Caltech Birding

2/28/06

What a difference a week makes! Last week we set a record low for a week 8. This week we BROKE THE ALL-TIME RECORD FOR ANY WEEK. Yes, on walk number 823 in a series that began on 10/10/86, we broke the record BY 2 SPECIES, no less, and without the help of a Mourning Dove or a Black Phoebe, two fairly common birds on campus. Wow! And I almost postponed the walk until tomorrow because we had rain from yesterday afternoon until about 9 am this morning. But the Sun came out and so did the birds! We saw 30 species. The three previous high tallies were 28 in week 9 of 2003, 28 in week 8 of 1990, and 27 in week 8 of 2001. Are you seeing a pattern here? If you want a chance at big numbers, walk on week 8 or 9 (albeit last week was a major disappointment). See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

We welcomed a new birder to this historic walk: Kathy Svitil, who works in Public relations at Caltech. We also had Gail Anderson and her camera along, so we have some photo-documentation that I will append to this report.

The highlight birds were the Black-throated Gray Warbler (see photo attached), Red-crowned Parrot (see photo attached), Nuttall's Woodpecker, House Wren, and Violet-green Swallow. One of our birds is at this point unidentified. It counts in the species total since we're sure it was a unique bird sighting. It was probably a Northern Rough-winged Swallow, but I will put it down as Swallow, sp.

Congratulations to the group of 7 that participated!

The stats:
The date: 2/28/06
The week number: 9
The walk number: 823
The weather: 65 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Brendan Crill, Bill Jones, Gail Anderson, Kathy Svitil, Barbara Ellis, Carolyn Ash
The birds (30):

Rock Dove
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Lesser Goldfinch
House Wren
Orange-crowned Warbler
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk
Raven
Band-tailed Pigeon
American Goldfinch
Bushtit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Robin
Cooper's Hawk
Red-crowned Parrot
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Hermit Thrush
Starling
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Swallow, sp.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Violet-green Swallow

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/28/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/21/06

What happened? We have two new walkers join in and what do we do? We set a record for futility for week 8 of a year. We only got 14 species, which "beats" the 15 seen in week 8 of 1987 and 1992. The record high was 28 in 1990. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

The two new walkers were Christina Pinkney and Lori Brickner, both of whom work in Develoment. It was not their fault we had a low total! The birds just did not cooperate.

The highlight bird was the Townsend's Warbler, seen once again on the north side of Broad. The lowlights were the lack of Rock Dove, Scrub Jay, and Mourning Dove. Wow, no Rock Dove. That is a tough birding day.

The stats:
The date: 2/21/06
The week number: 8
The walk number: 822
The weather: 62 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Carolyn Ash, Brendan Crill, Christina Pinkney, Lori Brickner
The birds (14):

Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-tailed Hawk
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Townsend's Warbler

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/23/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/14/06

Happy Valentine's Day! It was a beautiful day in sunny Southern California. About 75 F and clear as a bell. We were joined by long-time-no-see Matt Bradford. Matt's only previous walk was on 5 August 2003. Matt is now at JPL so it's a bit hard for him to get down to campus, but we hope he can make it more often than once every 3 years! Welcome back Matt. We also got a new walker, Bill Jones. He's a postdoctoral scholar in Physics. Welcome to the walk Bill; you are walker number 74 and you joined in on this the 821st walk in the series going back to 10 October 1986.

It was good they joined in because a couple of regulars were out of action. But we still managed a pretty good group size as Brendan Crill, Barbara Ellis, and Carolyn Ash joined in to make it a six-some.

But did the birds join in? Not so much. We got 17 species, which is two above the record low of 15 for week 7, seen in 1988 and 1992. The record high was 26 in 1990. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

The highlight birds were the Townsend's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, and a lonely Cedar Waxwing. Looking back, we were fortunate to get all three of those as they were single, lonely birds on this Valentine's Day.

The stats:
The date: 2/14/06
The week number: 7
The walk number: 821
The weather: 75 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Barbara Ellis, Matt Bradford, Carolyn Ash, Brendan Crill, Bill Jones
The birds (17):

Rock Dove
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Mallard
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Townsend's Warbler
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Bushtit
Cedar Waxwing
Starling

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/14/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/7/06

It was a beautiful day for a walk around Caltech. And we saw more than usual. We got 21 species. The high for week 6 is 25 seen in 1991. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

The highlight bird was the Spotted Towhee, seen by Brendan in Tournament Park. Kent spotted a White-crowned Sparrow there too. Haven't see one of those in a while. A House Wren entertained us by singing high up in a tree as we exited the park. We saw both goldfinches but missed a House Sparrow and Scrub Jay. That's difficult to accept.

It was good to see Ashish back on the walk. He last walked in February a year ago. Hope he can come more often this year.

The stats:
The date: 2/7/06
The week number: 6
The walk number: 820
The weather: 75 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Brendan Crill, Ashish Mahabal
The birds (21):

Rock Dove
Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Mallard
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
White-crowned Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Wren
Starling
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Raven
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/12/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu