02/03/04

Birders:

Well, the weather was nice, the company was good, but the birds were mostly in hiding. Kent, Bill, Glenn and I were joined by my niece Kelly Jung. Kelly works in the Grad Office. She has volunteered to make a webpage for the group. She seems to attract Bant-tailed Pigeons. We saw more of those today than we've seen in a long time. The highlight bird was a Cooper's Hawk. I think
this bird was going down as a Merlin but as I was flipping to the Merlin page, Kelly noticed a bird one page back. She said go back a page and there was a picture of a Cooper's Hawk that looked
exactly like what were seeing on the top of a tall tree on Wilson. So, thanks to Kelly for keeping us on the right track with that one.

(Jon Feenstra emailed in Yellow-chevroned Parakeets he saw over lunch).

Weather : partly cloudy, temperature about 60F
Walkers: Bill, Glenn, me, Kent, and Kelly (Jon by email)

The birds:

Rock Dove	Scrub Jay	Mockingbird
House Sparrow	Mourning Dove	House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird	Acorn Woodpecker	Crow
Black Phoebe	Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Yellow-runped Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon	Cooper's Hawk	Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (JF email)

Total = 15

Alan

02/10/04

Observers: Kent, Glenn, Bill Temperature 66 or thereabouts.

Species seen, in order of appearance:

Acorn Woodpecker	Mourning Dove	Rock Dove
Yellow-rumped Warbler	Scrub Jay	American Goldfinch
House Sparrow	American Crow	House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch	Band-tailed Pigeon	Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
White-crowned Sparrow (Eat your heart out, Alan!)

Respectfully submitted, Bill Schaefer

02/17/04

Birders:

What a fine day it was! Temperature was about 74 F, partly cloudy. Walkers were Alan, Glenn, and Kent. Digging in the North athletic field for the new parking structure has begun in a major way and it was so dusty that way and so unlikey that any bird with a decent-sized brain would be over there that we skipped looking over the field.

We saw 20 for the day, not bad. Looks like the expected range for mid-February is 15-28 and 20 might be about average. I suppose the highlight bird was a Nuttal's Woodpecker, observed
briefly along Wilson. The Bewick's Wren placed second in the running for highlight bird.

The list:

Rock Dove	Scrub Jay	Mockingbird
House Sparrow	Mourning Dove	House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird	Acorn Woodpecker	Crow
Starling	Yellow-rumped Warbler	American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch	Bushtit	Bewick's Wren
Gull	Black Phoebe	Nuttal's Woodpecker
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet	Band-tailed Pigeon

Alan

PS: Coming soon will be the official Caltech birdwalks website, brought to you courtesy of Kelly Jung (and me and the nice folks over at Information Technology Services at Caltech). The address will be http://birdwalks.caltech.edu Nothing is there at the moment but soon it will be filled with exciting information, plots, etc. You will be able to keep track of our progress no matter where you are -- as long as you have Internet access wherever you are.

02/24/04

Dear Caltech Birdwalkers:

Today's walk was very interesting. We saw 20 species, which is about typical for this time of year. But we saw 3 huge flocks of Cedar Waxwings and also a lot of Anna's Hummingbirds and House Finches. A flurry of birds accosted us on Holliston towards the end of the walk, including White-throated Swifts, Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, one of which was perched at the top of leafless tree as if it were a flycatcher, a bevy of Band-tailed Pigeons, 3 of which were swallowed up in a giant flock of Cedar Waxwings, so much so that Kent and I worried for their safety, a Black Phobe which was hotly pursued by a hummingbird, and a couple of American Goldfinches. Despite valiant efforts on everyone's part, no House Sparrow was seen. While I don't mind a decline of House Sparrows, I do object to their total absence, as it hurts the total count. Couldn't just one hang around Chandler at all times?

The walkers were Alan, Glenn, Kelly, and Kent.
Temperature about 60 F, cloudy.

The birds:

Rock Dove	Scrub Jay	Mockingbird
Mourning Dove	House Finch	Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker	Crow	Cedar Waxwing
Gull	Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Turkey Vulture
White-crowned Sparrow	Robin	Yellow-rumped Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon	White-throated Swift	Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Black Phoebe	American Goldfinch

Your reporter,
Alan

I had lunch at the Ath today with a visiting prof but I kept my ears open on
the walk there and back. I got your House Sparrow as well as Bushtits.

I'm glad you got Robins. I heard a bunch of them flying over this morning
and was hoping a few would stick around to lunch time.

Jon