7/26/06
As you know, 2006 has been a great year for Caltech
birdwalks. We have broken the all-time record a couple
of times and set weekly records even more often.
Well, the record heat wave of 2006 in Southern California
did us in a bit today. I was hoping that we would be in double
digits each week of this year, but today we only recorded 9 species.
This also ties the record low for week 30 of a year. The record
high is 16 set in 1991. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
The stats:
The date: 7/26/06
The week number: 30
The walk number: 843
The weather: 90 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter
The birds (9):
Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/26/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/18/06
Well, it was a hot walk, temperature wise that is. It was 90F
and a bit humid. I apologize on behalf of Southern California.
We saw 11 species, which isn't bad considering that during
the same week the last two years, week 29, we only got 8.
The record for week 29 is 16 in 2002.
See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
The stats:
The date: 7/18/06
The week number: 29
The walk number: 842
The weather: 90 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter
The birds (11):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bushtit
Starling
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/18/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/11/06
Hmmm.. here's an oddity for you. We saw 11 species
on this the 28th week of 2006. Last year we saw
12 during the same week. And the year before that 13;
the year before that 14; and the year before that, in 2002,
we saw 15 species during week 28. Is that a trend or what?
Looks like we can mark 10 down for next year's week 28 walk.
See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
Not any surprises. We substituted Crow for White-throated
Swift from last week's list of 11 species.
The stats:
The date: 7/11/06
The week number: 28
The walk number: 841
The weather: 86 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Brendan Crill
The birds (11):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/14/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/6/06
Matt Bradford and I braved the heat and did the walk, a couple days
late due to the holiday earlier this week. The birds
were on holiday too. We only got 11 species, which is actually
about typical for this time of year. In the heat of summer,
we're happy to get into double digits. The record low
for week 27 is 8 in 2000 and the record high is 17 in 2003.
See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We did have an outstanding bird. On Wilson we heard some
Lesser Goldfinches and finally spotted a brilliantly colored male.
Otherwise it was basic birds as usual, except we didn't see
a Crow.
The stats:
The date: 7/6/06
The week number: 27
The walk number: 840
The weather: 88 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Matt Bradford
The birds (11):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
White-throated Swift
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/6/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu