Caltech Birding

2/26/08 (revised)

My apologies: Sachin emailed in that I had forgotten to record the Say's Phoebe. Indeed I did forget. And how could I? There were several of them in the area east of the southernmost tennis courts. I remember thinking how I would write that we had never seen so many in one place -- which we had not. The moral of this story is to check my report carefully and let me know if you see an error. Sachin, thank you for noting the mistake.

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Wow, what a day for the walk. A little warm at 77 F, but very clear and sunny. That was the good news. Well, we did have some other good news which I'll get to in a second. The bad news was the pitiful number of species we saw. We got 15, way down from the median of 20 for a week 9 walk. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

At least it wasn't a record low. That number is 11 for a week 9. But be careful next week. The record low is 16 for a week 10. So we'll have our work cut out for us next week. One piece of good news is that we welcomed our 98th individual to the Caltech birdwalks. Yolanda Duron, who works in biology, joined us and we enjoyed her enthusiasm very much. We are closing in on 100 people to have walked the walk. Who will it be? I predict it will be Joel and Ethan Coen, at numbers 99 and 100. No, just kidding, but that would be something. They are my movie maker heroes and I'm so happy they won the big awards at the Oscars. But I digress.

Back to the other good news. We saw at least two Red-whiskered Bulbuls. They were spectacular. Beth apparently carries around a huge photo of these birds because she pulled it out to show the others while we viewed them. I accused her of planting the bulbuls so she could show off the picture, but she denied the charges.

Not too many other birds of interest (except see above about Say's Phoebe). We didn't see Scrub Jay, Mockingbird, House Sparrow, and Mourning Dove and that hurt us. Better luck to us next week. We'll need it.

The stats:
The date: 2/26/08
The week number: 9
The walk number: 924
The weather: 77F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Peter Mao, Sachin Shenoy, Yolanda Duron
The birds (15):

Rock Pigeon
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Says' Phoebe
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Bushtit
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Cooper's Hawk
Raven
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/26/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/19/08
We had a great birdwalk! It was great for at least two reasons. One, we saw a Great Egret. First time since 2006. It was on a chimney near Tournament Park. The second reason is that we had Peter Mao back. He in fact was the first to spot the Great Egret. Peter's last and only walk was 6/17/97. Peter got his PhD at Caltech, moved away, and is now back working in our group. Hopefully, he won't wait 10 years to make his next walk. By the way, he now has the record for longest interval between walks. Previous record was 8 years, set by the walk's co-founder, Ernie Franzgrote.

Our bird species count was 22, two above the median value for a week 8 but well below the record of 28. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

Other birds of interest were a Hermit Thrush, a beautiful Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird, a Townsend's Warbler, and a Cooper's Hawk. As I said, it was a great walk.

The stats:
The date: 2/19/08
The week number: 8
The walk number: 923
The weather: 55F, cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Peter Mao, Kent Potter

The birds (22):

Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Hermit Thrush
Great Egret
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Robin
Bushtit
Dark-eyed Junco
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Townsend's Warbler
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
Band-tailed Pigeon
Cedar Waxwing

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/19/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/15/08

This week we walked on a Friday so we could participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (Google GBBC to learn all about it). It was the only day we could participate; it started today and ends Monday, and Monday is a Caltech holiday. We had lots of walkers come out for the combined Caltech birdwalk/GBBC event, maybe a record number. We had 10 people, including a new one, David Werntz, a former Caltech employee. He was our 97th individual to walk the Caltech birdwalk since its inception in 1986. The total cumulative person-walks stands at 2970. Three thousand is in sight folks! This was the 922nd walk, so it'll be next year when we reach 1000. Oh what fun! Welcome David and please stick around for some Caltech birdwalking history.

We had a good count of birds today and a rarity to boot. First, some of us got a glimpse of the Red-naped Sapsucker in the sapsucker tree before he or she decided to become shy. We saw a Townsend's and a Black-throated Gray Warbler in the same tree in Tournament Park. But the find of the day was a Plumbeous Vireo on Wilson Ave. This was the second time we'd seen one on a Caltech birdwalk; the first time was last October. Our total species count was 22, two above the median and 4 below the record for a week 7 walk. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

According to GBBC rules we kept track of the maximum number of any species seen at one time. The record in that category goes to the Cedar Waxwing with 30 in a flock. The records committee may chuckle when we report seeing two Bushtits together. Two? Come on, aren't they always in a big flock? Oh well, that's what we saw.

The stats:
The date: 2/15/08
The week number: 7
The walk number: 922
The weather: 61F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Jim Carlblom, Beth Moore, Matt Bradord David Werntz, Kent Potter, Barbara Ellis, Vivica Sapin-Areeda, Ashish Mahabal

The birds (22): (Max number seen at one time in parenthesis)

Rock Pigeon (3)
Mockingbird (2)
House Sparrow (2)
Mourning Dove (1)
House Finch (7)
Anna's Hummingbird (2)
Acorn Woodpecker (3)
Crow (7)
Red-tailed Hawk (1)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Townsend's Warbler (1)
Dark-eyed Junco (1)
Red-naped Sapsucker (1)
Black-throated Gray Warbler (1)
Raven (2)
Black Phoebe (1)
Cedar Waxwing (30)
Lesser Goldfinch (6)
Plumbeous Vireo (1)
Bushtit (2)
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (10)

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/15/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

2/5/08

Well it was Super Tuesday in California and in many other states, election-wise, but was it a Super Tuesday on the Caltech birdwalk? Let's get our priorities straight here. Well, it was a super day for a birdwalk. And we had a new birder join in, Sachin Shenoy. That's always a good thing. Sachin brings some pretty big binocs to the operation, 10X50's. Those will come in handy when it's a dark day. Welcome Sachin, the 96th individual to participate in the Caltech birdwalks.

As far as species counts go, we were a bit above the median for a week 6. We got 20 species. The record high is 25 for the week, the record low is 14, and the median is 18. So, we didn't fare too badly. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

Through the first 6 weeks of the year, we are pretty close to the median each week (within 2). By the way, I have devised a ranking system for the years but haven't had time to post the results or explain the algorithm yet. But based on whatever it is, 2007 ranked 2nd all-time. The best year was 2002. I'll get around to explaining it and showing you the plot one of these days.

For highlights, I'd say the Say's Phoebe on the north athletic field and the Red-tailed Hawk that essentially buzzed us on Wilson were what we had. We did see more than one Townsend's Warbler and those are always a nice treat. No Rock Pigeon, no Mourning Dove, and no House Sparrow -- for crying out loud!

The stats:
The date: 2/5/08
The week number: 6
The walk number: 921
The weather: 58F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Vivica Sapin-Areeda, Fiona Tindall, Sachin Shenoy, Matt Bradford, Kent Potter

The birds (20):

Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Say's Phoebe
Black Phoebe
Wilson's Warbler
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-tailed Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
Cedar Waxwing
Robin
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
2/5/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu