PROBABLY A MERRIAM CHIPMUNK (EUTAMIAS MERRIAMI)
spent 13 days at a new bio-type which is sort of between desert and mountain and I suppose a "Mediterranean" climate....still hotter than hell and deadly to a lot of species I did the usual hard core animal stalking...not really...just sat in the chair and read and ate and read some more and ate some more until after 13 days most of the critters were no longer alarmed at my presence and began to get pretty close...I was backed into a scrub oak thicket which not too surprisingly had lots of scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerlescens) in residence...as well as a couple of California ground squirrels (Citellus beecheyi) and some hummingbirds which I think were Costas hummingbirds (Calypte costae) I never figured out how hot the temperature was but probably over a hundred...but it stayed comfortable under the large oak tree. I found a water pipe coming out of the ground which was de-commisioned but still had a slight leak and was wetting the concrete slab so I put a cast iron griddle which had been abandoned in a campsite under the dripping and then put a half a water bottle with a rock in it under the drip and there was a good spot for the true residents to get some life giving water...because the wildlife are going to suffer and die if the humans don't get busy realizing they do not have the capacity to travel great distances to get water anyhow by the time I left there were a lot of birds and a rabbit hanging around the water spot.... also there was a California thrasher (Toxostoma redivivum) which came around a sifted through the leaves with great enthusiasm and helped to keep the bug population in check...there were more insects at this site than anyplace I had been in a while...which is a good thing!
"Buy me a flute, and a gun that shoots a tailgate substitute , strap yourself to a tree with roots, we ain't going nowhere..." Bob Dylan
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