an unusually plump California ground squirrel
Otospermophilus beecheyi

OK. I swear this will be my last post of Fatty... unless something unusual happens. I've been laughing all evening while looking through my recent photos. For the past couple weeks, I've had the camera out with hopes to capture the new unknown hawk in our area and the winter songbirds. Mostly, I get bits of trees and blurs of wings, nothing clear enough for a positive ID. While I wait for the birds, I'll take a couple pics of the fat ground squirrel, who is always present and doesn't move much. Haha, it didn't look like it was too pleased with me taking a picture of it eating. How rude of me! And, no, I don't feed the squirrels or the birds. I think all wildlife should earn an honest living. Plus, I wanted to illustrate with the second pic above why my squirrel and bird pics are so fuzzy - I use the maximum zoom setting on my point-and-shoot.

ps - I lied. I forgot I still feed a couple scrub-jays peanuts when they come calling.