Caltech Birding

12/27/04

The last walk of 2004 took place on a cool, cloudy day. We sneaked it in before the rain is scheduled to come in. According to the weather forecasts, each of the next 10 days has at least a 30% chance of rain.

We had a pretty good total: 19 species. The record for the last week of the year is 23 set in 1997. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

The highlight bird was a Say's Phoebe. It took Kent and me a little while and two bird books to determine which flycatcher it was, but we got the job done. It was over by the IPAC building on Wilson. The one we should have gotten but didn't was a House Finch.

The stats:
The date: 12/27/04
The week number: 52
The walk number: 764
The weather: 57 F, cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter
The birds (19):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black Phoebe
Band-tailed Pigeon
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Say's Phoebe
American Goldfinch
Red-tailed Hawk
Starling
Raven
Cedar Waxwing

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
12/27/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

12/21/04

We had a big surprise on the walk today: the Red-breasted Sapsucker. That is the 4th sighting in history for that bird. We have seen the Red-naped Sapsucker a total of 8 times and a hybrid between the two twice. So these sapsuckers are a rarity. It was in the usual place, the sapsucker tree in Tournament Park. Another relative rarity of note was a Turkey Vulture.

We saw a total of 20 species, which is quite respectable. The record for week 51 is 21, accomplished twice in 1990 and 1992. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

It appears that Kent Potter will overtake Glen Hamell for 2nd place in number of walks taken during the year. Both are tied at 35, but Glenn is on vacation and Kent is not. Also, Bryan Jacoby caught up with Matt Hunt, registering his 12th career walk. Kelly Jung has 19 walks to her credit this year and I have been on 47. There have been a total of 48 walks so far in 2004. (All numbers will be audited at the end of the year and revised if necessary.)

The stats:
The date: 12/21/04
The week number: 51
The walk number: 763
The weather: 61 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Bryan Jacoby
The birds (20):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-tailed Hawk
Black Phoebe
Turkey Vulture
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Starling
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Cedar Waxwing
American Goldfinch

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
12/21/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

12/13/04

This was the 762nd walk in the series and the week was number 50 of the year. We saw 15 species, which is well off the record high of 22 for week 50 set in 1994, but way ahead of the record low of 9 set last year. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

About the only highlight was a Townsend's Warbler, always a nice bird to see. The low-light was not seeing a Rock Pigeon! It must have been the Red-tailed Hawks we saw that kept them hiding out.

The stats:
The date: 12/13/04
The week number: 50
The walk number: 762
The weather: 65 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Bryan Jacoby
The birds (15):

Scrub Jay
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Red-tailed Hawk
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Townsend's Warbler
American Goldfinch
Orange-crowned Warbler
Black Phoebe
Band-tailed Pigeon

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
12/13/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

12/9/04

This week's walk featured the return of Bryan Jacoby, who had been busy recently preparing to defend his thesis and had missed a number of bird walks. He successfully defended yesterday, so today it was Dr. Bryan Jacoby who joined us on the bird walk. Congratulations to Bryan!

We had a nice walk on a beautiful day with the temperature in the mid-60s. The skies were clear.

We bemoaned the news that they tore down Pale Male's nest near Central Park in New York. Pale Male fathered 25 chicks from that nest and now he has to make other living arrangements. Most of you know that Pale Male is a Red-tailed Hawk and the subject of a book, "Red-tails in Love", and also the subject of television documentaries.

We recorded 15 species whilst thinking of Pale Male. Unfortunatley, we did not see a Red-tailed Hawk. The record for a week 49 was 21 in 1999. But last year we only saw 13, so this is a respectable showing. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

I would say the Robin and the Dark-eyed Junco were the highlights. We haven't seen a Robin in a while and we saw only one todsy. We did see a Scrub Jay, but no Crows or Mockingbirds.

The stats:
The date: 12/9/04
The week number: 49
The walk number: 761
The weather: 65 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Dr. Bryan Jacoby
The birds (15):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Cedar Waxwing
American Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
12/9/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu