S3 Page 68

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,