1925: Joseph Grinnell's field notes

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 2 Page Number: 2563

ground; in the morning along the open stream-course Mountain Chickadees are common, doing much foraging on the ground(!) as well as up in the trees. Pinyon Jays were around about one hour this forenoon-- at least within hearing. They were feeding about the cones up in the pines; then visited the stream-side. They go in a far-scattered company of perhaps 75 birds. Other birds seen today were: Audubon Warbler ( up to 6 in sight at once, mostly on the wet ground ( grazed flat) along the water course, or in the willows); Pileolated Warbler ( 1 in willows); Hermit Thrush (1 heard in willows); Intermediate Sparrow ( about 10 all told, in or near willow thickets); Townsend Junco ( fully 25 in all, in family parties and scattering, mostly in and near the willows); Valley Quail ( numerous -- I, myself, saw no Mountain Quail today, tho Lamb did); Cabanis Woodpecker (2, not more -- woodpeckers are scarce); Williamson Sapsucker (the one shot, as above, p. 2558); Red-shafted Flicker (heard twice); Red-tailed Hawk (1); Raven (within hearing most of the time, and flying back and forth overhead, 4 or 5 in succession); Lutescent Warbler (the one shot); Spurred Towhee (about 4 -- this and many other birds feeding on cascara berries); Green-tailed Towhee (about 4); Rock Wren ( 1, in boulder pile); Ruby-crowned Kinglet (only the one shot -- not known to breed here [?] - migrants of all sorts are coming in); Rufous Hummer

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 2 Page Number: 2564

(only the one shot); thus 21 species. Of mammals, Merriam Chipmunks (E. "obscurus") are numerous; I could have shot a lot, and 2 got into my traps during the day. I see them scampering over the boulders, over logs. or between brush thickets. They, too, are patronizing the cascara bushes. I saw no other mammals today. Gopher sign is abundant both on the dry gravelly uplands and in the wet sand along the stream. 6380 Junco (female sign) ad. 16.9g. Shot from willow near stream. 6381 Pinyon Jay (female sign) ad. 90.3g. Shot at edge of open stream. 6382 Pinyon Jay (female sign) ad. 90.7g. Shot at edge of open stream. 6383 Eutamias merriami (female sign) 57g. 220x92x33x16. In rat trap under edge of boulder. 6384 Eutamias merriami (male sign) 55g. 215x92x34x15. Shot a(t?) tip of dead pine snag. Oct. 3 6385 Anna Hummer (female sign) ad. 3.7g. - not fat. Shot at Salvia carnosa. Wing-quills molting. 6386 Pileolated Warbler (male sign) ad. 7.0g. In willow. 6387 Canyon Wren (male sign) im. 11.6g. In granite boulder pile. 6388 Wren-tit (male sign) ad. 13.4g. In willow. 6389 Slender-billed nuthatch (male sign) ad. 15.8g. On pine trunk. 6390 Fox Sparrow (male sign) ad. 27.0g In willow by stream. 6391 Cabanis Woodpecker (female sign) ad. 52g. 100 ft. up in pine. 6392 Citellus beecheyi (male sign) running from streamside up into boulder pile. Cheek pouches contained jade green leaves of clover.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 3 Page Number: 2565

Trap-line this morning brot only the following: Peromyscus boylei, 1 (female sign), under willows by stream- aspens only a few yards away!; P. truei, 3 (female sign female sign), 1 (male sign), from under edges of boulders adjacent to bushes. None of the females contained embryos. Lamb continues ill, pretty weak -- "malaria", recurrent after his getting it in the Cape San Lucus region two years ago. I didn't venture long from camp. Even so, good things turned up, as per list of specimens saved. The Canyon Wren is the only one so far seen. I heard its low-pitched call note in one of the characteristic boulder piles marking an outcrop, nowhere near the stream. I heard at least three Slender-billed nuthatches today, all in pines, and got sight of the one taken. The only Hummer seen today was the Anna taken. A lone Brewer Blackbird tarried at the creek by camp a few minutes. Saw another Lutescent Warbler, one Ruby crowned Kinglet, and 3 Pileolated Warblers (including the one shot). All these were in the willows and the first two had been bathing. Heard another Hermit Thrush tonight. A Red-tailed Hawk has his perch near here, and squalls at intervals, seemingly only when the Ravens fly close to him. I heard a Horned Owl in the night. Today I have seen at least 4 ground squirrels (beecheyi, subsp.). They live under boulders in burrows excavated back under them; one was

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 3 Page Number: 2566

in a meat-baited steel trap this evening. I got my first Sciurus this afternoon. I heard a curious harsh bark from where I was working in the tent, not at all remindful of any of the numerous notes of the Sierra Chickaree. When I went out, he stopped of course; but I soon located the tree he was working in by the "husked" cone-cores on the ground beneath. After looking intently for some minutes I saw him move, on a horizontal branch out from the trunk, and brot him down. I have located at least three other "shelling" trees; no other squirrel here, I think, does that sort of work. Wren-tits seem to be fairly common here -- right in the midst of "boreal" species! They are associated with the cascara bushes (also a Sonoran organism). It is a strange mixture, but quite explainable on all scores, I feel sure -- if we knew enuf. The day has been sultry -- quite cloudy tonight; a few drops of rain just now. But bright sky is in sight just off the brink of the plateau to the eastward, where the mountain drops off abruptly to the desert. At least 3 Fox Sparrows seen. The one taken is of the grey type; I may have been mistaken in the "brown"iness of the ones I saw on the way up (see p. 2557); 6393 Sciurus (male sign) 317x111x51x15. See above.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 4 Page Number: 2567

6394 Perognathus spinatus (female sign) 17.5g. 205x120x26.5x10. Trapped under cascara bush on gravelly ground at side of boulder. 6395 Neotoma intermedia (female sign) 106.5g. 295x140x32x29. Trapped under boulder at edge of boulder pile; no sign of any "house". 6396 Thomomys (female sign) 118g. 222x68x68x4. Trapped in wet sand where gophers are now working actively to get the clover growing along the creek. 6397 Cabanis Woodpecker (female sign) 52.5g. Shot from top of pine, where pecking at an opening cone. The feet, as well as the bill, of this woodpecker look exceedingly small. 6398 Bush-tit (male sign) im. 5.0g. Shot in cascara bush. 6399 Pigmy Nuthatch (male sign) im. 10.4g. Shot in cascara bush. 6400 Fox Sparrow (female sign) ad. 29.0g. Shot in willow. 6401 Bluebird (male sign) im. 28.2g. Shot from dead pine stub. 6402 Bluebird (female sign) ad. 27.5g. Shot from living pine branch. 6403 Raven (male sign) ad. Skeleton Caught in meat-baited steels. Tonight, that is, 3:30 to 5, I went up the Arroyo Encantada father than I had been before, into a gorge; a wall of granite boulders, and granite in place, on each side was supplemented by a complete barrier as far as cattle are concerned, both above and below. Result, a piece of perfectly natural riparian vegetation; and, moreover, a few runways of Microtus in some tall saw-grass and wire grass. I was so unused to such vegetation that I promptly cut my hand on the saw-grass and got thoroly (sic) stung by the nettles that were growing