7/31/07
The birdwalk ran into a detour today. When we got to Tournament Park,
it was locked up. You could see yellow caution tape around the playground
equipment. We assume someone got injured on the equipment and
so they closed it. We detoured around and got into the track area
just west of the park and managed to cover most of the regular route.
I didn't think to call security until we got to the IPAC area. Security
told me thay had just opened Tournament Park two minutes earlier.
Oh well, I doubt we missed anything. As it was we nearly set a record
for a week 31. We got 16 species, one short of the record. See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
We had a big group of walkers, 11, and one new walker, Dan Hua,
visiting from Virginia Tech. She is the 94th individual to walk the
walk and brings the cumulative number of person-walks to 2819. Hopefully,
she can make a return visit to Caltech in the future and
walk with us again.
We didn't see anything too unusual but we failed once again on
the Scrub Jay. It's been a tough couple of months for Scrub Jays.
The stats:
The date: 7/31/07
The week number: 31
The walk number: 894
The weather: 82F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Dan Hua, Ann Patterson, Melinda Morang,
Fiona Tindall, Viveca Sapin, Kent Potter, Simon Radford, Barbara Ellis,
Matt Bradford, Carolyn Ash
The birds (16):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bushtit
Red-masked Parakeet
Red-tailed Hawk
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
White-throated Swift
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/31/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/24/07
Wow, what a day! It was hot and that usually keeps the bird count down
but not today. We recorded 19 species, besting the previous record of 16
for a week 30 by 3 birds. The previous record was set in 1991. In each of 2006
and 2005, we recorded 9 birds on the week 30 walk. So, it was a
spectacular bird day for July, the slowest month of the season.
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
Several walkers were thinking this might be a record-setting day as
we neared the end. It could have been even a bigger total as we saw
two hummingbird species, but not the usual Anna's. We saw lots of
Black-chinned and one Allen's or Rufous. Highlight birds were Western
Kingbird, Red-masked Parakeet, and Turkey Vulture. We did not see a
Scrub Jay again. The last time we saw a Scrub Jay on the walk was 22 May 2007,
some 2 months ago. That is very strange. Based on the last couple of
years, which were low years for Scrub Jays compared to prior to 2005,
Scrub Jays should still be a 60% probable sighting this time of year.
To go 9 weeks in a row with no sightings is improbable. Maybe West Nile is knocking them out.
The stats:
The date: 7/24/07
The week number: 30
The walk number: 893
The weather: 85F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Fiona Tindall, Viveca Sapin, Melinda Morang, Matt Bradford, Barbara Ellis, Ashish Mahabal, Jay Mahabal
The birds (19):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Red-masked Parakeet
Raven
Western Kingbird
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Cooper's Hawk
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Lesser Goldfinch
Black Phoebe
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/24/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/17/07
(Amended to add Bushtit from Ashish on way back to office)
We had three new walkers today and that was the real highlight.
The birds were not plentiful, although we saw about the average number
for this time of year. We recorded 12 species.
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We did beat the last three years running for a week 29.
Last year we had 11 species and the two previous years we had 8.
So, it could have been worse, a lot worse.
The new walkers were Fiona Tindall, Viveca Sapin, and Jay Mahabal.
Fiona and Viveca work on campus and Jay is Ashish's son. These are walkers
91 through 93 to walk the walk. The cumulative number of person walks is
up to 2800. This year we've had the highest average number of walkers per
walk = 6.42, besting last year's previous best of 4.35 per walk. So, welcome to the Caltech bird walks, Fiona, Viveca, and Jay.
The stats:
The date: 7/17/07
The week number: 29
The walk number: 892
The weather: 83F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Ann Patterson, Fiona Tindall, Viveca Sapin, Melinda Morang, Ashish Mahabal, Jay Mahabal
The birds (13):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Band-tailed Pigeon
Red-masked Parakeet
Black Phoebe
White-throated Swift
Lesser Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/17/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/10/07
I was again not present for the walk, but I will be present next week.
The group recorded 15 species, WHICH TIED THE ALL-TIME HIGH FOR A
WEEK 28! So, congratulations to the walkers. Good job!
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
Here is an excerpt from Glenn's email to me about the walk:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot nicer day.
79F to 84F under calm, high, broken to overcast skies.
Horizontal visibility > 10miles.
Started with 6 walkers, ended with two.
Birds: 14 (note, Ashish added Bushtits on way back to office
to make 15 -- AC), including Red masked parakeets (flock of maybe 15-20)
and Raven. Would have missed several if Ashish had not been there with
his high powered bi-nocs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stats:
The date: 7/10/07
The week number: 28
The walk number: 891
The weather: 82F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Glenn Hamell, Ashish Mahabal, Melinda Morang, Ann Patterson, Shirley Cohen, Kent Potter
The birds (15):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Black Phoebe
Western Bluebird
Red-masked Parakeet
Vaux Swift
Lesser Goldfinch
Allen's Hummingbird
Raven
Bushtit
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/13/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
7/03/07
I was not present for the walk but a hardy group of four braved high
heat to record 12 species. Twelve is about typical for a week 27
of the year. See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
Here is an excerpt from Glenn's email to me about the walk:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I amazed myself by actually getting out there on time in that heat.
At our traditional jumping off point I met Ann, Melinda & Simon.
Weather: Clear, Calm and VERY HOT!! 91F
As we were standing there, Melinda started us off by spotting a single swallow(probably a white throated swift)
darting about high over Downs.
There weren't many birds. The walk was fairly quiet.
At the end, I think our count was 11. (Corrected to 12 -- AC)
When I put the book back in Alan's office, I put the tally sheet,
key, etc. in their resp. places on his desk.
It was soooo hot, it was difficult for me just to focus on how
to put one foot in front of the other.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it's any comfort to Glenn, where I was in Merida, Mexico
was much hotter amd much more humid than here in Pasadena.
The stats:
The date: 7/3/07
The week number: 27
The walk number: 890
The weather: 91F, sunny
The walkers: Glenn Hamell, Simon Radford, Melinda Morang, Ann Patterson
The birds (12):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Swift, sp.
Black Phoebe
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
7/13/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu