign) im. 16.8.g. Shot on stem of clump of juncus.

Was out early 5:15 to 6:30, and again 9:20 to 11:30, the last time to the beach, the bluff, and the salt flats. Saw following birds: Turkey Vulture (4+); Poorwill (heard calling last evening); Valley Quail (2 large coveys near camp); Cactus Woodpecker (one heard); Say Phoebe (2); Anna Hummer (2, around blossoming Lycium); Brown Towhee (4+); Spotted Towhee (2); Rufous-crowned Sparrow (2); Intermediate Sparrow (12±); Calif. Thrasher (2, singing); Linnet (6±); Wren-tit (4+); Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher (2); Bewick Wren (2); Red-winged Blackbird (a pair visited camp, and others in small companies in flight out in the valley); Raven (within hearing most of the time); Meadowlark (4 or more, out in salt flat); Marsh Wren (common, a dozen or more, in dense mats of Salicornia (unknown 1) sloughs just back of the cobble-stone beach-barrier (which is fully 8 feet higher than the flats inland from it)); Savannah Sparrow (scattered troupes on open ground among small bushes back from the salicornia); Belding and Large-billed Sparrows (on salicornia marshes, not many, the latter also on beach at high-tide line of drift); Pipit (flock of 10± on bare alkali flat); Killdeer (one heard - the only wader, where we saw so many on the beach when we were here in September); Song Sparrow (2, in big juncus clumps up the valley from the salicornia. Of mammals, I saw one Jack Rabbit on salt flat and 2 or more Brush Rabbits.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Colnett, Sat. 31 degrees Date: October 29, 1925 Page Number: 2610

6647 Dipodomys (male sign) 60.3g. 250 x 141 x 42 x 9. On silt-soil bottom. 6648 Thomomys (female sign) 96g. 207 x 70 x 26 x 4. “ “ “ 6649 Bewick Wren (female sign) ad. 9.9g. Shot from black-sage bush. 6650 Brown Towhee (male sign) ad. 44.5g “ “ lycium bush. 6651 “ “ (female sign) ad. 41.6g. Shot in flight among agaves. 6652 Horned Owl (female sign) bill, skull and a mass of feathers of Mudhen in stomach; flushed from willows out in valley where, at freshet time, the San Rafael River flows; now only sand there; but tidal seepage lagoons below, toward beach.

Drizzled during the night and this morning, but cleared up about 10 o’clock and now (2 p.m.) warm and sunshiny. Out early and then 7:30 to 9:30. Saw numerous Audubon Warblers around sumachs (R. laurina). Noted one Sparrow Hawk up on hillside among agave stems. These (old stalks) afford roosting places for many birds: Shrikes Ravens, Linnets, and today I saw an adult Red-Tailed Hawk perched on one. The new flower stalks are just shooting up, but not out yet. Saw a very white Marsh Hawk (probably same one) several times skimming above the bush tops on the bottomland. The coastal part of our “section” presents seeming contradictions: the air is humid a large part of the time, yet the vegetation is xerophilous in the extreme. The actual rainfall must be little, and there must be streaks of excessively dry weather. Here are eight species of cactus, the agave, 3 species of lycium,