1/30/07
At 11 am it didn't look like we'd be able to walk as it was pouring
down rain outside. Carolyn Ash emailed in that the rain was knocking
her out of the walk. I started the cancellation email but never sent it
because just as I was about to do so the rain began to taper off.
By noon it had stopped and Glenn and I walked out to see if anyone
else would show up. I was surprised when five more people arrived, including
Carolyn! I think we were more determined than usual because I had seen
a Snowy Egret on Ramo pond on the way into work this morning. I had
alerted everbody. So, we needed to get this walk done and hope the egret
would still be there at noon. It was and so were a whole lot
of birds. We set the record for week 5 of a year. We got 26 species.
The previous record was 24 in 2005. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We saw three kinds of warblers, both kinds of towhee,
and both goldfinches (American and Lesser). In addition to diversity,
we had quantity. It's been a long time since we've
seen so many Band-tailed Pigeons. And finally the Yellow-chevroned
Parakeets were back. A Bewick's Wren popped up 2 feet in front
of Brendan's face and said "put me down!". It was that kind of a crazy day.
Just as were finishing the walk, the rains started again. We just
did get this one in. I'm glad we did.
The stats:
The date: 1/30/07
The week number: 5
The walk number: 868
The weather: 53 F, cloudy (to say the least)
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Kent Potter, Brendan Crill, Simon Radford, Carolyn Ash
The birds (26):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Snowy Egret
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
California Towhee
Orange-crowned Warbler
Bewick's Wren
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Spotted Towhee
Townsend's Warbler
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Cooper's Hawk
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/30/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
1/23/07
I thank Beth and Glenn for making the walk. Since I wasn't
there, I will limit the report to the stats.
The stats:
The date: 1/23/07
The week number: 4
The walk number: 867
The weather: 66 F, sunny
The walkers: Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore
The birds (12):
Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black Phoebe
Western Bluebird
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Cooper's Hawk
Cedar Waxwing
Raven
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/26/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
1/16/07
It was a cool crisp 57 F and sunny today. We welcomed a new walker,
Daniel Martin, who is Beth Moore's son. Daniel is the 84th walker
to walk the walk. He was recovering from a bad cold
and had a bad case of laryngitis. He could only utter a faint whisper.
He gets extra credit for coming on the walk under such trying
circumstances. Hopefully, we will see him again when he
can talk to us.
We had a pretty good day, 19 species, short of the record 23 for
week 3 recorded in 2002. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We did see a couple of unusual birds for the walk. One was a
California Towhee. They were seen a lot more frequently in the
distant past than they are now. The last one we saw on the walk
was in 1999. This is the 42nd sighting in the 866 walks to date.
The other rarity was a Western Bluebird. It was only the third
one recored in the last 5 years, 2003 to present.
We also had an unusual miss, the Acorn Woodpecker. We have
seen Acorn Woodpeckers on 779 of the 866 walks. If you
look at the probability plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/probability_plots.htm
you will see that from 1992 through 2006, it was about 100% probable
that you would see one. We only missed seeing one one other time
in the last three years and that was in week 50 of last year.
I think they are on the decline.
The stats:
The date: 1/16/07
The week number: 3
The walk number: 866
The weather: 57 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Daniel Martin, Kent Potter, Brendan Crill
The birds (19):
Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Western Bluebird
Cedar Waxwing
California Towhee
Bushtit
Cooper's Hawk
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Raven
Starling
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/16/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
1/9/07 1/2/07
I don't know what the weather's like in your neck of the woods
but it is spectacular here in Pasadena. It was 78 F and clear
as a bell on the walk, just a beautiful day in this corner
of our pale blue dot.
We had an above average walk, 20 species. The record for week 2
is 27 seen in 2003. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We started out with 5 walkers but then Glenn ran into
a guy with a dog in Tournament Park and we never saw him again.
Glenn used to carry dog treats around in his pocket
on the walks in case he came across a dog. This particular dog
had been rescued from the freeway after it had been hit and run over.
So, it was a special dog and the owner was pretty gabby so
Glenn stayed so long he could not catch up to us. By the way the dog
treats have come in useful for birds in the past. Glenn has fed
the Mallards with them in the past but it's been quite
a while since we've seen the ducks. It's about time for egrets
too and we haven't seen them either.
The rest of us plodded on and saw what must be a record
number of Townsend's Warblers on a walk. I'd say we saw 4 or 5.
Yesterday, I found one dead outside our building, apparently
killed after it flew into a window. So they are everywhere
right now. Other birds of interest were a Say's Phoebe, Dark-eyed Junco,
Nuttal's Woodpecker, and Orange -crowned Warbler. We did not
see a Mockingbird or Mourning Dove, two of the old mainstays that
seem to be declining.
The stats:
The date: 1/9/07
The week number: 2
The walk number: 865
The weather: 78 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Kent Potter, Carolyn Ash
The birds (20):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black Phoebe
Red-tailed Hawk
Say's Phoebe
Dark-eyed Junco
Cooper's Hawk
Nuttal's Woodpecker
Band-tailed Pigeon
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Cedar Waxwing
Townsend's Warbler
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/9/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
Happy New Year to everyone. 2007 started off with a
bang in the birding department. We tied the record
for a week 1 of a year. We got 22 species. The other
time that was done was in 2005. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
I think we were helped a lot by Oliver James, who is Caltech
Prof. Ward Whaling's grandson. Oliver goes to
high school in Berkeley and occasionally comes
to Pasadena for a visit. He walked once with
the Caltech group last year, but I missed that walk.
He has fine ears and eyes for birding, reminding
me a lot of Jon Feenstra. We look forward to
future walks with Oliver.
One quick "small world" story about Ward Whaling.
Ward was one of the first professors I met at Caltech
when I arrived in 1967. He rode herd on the Physics
graduate students, trying to make sure they graduated
in a reasonable amount of time. Ward looked very familiar to me
and I finally asked him if he had a relative in
Wichita Falls by the name of Horace Whaling. Turned
out Horace is Ward's brother. I played tennis with
Horace during my teens in Wichita Falls. Like I said,
it's a small world, sometimes.
The bird of the day was a Dark-eyed Junco. It
was seen and heard in the maintenance yard. We did
not see one in 2006 and this was only the 25th sighting
in the 864 walks, so it's fairly unusual.
You might want to check the probability plots (vs year)
at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/probability_plots.htm.
I updated them to include 2006 data. These are the
first three plots on the page. I am working
on new probability plots by week, the bottom
3 plots on that webpage. I find the yearly trends
interesting. Scrub Jay and Mourning Dove have declined,
whereas Black Phobe has come on strong. Spotted Dove went
extinct on campus in the mid-90's. There are other trends as well.
The stats:
The date: 1/2/07
The week number: 1
The walk number: 864
The weather: 75 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Oliver James, Kent Potter, Brendan Crill
The birds (22):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Raven
American Goldfinch
Cedar Waxwing
Dark-eyed Junco
Black Phoebe
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Lesser Goldfinch
Bushtit
House Wren
Allen's Hummingbird
Gull, sp.
Townsend's Warbler
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/2/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu