Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

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.