The
date: 10/15/2025
The week number: 42
The
walk number: 1841
The weather: 65 F; partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Chip O’Connor, John Beckett, Ellen Yu,
Marsha Hirano-Nakanishi, Mickey Areeda, Eric Warren, Kevin Kan, Wan-Ying Kan, Calvin Kan
The birds (21)
No. First Name Last Name Prob
|
27 |
|
Bushtit |
0.75 |
|
11 |
American |
Crow |
0.62 |
|
1 |
Mourning |
Dove |
0.88 |
|
2 |
House |
Finch |
0.62 |
|
3 |
Lesser |
Goldfinch |
0.75 |
|
1 |
Red-shouldered |
Hawk |
0.12 |
|
1 |
Red-tailed |
Hawk |
0.88 |
|
3 |
Anna’s |
Hummingbird |
1 |
|
1 |
Selasphorus |
Hummingbird |
0.75 |
|
3 |
Dark-eyed |
Junco |
1 |
|
2 |
Ruby-crowned |
Kinglet |
0.75 |
|
2 |
Black |
Phoebe |
0.88 |
|
1 |
Band-tailed |
Pigeon |
0.62 |
|
3 |
Common |
Raven |
0.75 |
|
1 |
California |
Scrub-Jay |
0.50 |
|
1 |
House |
Sparrow |
0.75 |
|
2 |
California |
Towhee |
0.38 |
|
1 |
Turkey |
Vulture |
0.38 |
|
1 |
Orange-crowned |
Warbler |
0.12 |
|
21 |
Yellow-rumped |
Warbler |
1 |
|
15 |
Acorn |
Woodpecker |
1 |
Walk lasted between 12:00 and 14:05
We didn’t set a record this week but we did get 21 and that was a wee-bit better than the prediction of 20.9. So, the prediction worked well today as it often does. Something extraordinary happened today and it was all thanks to Wan-Ying. She has become the expert on the bird walks. Kevin said she has read every report there is and studied the website extensively. About two-thirds of the way through the walk, she handed me a gift. She said it was in celebration of the 39th anniversary of the walks that started on October 15, 1986. I didn’t remember the exact start date myself, but she knew it. The gift was in an envelope and I thanked her and put it away. When I got back to my office and opened it, I was stunned. It was a handmade, accordion-style little book with pictures of the 39 most common birds we’ve seen over the years and a page showing pictures of the 15 birds we’ve only seen once on the walks. I include below some pictures to give you an idea. She did quite a bit of research on this project as she listed in order the most common species with the number of times observed for those 39 species over the 1840 walks. Today’s walk was number 1841, so her data analysis was up to date. I was surprised at the results. I would not have guessed that the American Crow would come in first. I thought first would have been the Acorn Woodpecker. And the Rock Pigeon was 11th just behind the Band-tailed Pigeon. We haven’t seen a Rock Pigeon in quite some time, but back in the day, they were quite common. My, how things have changed over time. You can see the changes over time by visiting http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/probability_obs_by_year.htm . You can see there that the Acorn Woodpecker had a drop off starting in 2011, which lasted about 5 years. Lots of other interesting chnages over time to be seen on that webpage. And, as I said, she searched and found the 15 species we’ve only seen once. This is a very interesting book! And she had all the walkers today sign it, in secret, before she handed it to me. Wow, what a great, thoughtful gift! Thank you so much, Wan-Ying!
Alan,
10/15/2025
