Site Description

Our site location had a magnificent view onto the rest of the canyon.  The site was about a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the canyon to the northeast.  The entire canyon is part of a chaparral biome.  The dimensions of our site are fifty paces long, and sixty-three paces wide.  The ground cover consisted of mostly dead, brown grass, but there were three patches of green grass.  There were two Oak Trees in site that provided a little bit of shade.  The most common plants in our area were the Black Sage and Sagebrush.  The Black Sage was very dry and brown.  There were many Bewick’s Wrens in the Sage looking for food.  The site had a very relaxed feel to it because of the constant cool breeze that was going through the area.  During our observation, there was a large animal that was walking on the hill above that we believe to be a deer.  The deer was making noise up on the hill, but never came into direct view.  There were many Side-Blotched Lizards throughout the site and on the walk to the area.  We also found some scat on the way to the site that looked like Coyote scat.  Although not exactly in our area, there was Poison Oak along our walk to the site.  Next, up on a hill that was viewable from our site, there was a tall Yucca plant.  For birds in the area, we saw a Red-tailed Hawk that flew overhead and landed on the Oak Tree.  Finally, we heard and saw a Downey Woodpecker in the Oak Tree.