4/28/09
Good walk. It was a pleasant 61 F and partly cloudy.
The birds cooperated. We observed 21 species.
Not a record but well above average.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
The highlight by far was welcoming back Bill Schaefer.
Bill walked his first walk on 1/23/2001 (one week
before Kent Potter joined the walks by the way).
Bill turned in his 106th walk. He left Caltech
a few years ago and gets down here from Northern
California about once or twice a year for a walk.
But he missed last year so this was his
first walk in a couple of years. It was good to see Bill again.
And getting back to Kent, he turned in his 263rd walk,
good for third all-time. He's behind only me and Glenn Hamell.
Thanks, Kent! Come to think of it, Glenn ought to get
over here from Anaheim once in a while for a walk!
Birdwise, the excitement was over the Golden Eagle we were about
to convince ourselves we were looking
at, perched in the top of a tree, when Kent and I had
the simultaneous misfortune to see the red tail. Drat! Golden
Eagles have never been recorded on campus but are possible.
Three were seen yesterday only a few miles north of campus.
For your information, I did update the probability plots
on the website to take into account the observations from last year.
Please feel free to look them over and make theories for
whatever trends you see. I think the plots that show probability
of observation vs year are particularly interesting. What's going on
with the recent downward trends for some of our "regulars",
including Scrub Jay and Mockingbird. Fortunately, Black Phoebe and
Bushtit have come on like gangbusters to keep our totals up.
The stats:
The date: 4/28/09
The week number: 17
The walk number: 985
The weather: 61 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Bill Schaefer, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Kent Potter, Beth Moore
The birds (21):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Raven
White-throated Swift
Starling
Lesser Goldfinch
Bushtit
Western Wood-Pewee
Spotted Towhee
House Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Black Phoebe
Red-tailed Hawk
Band-tailed Pigeon
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
4/28/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
4/20/09
Wow. Hot. And I don't mean hot as in hot birding.
I mean record-breaking hot weather. I mean hotter than
a blue pistol, as we used to say in Texas. It was 95 F.
For April, that's hot.
We only saw 14 species. At least it wasn't a record low.
That is 12 for a week 16. And it was week 16, the famous week
when the Yellow-rumped Warblers disappear for the summer.
And they did. Actually, they had a about a 50% probability of being
seen this week, but zero probability next week. We didn't see one.
They'll be back about week 40, around 5 October.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
The highlight was eye-to-eye contact with a Spotted Towhee.
And the Lesser Goldfinches at the end of the walk were unusually
boisterous and beautiful.
The stats:
The date: 4/20/09
The week number: 16
The walk number: 984
The weather: 95 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Beth Moore, Kent Potter
The birds (14):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Spotted Towhee
White-throated Swift
Starling
House Wren
Bushtit
Hummingbird, sp.
Raven
Lesser Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
4/20/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
4/13/09
It was a beautiful day and it turned out to be a lot better
day for birds than last week. We observed 19 species, good
for a positive-scoring walk.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
The highlight had to be the B2 Stealth Bomber, which circled
overhead throughout the walk. Maybe they spotted us walking around
with binocs and wanted to make sure we were minding our P's and Q's.
The other highlight was a pair of Mallards on one of
the Throop ponds. Haven't seen those in a long time.
The stats:
The date: 4/13/09
The week number: 15
The walk number: 983
The weather: 74 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Darren Dowell, Vivica Sapin-Areeda, Ashish Mahabal, Nathan Dalleska
The birds (19):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
White-throated Swift
Lesser Goldfinch
Starling
Bushtit
Gull, sp.
Red-tailed Hawk
Raven
Yellow-rumped Warbler
House Wren
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Mallard
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
4/13/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
4/6/09
Ouch! At least there was a breeze. It was hot, weatherwise, and cold,
birdwise. I mean ice cold. We recorded 10 species,
and we felt lucky to get that number. We didn't wonder
if we left any in the field. There was a paucity of birds.
So much so that we set the record low for a week 14 by 3 birds.
Our walk score was a dismal -1.8757.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
I guess the good news was that only two of had to suffer
through this one. Better luck to us all next week.
The stats:
The date: 4/6/09
The week number: 14
The walk number: 982
The weather: 80 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter
The birds (10):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bushtit
House Wren
Starling
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
4/6/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu