A little over a year ago while hiking Simmons Trail on Mt. Tam (best accessed from the Rock Spring trailhead), I noticed a few chipmunks scampering around. Using just our trusty little family camera (a Panasonic DMC-FX37) I managed to get a one decent photo from a few feet away. I didn't think much about it then, but I came across the photo a few days ago and was struck by the little chipmunk's beauty. Then I wondered what kind of chipmunk it was.After a few hours of internet and book research, I discovered we don't have many chipmunks in the Bay Area. Merriam's chipmunk lives in southern and central California; you have a chance of seeing them in the Bay Area only in coastal counties south of the Golden Gate. Yellow-cheeked chipmunks are found on the northern coast, but their range ends in near Freestone in Somona County. That leaves one other contender to be my Tam cutie: Tamias sonomae, Sonoma chipmunk, with a California range from the northern San Francisco Bay Area north to Siskiyou County.
I thought about chipmunks a bit, and realized I haven't seen very many of them while hiking; so few that I remember the occasions: one on the trail at Purisima Creek Redwoods, one on Bear Valley Trail at Point Reyes, and now a few scrambling around the chaparral on Mount Tam. So I suppose I've seen one Merriam's and two Sonomas. Mystery solved!
