Yellow-eared bat

I caught this amazing male yellow-eared bat (Vampyressa sp.) in my in-law's backyard!  It was a pretty exciting night, this was my time mist-netting in Zaragoza (La Libertad), El Salvador.  I couldn't ID the species; there are no field-keys for El Salvador - but that's also true for many other Central American countries.  Here's a great paper by Hernández-Dávila et al. 2012.

Botta's pocket gopher

We were just starting our hike at Solstice Canyon (Malibu, California), when we stopped to look at a couple of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) & almost stepped on the home of this fantastic Botta's (or Valley) Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae).  

Solstice is very popular, so you can hear chit-chatting as people walk by us (without noticing the gopher!).  Once in a while you can even make out the knocking from the Acorn Woodpeckers!