12/27/10

It was a spectacular day for a bird walk. The temperature was 63 F and there was bright sunshine, making short sleeves the perfect attire. If you are currently in a snowstorm on the East Coast, you should consider Southern California as a place to live! I know you'll have to wait for the airports to open, but you could start packing now.

The walk itself did not produce the bird species in the numbers to which we had become accustomed. We saw only 16 species, three below the median, so we pulled in with a negative walk score. But we did set the record for ranking points in a year. We got a score of 1.26936 for 2010, well ahead of 2009 which had been the leader at 0.65643. Birds on the Caltech campus seem to be on the upswing.

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

Many thanks to our winter birders, Matt Bradford and George Rossman, who along with Beth and me made up the birding group. Caltech was closed, so it was a special effort to join in. I appreciate it.

I guess the highlight bird was the Downy Woodpecker seen on a pretty small twig in back of the Health Center. Other than that, it was pretty slim pickings.

Happy New Year to all!

The date: 12/27/10
The week number: 52
The walk number: 1071
The weather: 63 F, sunny

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Beth Moore, George Rossman, Matt Bradford

The birds (16):

House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black Phoebe
Downy Woodpecker
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Band-tailed Pigeon
American Goldfinch
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
12/27/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

12/23/10

The rain finally stopped and we got the walk in for week 51 of the year. It was a good walk. We expected more activity but little by little we kept adding a bird here and a bird there and by then end we had 22 species, three above the median for a week 51.

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

We had a walker highlight: Matt Bradford made his first walk of the year. He has walked occasionally since 2003. He usually has a conflict on Mondays, but the holidays are upon us and he was able to get this one in. He said he might be able to walk next Monday. I hope several can make it.

On the bird side, our highlights were a Hermit Thrush and a Say's Phoebe. Our lowlight was the House Sparrow, which didn't show up.

Next week's walk puts a wrap on 2010, and it's going to be a record-setting year. Our score is going to be about 1.3 and the previous high score for a year was about 0.7. Nice!

The date: 12/23/10
The week number: 51
The walk number: 1070
The weather: 59 F, cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Beth Moore, Matt Bradford, Viveca Sapin-Areeda

The birds (22):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Bushtit
Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bewick's Wren
Raven
Band-tailed Pigeon
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Lesser Goldfinch
Say's Phoebe
Hawk, sp.
Black Phoebe
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
12/23/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

12/13/10

We had a nice walk. Nice people, nice birds, nice weather. We even had a new walker, making it extra nice. Ron Voelkel passed up the freezing cold, snowy weather of New York City to birdwatch with us, among other things. We're glad he joined us and we hope he can join us again in the future. This reporter was also glad to have Darren back to lend a well-trained ear and eye to our outing.

We didn't get all of the [now irregular] regulars, but we had some pretty nice 'catches' : A Townsend's Warbler in Tournament Park; both Red-masked Parakeets and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets; and a Vireo that had our attention for quite some time south of the Morrisroe building. The Vireo gave Ron his first opportunity to grab a key detail for identification, in this case the color of the underside/belly. Darren was pretty sure it was a Plumbeous Vireo, which it turns out it was. Unfortunately, none of us could get any key details looking at a Buteo very high in the sky so Buteo, sp. it will have to be.

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

The date: 12/13/10
The week number: 50
The walk number: 1069
The weather: 77 F, Partly cloudy

The walkers: Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Hannah Dvorak-Carbone, Ron Voelkel, Darren Dowell, Beth Moore

The birds (24):

Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Bewick's Wren
Black Phoebe
Cedar Waxwing
Starling
Red-crowned Parakeet
Buteo, sp
Townsend's Warbler
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Raven
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Selasphorus Hummingbird
Cassin's Vireo (changed by Darren after the fact from original call of Plymbeous--ACC)

--Beth Moore


Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
12/20/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

12/6/10

We had a very good walk. We observed 23 species, two short of the record for a week 49 and good for a positive walk score of 1.62187.

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

It took some due diligence, but we finally got all the regulars. And we had a nice mix of birds with a Black-Throated Gray Warbler still hanging around and a Spotted Towhee jumping right up in front of us in the maintenance yard. Viveca's outstanding vision reeled in a Red-tailed Hawk and Beth delivered a Nuttall's Woodpecker on her walk home (though seen while standing on Caltech property, ,of course). It was beautiful day to boot, with the temperature at 66 F and not a cloud in the sky. It was a good day.

The date: 12/6/10
The week number: 49
The walk number: 1068
The weather: 66 F, sunny

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Vicky Brennan, Hannah Dvorak-Carbone, Beth Moore, John Beckett

The birds (23):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Goldfinch
Black Phoebe
Cedar Waxwing
Spotted Towhee
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Starling
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Raven
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Nuttall's Woodpecker

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
12/8/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html