8/31/09

Sensational day! We added a new bird to the Caltech list! It was quite an effort, however. But before I get into that, let me get some housekeeping out of the way. We saw 11 species, well above the record low, but below the median and average for a week 35. So we had a negative-scoring walk. We should get extra credit for adding a new bird to the list!

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

OK, back to the new bird. As we approached the northeast corner of the south athletic field, we looked it over. There were no human walkers or runners because of the smoky air due to the fires. But there were three small, sparrow-sized birds in the grass at the far end. Our binocs were not strong enough to get an ID on them. But I suspected they were interesting because of the way they behaved. They would run a short distance and then stand up tall and look around before feeding in the grass. They would also hop forward. We listed some possibilities, including Horned Lark, American Water Pipit, and Lark Sparrow. All of these we thought might behave that way. But even from a distance, I didn't think they were pipits.

There was a locked fence where we were so we couldn't get closer to investigate. However, we do get to the other end of the field later in the walk, so we moved on. When we got to the other end, we were peering through a fence and still couldn't ID them, despite being closer and my searching through the Sibley Guide. We decided to continue on and then go through the gym to get to the field. It turned out we didn't have to go through the gym because a fence we came to before the gym was open and we walked right out onto the field. We moved closer to them in stages and could see better but still not good enough. I could see there was some sort of facial pattern and we could also rule out Horned Lark. When we got too close they would fly up and move farther way, settling down in the grass again. Finally, I moved too close and they flew up into a tree lining the field but pretty far away. Darren said he heard a high pitched descending whistle when they took off. We were way behind schedule, so we continued on with the walk.

As we departed the scene, Darren said, "This is where we need Jon Feenstra. He'd know what those birds are." So, I took out my cell phone and called Jon. He was driving but said I could call him back in 5 minutes. I gave him 10 and called him back. We discussed the observations and he went through the same list of birds as we had come up with. I was kind of proud of that. Finally, when he heard they flew up into a tree, he said he was sure it was a Lark Sparrow. He said it was spot-on behavior and description for a Lark Sparrow. I said I was worried because we couldn't see that dark spot on the chest. He said if they were young birds you might not see that. When I got off the phone, Simon said that that was it then. We just had Jon tell us what it was. What more could we ask for? I said, "It would be better if he had seen them."

After the walk, I decided to go back over there and take another look. I had an errand to run and needed to head that way anyway to get to my car. When I got there, there they were in the grass again. This time there were four of them. And they let me get much closer. They were parked in the shade of the soccer goal and were hot, just as I was, because it was 95F out there and somewhat smoky. Finally, the ID was clear. One was absolutely, unmistakably a Lark Sparrow. The others were Lark's too, I'm sure, but juveniles probably. When I finally got too close, they flew and I could clearly see the white outer tail feathers (something Jon told me to look for).

So there you have it. Bird species number 120 for the Caltech campus birdwalks. The last time we saw a new one was in 2007, so this is an event that doesn't happen too often.

The stats:
The date: 8/31/09
The week number: 35
The walk number: 1003
The weather: 95 F, smoky
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Darren Dowell, Simon Radford

The birds (11):

Mourning Dove
House Finch
Crow
Band-tailed Pigeon
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Red-masked Parakeet
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Lark Sparrow

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
9/1/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

8/24/09

What a turn around from last week. We had a good-scoring walk. We saw all the "regulars" for one thing and scraped together a respectable 14 birds, two shy of the record for a week 34.

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

We saw lots of Red-masked Parakeets and lots of Hummingbirds. The main highlight was seeing all the regulars, which is quite irregular.

The stats:
The date: 8/24/09
The week number: 34
The walk number: 1002
The weather: 85 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Darren Dowell, Kent Potter
The birds (14):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Red-masked Parakeet
Black Phoebe
Band-tailed Pigeon
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Lesser Goldfinch

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
8/26/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

8/18/09

Viveca saved the day. On her way back to her office she saw a Black Phoebe and a Red-tailed Hawk. Without those two we would have set a record low for a week 33. As it was, we only got 10 species and it was a negative-scoring walk, but at least we didn't set a record in the bad direction. Thanks, Viveca.

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

Not many highlights. We did see quite a few Red-masked Parakeets in different places on campus. The weather was pleasant.

The stats:
The date: 8/18/09
The week number: 33
The walk number: 1001
The weather: 74 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda
The birds (10):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Red-masked Parakeet
Black Phoebe
Red-tailed Hawk

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
8/19/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

8/10/09

One thousand walks and counting! That's right. Today's walk was the one thousandth in the series dating back to 10/15/86. I remember that first walk. Ernie Franzgrote had contacted me about doing them and I was a bit reluctant. I was used to going somewhere to try to add a life bird to my list. It seemed unlikely that the campus at which I had been working for 19 years already would produce a new bird for me. But finally I caved in and we took our first walk. It was more like a picnic in Tournament Park. We walked over there and had lunch and looked for birds for an hour. We only saw four species, but one, the Townsend's Warbler, was a life bird for me. Well, that did it for me and the rest is history as they say.

Adding a life bird to my list on one of the walks is surprisingly more probable than you might think. Today was my 900th Caltech birdwalk and I have added 13 life birds. So there is a 1.4% probability for adding a new lifer on a given walk. I followed up the one new one in 1986 with four more in 1987, and as recently as 2007 I added two new ones. So things are still happening on the new-bird front.

I estimate that each walk is about 1.75 miles long. So in my 900 walks, I've walked about 1575 miles, about as far as from here to Dallas. Good grief!

The walk today was very special. We had 10 walkers total and they gave me a gift, a stuffed California Quail toy. I also got a signed card, and we all shared some sparkling apple cider to celebrate. I'm pretty sure Darren Dowell and Beth Moore had a lot to do with all this and I think them very much for their efforts. The quail is on my window sill at work, right alongside my three toy armadillos.

Some pictures were taken that I hope to get up on the website one of these days. We had some walkers who hadn't walked in a while and I was especially delighted to see Jon Feenstra come back. Jon got his PhD at Caltech a few years ago and has since taken up birding as a profession. He gets paid to lead expeditions of all sorts. This was his 48th Caltech walk, but the last one before today's was in 2007. My most favorite memory of Jon was on one of his early walks he identified a MacGillivray's Warbler from the sound of a single note. I was so taken aback that I blurted out "are you sure?" I didn't know Jon very well back then so a challenge seemed in order. We soon located the bird by sight and since then I don't challenge his calls based on sound. He has a phenomenal ear for birding.

The walk itself was a pretty good one for number of species. We recorded 13 species, which was nearly one standard deviation above average for a week 32 of the year. We've had so many positive scoring walks this year that 2009 is on track to be the third best scoring year of all time behind 2002 and 2007.

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

I think the highlight had to be the young Cooper's Hawk that landed in the sapsucker tree in Tournament Park. It was fortunate that Viveca and Barbara were lagging behind about then and saw the incoming hawk. They waved us back to see it. Jon said it was a youngster. I didn't question him on that. I just marked it down and moved on.

I guess my next personal milestone will be 1000 walks, which might happen within a couple of years. Looking down the walker list, I see that today's walk was Beth Moore's 100th. So congratulations to her. Viveca could reach that milestone by the end of the year, and Kent Potter could hit 300 by that time. He's at 285 right now. Kent is 3rd on the all-time number of walks list. Glenn Hamell recorded 352 walks before he retired last year.

Anyway, it's been fun and I hope we can keep it going for a good long while.

The stats:
The date: 8/10/09
The week number: 32
The walk number: 1000
The weather: 78 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Beth Moore, Darren Dowell, Kent Potter, David Werntz, Barbara Ellis, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Simon Radford, Nathan Dalleska, Jon Feenstra

The birds (13):

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Lesser Goldfinch
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Bewick's Wren
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Red-masked Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
8/11/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

8/3/09

Two people, four eyeballs, twelve species works out to be three species per eyeball. Not too bad for the beginning of August. It felt a bit hit or miss throughout the walk as we were spotty on the regulars. The Red-masked Parakeets are beginning to become quite regular; our highlight was a pair of Falcons, likely a juvenile and an adult. We need to have more Falcons flying around as we're still stumped with the ID. Likely a Peregrine, but neither of us willing to go beyond "sp."

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 8/3/09
The week number: 31
The walk number: 999
The weather: 84 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Beth Moore, Darren Dowell

The birds (12):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-masked Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon
California Towhee
Black Phoebe
Falcon, sp.

--Beth Moore

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
8/10/09
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu