1925: Joseph Grinnell's field notes

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: La Grulla, 7,200 ft. Date: October 11, 1925 Page Number: 2583

Barometer tonight, 23.10 inches; clear and cold - an inch of ice on water bucket this morning. Ground Squirrels (beecheyi) are still out in numbers. I suppose they may hibernate here, but no signs of it yet. Chipmunks simply swarm on certain bushy slopes - 6 in sight at once, scampering over boulders, or over the ground from bush to bush. They have all the notes of ordinary merriami - the hollow "bock", etc. I have seen "sign" of Jack Rabbit, but not one of the animals. This is evidently not a rabbit year. Saw two Ruby-crowned Kinglets in the willows today; one Tanager in cascara; at least 4 Solitaires, whose interests center around the cascara thickets, as do those of the Bluebirds. 6493 Slender-billed Nuthatch (female symbol) ad. 16.3g. Shot from pine bole. 6494 Pine Siskin (female symbol) ad. 15.2g. Shot from up in pine. Oct. 12 Trap-line played out; only 18 Peromyscus truei in trap under manzanita - discarded. 6495 Olive-backed thrush (female symbol) im. 29.1g. In rat-trap under manzanita. 6496 Cañon Wren (female symbol) ad. 10.4g. Shot from boulder, one up a pile. 6497 San Lucas Flycatcher (male symbol) im. 8.9g. Shot in willow thicket, from perch 5 feet up. The only individual tyrannid of any sort whatsoever seen here this fall. 6498Slender-billed Nuthatch (male symbol) ad. 16.8g. Shot in pine. 6499Pigmy Nuthatch (female symbol) ad. 11.1g. Shot from pine. 6500Sierra (?) Junco (female symbol) im. 15.3g. Alone; shot on ground among salvia bushes;

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: La Grulla, 7,200 ft. Date: October 11, 1925 Page Number: 2584

6501 Townsend Junco (female sign) ad. 16.9g. Shot on rock in bush. 6502 Mountain Chicakdee (male sign) ad. 11.8g. Shot in pine. 6503 " " (female sign) ad. 11.4g. Shot in Salvia bushes. 6504 " " (female sign) ad. 11.4g. Shot on ground under willow. 6505 White-crowned Sparrow (male sign) im. 23.1 g. " " " " " 6506 Bluebird (male sign) im. 26.6g. Shot in cascara bush. 5 p.m. Our packer, José, has just come in to inform us that a mule is missing, so we will be two days late in changing location. But - "mañana" is the rule in this country! The feature of my day was a full close view of a Ferruginous Rough-leg (my gun was entirely out of commission at the moment!). The bird circled above me within 60 yards, showing its character well. It was the whitest hawk I ever saw. The whole under surface was white, save for sparse dark markings on the chest; The basal 2/3 of the tail was white, the terminal third being light dusky?; The under sides of the wings were white save for dark primary types and for dark mottlings in a transverse row at "wrist." Lamb and I have both seen this bird distantly in previous days, referring to it as "the white hawk." This is the only other buteonine besides the Red-Tails we have seen at this station. Saw a Great Horned Owl fly along the hillside at late dusk last evening. We hear their notes every night.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 13 Page Number: 2585

6507 Pine Siskin (female sign) ad. 11.3g. Shot from pine} In each case 6508 Pine Siskin (female sign) ad. 12.1g. Shot from pine} flew up from bushes of Salvia carnosa. 6509 Slender-billed Nuthatch (female sign) ad. 17.0g. Shot From Pine. 6510 Slender-billed Nuthatch (male sign) ad. 17.7g. Shot From Pine. 6511 Townsend Junco (male sign (?)) im. 18.2g. Shot on grass at streamside. 6512 Calif. Jay (male sign) ad. 69.6g. Shot from dead pine on brushy hillside. 6513 Eutamias merriami (female sign) 59.5g. 225x93x34x15. In rat trap. 6514 Neotoma fuscipes (female sign) 103g. 295x138x32x23. In trap, newly set, at nest of pine needles, twigs, and branches between and under boulders. Discarded: 3 Peromyscus truei, 2(female sign female sign), 1 ( male sign); one of these at same wood-rat's nest as no. 6514, others under edges of boulders with manzanita and scrubby oaks about. Today, 7:20 to 12:20, I took a strenuous walk about 5 miles due east to the jumping-off place, in other words to the eastern rim of the San Pedro Martir plateau. I went up the Arroya La Encantada to the big main "meadow" (now just weeds -- the tall slender composite with inconspicuous flowers, sample saved from near camp); then off along the eastern arm of this flat and up a draw over a divide at, I think, about 8000 feet, and down into the head of El Cajon Canyon which makes down precipitously onto the San Felipe Desert. I climbed a hill and got a fine view east, across the San Felipe desert, then the San Felipe range of desert mountains, then a further strip of desert, and then the gulf, beyond which I could

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 13 Page Number: 2586

see in very faint outline the mountains of Sonora. The panorama reminded me strongly of that seen from the Santa Rosa or San Jacinto mountains of southern California eastward. Toward the top of the divide the prevailing Jeffrey pines were mixed with some white fir, incense cedar and sugar pine; and in the rough hills adjoining the pass were numerous scrubby oaks, and rather dense chaparral of manzanita, buckthorn, and cascara. It was here, on the dessert slope of the divide, that I encountered the three Calif. Jays. The following census was pencil checked on card-board on the way out, from camp to my farthest point over the divide, 7:20 to 10:00. Pigmy Nuthatch 68; Audubon Warbler 5 (only along the stream); Bluebird 10; Cabanis Woodpecker 6; Townsend Junco 13; Chickadee 10; Raven 5; Red-tailed Hawk 2; Pinyon Jay 1 (heard); Olive-backed Thrush (1, in cascara bush); Canyon Wren 2; Williamson Sapsucker 1; Slender-billed Nuthatch 4; Red-shafted Flicker 1; Spurred Towhee 1; Siskin 5; Calif. Jay 3. Total, 17 species, 138 individuals, in 2 2/3 hours. Note that just about half of all the birds noted were Pigmy Nuthatches! Of mammals I checked in the same period; Chipmunk 28;Scirus 2 (in pine near divide); Wildcat (one out in open meadow in bight sunshine; bounded up a draw; may have been laying for birds coming to drink at the seepage near where he was); on the way down

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: La Grulla, 7200 ft. Date: Oct. 13 Page Number: 2587

it began to cloud up, and the wind was freezing cold; but even so, I saw 5 Citellus beecheyi actively out at the border of the stream at one time. The Williamson Sapsucker was an adult male, and was working on smallish pines where there had been a recent ground-fire, breaking the lower trunks and killing the lower branches. The blackened bark was abundantly perforated in many trees, and pitch was oozing from the horizontal rows of punctures. This work must have been going on for sometime -- weeks and, more likely, months; and I could see there and at many other places old sapsucker workings. The evidence, I think, points towards the conclusion that this sapsucker is resident here. Incidentally I saw woodpecker nesting excavations in a dead stub on a living Jeffry pine close to the bleeding trees. Lamb collected a (male sign) Williamson today, and this and the (female sign) I got at camp should be compared carefully with more northern specimens. Oct 14 Snowed a while yesterday afternoon, then cleared up completely in the evening, and I slept out as usual; but at 4 this morning I woke up with it snowing and moved into the tent with Lamb. And it has snowed softly but abundantly ever since (now9:30). It is sticky and branches