Caltech Birding

2/27/07
I thought we had the weather lined up for a really good walk. It had rained overnight and a little this morning and the clouds parted for the walk. But then it got windy and that killed the bird count. We got 17 species, on the low side for week 9. The record for week 9 is 30 and we got that last year. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

We had a good human turnout; seven of us walked. We probably left a wren in the field unidentified and probably one or two more that we couldn't decide on. But the real problem was that we did not see a Scrub Jay, a Mockingbird, or an Acorn Woodpecker. Those three would have put us in the next decade and somewhat respectable for a week 9.

The stats:
The date: 2/27/07
The week number: 9
The walk number: 872
The weather: 57F, partly cloudy, windy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Kent Potter, Brendan Crill, Simon Radford, Ashish Mahabal

The birds (17):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Raven
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-tailed Hawk
Cedar Waxwing
American Goldfinch
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/27/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/20/07
I had a feeling we were on a record-setting pace when we exited Tournament Park with 19 species already on the list. And I was right. We tied the record for week 8 by recording 28 species. This was first done in week 8 of 1990 and that stood as the all-time record until last year when we got 29, 30 (twice), and 31 species in the February to April time frame. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

And we did this without seeing a House Sparrow or Mourning Dove! In 1990, those two species were both 100% probable, i.e., we saw them on every walk in 1990. Last year, the probabilities for these two species were at 80% and 70%, respectively. But we did have some really good birds today. We saw Mountain Chickadee for only the 9th time in the history of the walks. And Bewick's Wren, Dark-eyed Junco, and Townsend's Warbler were nice to see. We are clearly in the middle of the best time of the year to walk.

The stats:
The date: 2/20/07
The week number: 8
The walk number: 871
The weather: 64F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Brendan Crill, Beth Moore, Ashish Mahabal

The birds (28):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Dark-eyed Junco
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Townsend's Warbler
Mountain Chickadee
Red-tailed Hawk
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Woodpecker, sp.
Robin
Bewick's Wren
Bushtit
Cooper's Hawk
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Raven
Lesser Goldfinch
Starling
Black Phoebe
American Goldfinch
Turkey Vulture

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/20/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/13/07
It was an interesting walk. It was clouding up as we went and by the end of the walk there were a few drops of rain. With those conditions I expected a record. But alas, we only got 22 species, well short of the record 26 seen in week 7 of 1990. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

We again had walker highlights. Joining us from up north was Bill Schaefer. Bill was a regular on the walks during 2001-2003 but then he moved out of the area. Since then he gets in one or two walks a year when he's back down here. This was his 105th walk overall. Nice to see you, Bill. Then we welcomed a new walker, Chris Martin, Beth Moore's husband. Chris is the 85th individual to take a Caltech birdwalk and brought the total number of person walks to 2672. Welcome to the walks, Chris.

We had some bird highlights too. We saw about 100 Cedar Waxwings occupying the top sections of two leafless trees. That was quite a sight and the sound wasn't bad either. But the top bird was spotted by Ashish, who found a Black-throated Gray Warbler in a tree near Avery House. The lowlight was the lack of a Scrub Jay. You know, it's the real common blue bird we used to see all the time. What happened? West Nile virus I think.

The stats:
The date: 2/13/07
The week number: 7
The walk number: 870
The weather: 62F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Bill Schaefer, Chris Martin, Ashish Mahabal, Beth Moore

The birds (22):

Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bushtit
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Spotted Towhee
Western Bluebird
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Raven
Cedar Waxwing
Black Phoebe
Starling
Band-tailed Pigeon
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Black-throated Gray Warbler

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/13/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/6/07
It was too pretty of a day to see a lot of birds. A lot of the country is freezing; we walked around in 79 F weather! We had a full contingent of bird walkers, eight in total, including that rarity Ashish Mahabal. It was good to have Ashish along again. Jim Carlblom also made his first appearance of the year. Unfortunately, we did not set any records. We saw 19 species, well short of the record 25 seen for week 6 in 1991. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

Not too many bird highlights. We did see a flock of Robins as we exited Tournament Park. We hadn't seen Robins in a while. Near the same place we also saw a very cooperative Nuttall's Woodpecker. For lowlights, we did not see a Mockingbird or a Scrub Jay, sorry to say.

The stats:
The date: 2/6/07
The week number: 6
The walk number: 869
The weather: 79F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Beth Moore, Brendan Crill, Jim Carlblom, Ashish Mahabal, Carolyn Ash

The birds (19):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Bushtit
Robin
Orange-crowned Warbler
Red-tailed Hawk
Black Phoebe
Raven
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/6/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu