Diario de e_michael

Found this Small Honey Ant (Prenolepis imparis) walking up the branch of a red tree at Tilden Regional Park, moving quickly ahead of its friends. The Small Honey Ant is a member of the insect taxa. "The small honey ant is a native species, sometimes referred to as the false honey ant. It is also known as the winter ant, because it is more cold tolerant than other species that infest structures. It ranges from Ontario, Canada, to Nebraska, south to Texas and Florida, and also occurs in New Mexico, California, Oregon and Washington." (http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/small_honey.html)

Found these Golden-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) at Tilden Regional Park up in the hills of the Berkeley/Orinda area. Saw them picking in the grass and shrubs of the park, moving quickly and in packs. They are a part of the Bird taxa and are common on the Pacific Coast during the Winter time (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/golden-crowned_sparrow/id).

Saw this rather hefty squirrel eating out of a plot of bearberries for a good amount of time before finally hopping off slowly at Tilden Regional Park. It was a mid-temperatured February afternoon in the hills of the Berkeley/Orinda area. The Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) is an animal and member of the mammal taxa, and was recently introduced to the North and Southern California regions in the past fifty years (http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/amuchli/squirrelform.htm). Fox squirrels are known to be fans of mast, tree buds, insects, tubers, bulbs, roots, bird eggs, seeds of pines and spring-fruiting trees, and fungi, and, from my own experience at UC Berkeley's campus, sometimes french fries. Agricultural crops such as corn, soybeans, oats, wheat, and fruit are also eaten. Their diets usually vary from area to area. They are the largest squirrel native to North America.