Caltech Birding

1/29/08

I was serving as juror #8 on a criminal case in East Los Angeles Superior Court and missed the walk. The case finished up just a little too late for me to make it back in time. It was a hung jury by the way, par for the course for me. I think I now may be immunized from jury service; I've now been on hung juries in both civil and criminal cases. I doubt they'll want me back. I will say that I was on the "correct" side of the matter. It was a domestic violence case that lasted 6 days in trial. Afterwards, in the hall, the prosecutor told me that he knew the case was lost after the first 5 minutes of testimony by his star witness, the alleged victim. Just after he had given his opening statement telling us what we would hear, she came right up to the stand with a different story! Nonetheless, he did get 5 of 12 votes for guilty. He called that a moral victory. He didn't get my vote, however, and not just because he went to trial with the wrong facts. It just wasn't a beyond a reasonable doubt situation. I was disappointed with the 5 that said he was guilty. They didn't seem to understand reasonable doubt. One lady said we didn't need to discuss anything at all; just everyone give their opinion and that's it. Scary. I hope she isn't a juror on my trial if and when that occurs.

The report below was filed by Beth.

-- Alan

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Although we had more than twice the number of eyes seeking birds compared to last week, we didn't manage to pull in twice the number of birds. [Had we, we would have had an off-the-chart week!] Still, all in all, we did a fine job. Our highlights were a Red-naped Sapsucker in its usual tree on the edge of Tournament Park. At last all of our regular walkers have had a good look at him! We also saw a Cassin's Kingbird on the way into the park and a pair of very argumentative Yellow-chevroned Parakeets in the Silk Floss tree by Chandler. Alas, neither Scrub Jay nor Mockingbird were to be seen.

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 01/29/08
The week number: 5
The walk number: 920
The weather: 57F, Cloudy; patchy sun
The walkers: Jim Carlblom, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Simon Radford, Vivica Sapin, Fiona Tindall, Beth Moore

The birds (18):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Cassin's Kingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Red-naped Sapsucker
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Red-tailed Hawk
Band-tailed Pigeon
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

-- Beth Moore

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/31/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

1/22/08
Although Jim, Glenn, and I joked that Alan had left this week's walk in the hands of amateurs, we did fairly well. We started out under a fair amount of sun but none was to be seen at the end of the walk; the temperature dropped 5 degrees or more in the hour. We spotted most of our usual suspects and, perhaps in keeping with the darkness of the day, a crowd of Dark-eyed Juncos in Tournament park and a Black-chinned Hummingbird by Broad. Lack of a key kept us out of the maintenance yard but we walked the perimeter and it was fairly quiet there. A Turkey Vulture flying above the tennis courts was our only other highlight.

See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 1/22/08
The week number: 4
The walk number: 919
The weather: 60F, Cloudy; patchy sun
The walkers: Jim Carlblom, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore

The birds (19):

Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Dark-eyed Junco
Turkey Vulture
Lesser Goldfinch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Cedar Waxwing
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Red-tailed Hawk
Band-tailed Pigeon
Bushtit

-- Beth Moore

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/27/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

1/16/08
We had an interesting walk, spotting both alive and dead birds. The dead one was a Cedar Waxwing, encountered just as we entered Tournament Park. It had not been dead long but was not breathing, so we couldn't add it to the list. Fortunately, just about that time a flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over in full view. Problem solved. Just before that we were serenaded by two Spotted Towhees. The calls were distinctive and beautiful, but Beth finally manged to see one of them. By the way, Beth was on fire with the observations, despite not having her binocular with her. She saw and identified more birds than anyone. She said she might be better off not carrying binocs. Somehow, I doubt that.

We again saw the Black-throated Gray Warbler in Tournament Park. Our most spectacular find was a Cassin's Kingbird sitting near the top of a leafless tree near Broad Cafe. We had to study that one for a long time, as Western and Cassin's Kingbirds are hard to tell apart.

Our species count was 21, three short of the record for week 3 of a year and one above the median. So just about as expected. On the other hand we did not see Rock Pigeon or Scrub Jay, one of which you might have expected. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 1/16/08
The week number: 3
The walk number: 918
The weather: 64F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Simon Radford, Beth Moore

The birds (21):

Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
Spotted Towhee
Raven
Cedar Waxwing
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon
Red-masked Parakeet
Cassin's Kingbird
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Bushtit

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/17/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

1/8/08
We had a good walk with one outstanding find. In Tournament Park we spied a Black-throated Gray Warbler that thought it was a sparrow of some sort. It was in the fence and then down on the ground when we first saw saw it, but it finally flew up into a tree and started behaving better.

We didn't see as many species as hoped for, only 18, one below the median for a week 2 of the year. We didn't get close to the record of 27 for that week. Next week the record is only 23 and the median is 20, so we should have a good walk. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 1/8/08
The week number: 2
The walk number: 917
The weather: 57F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Fiona Tindall, Kent Potter

The birds (18):

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

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/10/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

1/2/08

We got the first birdwalk of 2008 done before the predicted deluge. It was a beautiful day, about 71F and partly cloudy. The birds were a bit scarce, however. We saw only 17 species, somewhat below expectations. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

One nice bird was a California Towhee that popped up in the maintenance yard. Kent saw it scurrying around from bush to bush and then we tracked it down for a good look. No Scrub Jay, no Mockingbird, and no House Sparrow for the first week of 2008.

I've posted new probability plots at the website using data through 2007. The previous plots used data through 2006. They (20 of them) are at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/probability_plots.htm

The stats:
The date: 1/2/08
The week number: 1
The walk number: 916
The weather: 71F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter

The birds (17):

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-tailed Hawk
Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
California Towhee
Black Phoebe
Band-tailed Pigeon
Bushtit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
1/2/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu