Recent searches
Search options
I startled a ground squirrel while looking for something that was chirping in a fenced-off area of a park with a pair of transmission towers.
The squirrel hid, but this hawk - which I suspect was looking for the squirrel - flew out and perched on the fence for a few minutes before flying up to one of the lower struts on the nearer tower.
A week later, all the weeds in the enclosure where I saw the hawk have been cleared out and the feral palm trees cut down.
That's probably why I was able to get a clear view of some of the ground squirrels, looking out from their burrows and climbing around on the tree stumps.
I went to the same park again today. I spotted a Fox Squirrel eating a pine cone in a tree elsewhere in the park, and a California Ground Squirrel standing guard outside the enclosure's chain link fence.
Seriously, it. did. not. move. for several minutes while another ground squirrel ran inside the fence and waited, and I moved to a better angle for photos, until it abruptly turned around and ran through or under the fence.
@kelsonv those pictures are fantastic, the first one especially is *amazing*!
@troodon Thanks! I couldn't believe how close it was to start with and how close I was able to get!
@kelsonv Are ground squirrels the same as chipmunks?
@zleap They're probably related, but I think the ones we have around here are more closely related to tree squirrels.
This is the iNat observation for the California Ground Squirrel I saw, just before I startled it trying to move closer for a better photo:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89734843
And a few minutes of wiki-walking turns up that ground squirrels as a group do include chipmunks, so I guess the better answer is that they overlap, but this particular one wasn't a chipmunk!
@kelsonv Ah ok, I know some animals have different names. Same as plants e.g Aubergine = Eggplant depending where people are from.
Thanks