The date: 11/12/2025
The week number: 46

The walk number: 1845
The weather: 72 F; cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Chip O’Connor, John Beckett, Ellen Yu,

Kevin Kan, Wan-Ying Kan, Calvin Kan, Marsha Hirano-Nakanishi, Emily Ewbank, Annette Kapple,

Katie Chiu, Eric Warren

The birds (32)

No. First Name Last Name Prob

5	Western	Bluebird	0.62
1	Red-whiskered	Bulbul	0.50
24		Bushtit	0.62
3	American	Crow	0.75
7	Mourning	Dove	1
4	House	Finch	0.88
1	American	Goldfinch	0.12
5	Lesser	Goldfinch	1
1	Red-shouldered	Hawk	0.12
1	Red-tailed	Hawk	0.62
1	Anna’s	Hummingbird	1
1	Selasphorus	Hummingbird	0.75
2	Dark-eyed	Junco	1
3	Ruby-crowned	Kinglet	1
1	Northern	Mockingbird	0.50
3	Black	Phoebe	0.88
1	Say’s	Phoebe	0.50
2	Band-tailed	Pigeon	0.50
6	Common	Raven	0.75
1	American	Robin	0
1	California	Scrub-Jay	0.25
2	Chipping	Sparrow	0
1	House	Sparrow	0.50
1	Species	Thrush	0
2	California	Towhee	0.62
1	Orange-crowned	Warbler	0.25
2	Townsend’s	Warbler	0.88
20	Yellow-rumped	Warbler	1
16	Cedar	Waxwing	0.25
11	Acorn	Woodpecker	1
1	Nuttall’s	Woodpecker	0.25
1	Bewick’s	Wren	0.62

Walk lasted between 12:00 and 14:13

We had another outstanding walk, setting a new record for the week, for the second week in a row. We observed 32 species, whereas the previous record was 26. The prediction was 20.6, so we surpassed that number by 11.4 species! Wow. We also had 3 new walkers join us. Emily and Katie work in the Caltech Facilities department and Annette is non-Caltech but found out we might have a Red-naped Sapsucker that she dearly wanted to photograph. Unfortunately, the red-naped was not among the 32 we observed.

I have to put a spotlight on Wan-Ying and Calvin. They went to a lot of effort to get the last two birds, the House Sparrow and the Nuttall’s Woodpecker. Calvin and Wan-Ying had seen the House Sparrow briefly on the way to the walk but were not absolutely sure of the call. Calvin tried recording the sounds but traffic made it hard to hear and their Merlin didn’t make an identification. Calvin later did sone sort of filtering and emailed me the filtered (and unfiltered) version(s). My Merlin listened to the filtered version and identified the sounds as House Sparrow. So, I added that one. Then, after the walk, they came upon the Nuttall’s and recorded that too and sent the recording. My Merlin said Nuttal’s. So, good for them. 32 species is a big number, not often achieved.

Finally, kudos to Wan-Ying for something else. During the walk, I loaned Wan-Ying a DVD with the title “A Big Year for Little Birds”. This DVD was made many years ago by Ernie Franzgrote, the co-founder of the walks. It contained his videos of a lot of hummingbird species that he saw on a trip to Central and South America. Wan-Ying said she’d have Kevin make a copy of it. But, before that happened, she did a search on YouTube and found it there. Here’s the link. I’m sure you will enjoy it. I plan to post it on the website as well. Thanks to Wan-Ying for doing that search.

https://youtu.be/ZP6dEPOTvaA?si=sfuJBBTpdUgcZIxt

Alan,

11/14/2025