Unfriendly Skies (and Ground)

With the daily ritual of feeding the White-tailed Antelope squirrels and White Crowned sparrows, House Finches, and Dark-eyed Juncos that show up for feeding pretty much same time every day, Base Camp has drawn it's share of predators. It's a rare day when Tom doesn't see a Cooper's hawk and one or two Sharp Shinned hawks hiding in the near bushes or circling above.

Wow

Always the Path Less Traveled

The Ditch

After Friday night's rain a small ditch Tom used to jump back and forth across while out hiking with Kobae is now 8 to 15 feet deep and 10 to 15 feet wide.

The Little Guys Knew

Sunday evening as Tom is hiking around with Kobae, every ant pile he encounters is frantic with activity. Tom thinks it's odd that after the big one hit Friday night they could have kept this pace up for 48 hours doing reconstruction. While the sky at the time was just barely partly cloudy, 90 minutes later another storm tore into Base Camp though this time leaving little rain. Now Tom wonders, while Tom couldn't see it coming, they could feel it coming. So as not to go through the Friday night experience again, Tom will be watching ant piles to see if it's a constant warning indicator of what's coming.

White-tailed Antelope squirrel crossing

Kobster