6/27/06
In last week's report I suggested we had a good chance to break
the record for this week and we did. We got 16 species and the previous
best for week 26 of a year was 15, reached in 2001 and 2004.
See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
So this year continues to shine. One of these days I'm going to
go through the data and rank the years in a quantitative way, but
my feeling is that 2006 is probably the best out of the 20.
The stats:
The date: 6/27/06
The week number: 26
The walk number: 839
The weather: 85 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Simon Radford, Matt Bradford
The birds (16):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Spotted Towhee
Band-tailed Pigeon
Red-Masked Parakeet
White-throated Swift
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
Starling
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/27/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/20/06
It was a warm and kind of muggy 78 F today but the birds
were out. We got 16 species, which comes in at second place
for week 25 of the year. First place was 19 in 2004.
So, not bad. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We saw a Gull for the first time in a long time. I looked
back at week 25 in 2004 and we saw nearly the same
birds, except they saw two hummingbirds instead of one,
and added Lesser Goldfinch, Yellow-chevroned
Parakeet, and Red-masked Parakeet. They didn't see a gull.
So, it's a bit tough to get to 19 this time of year,
but we should have gotten at least one of the parakeets,
and we've been seeing Ravens regularly. It has still been
a very good birding year.
Next week is week 26 and the record is 15.
Based on this week, I'd say we have a good chance
to break 15 next week.
The stats:
The date: 6/20/06
The week number: 25
The walk number: 838
The weather: 78 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter
The birds (16):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
White-throated Swift
Bushtit
Gull, sp.
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
Starling
Hummingbird, sp.
Band-tailed Pigeon
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/20/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/13/06
Nothing to write home about but enough to write you all.
We got 13 species, which is about average for
week 24. The record high was 18 in 2002 and the record
low was 7 in 2000. At least the weather was a pleasant
73 F and clear as a bell. See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
The stats:
The date: 6/13/06
The week number: 24
The walk number: 837
The weather: 73 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Simon Radford
The birds (13):
Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
White-throated Swift
Raven
Spotted Towhee
Hummingbird, sp.
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/13/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/6/06
For those of you keeping track (and who isn't?)
there was no walk last week. Glenn waited 10 minutes
for someone to accompany him and then retreated
to his office. This week, four of us made
the rounds in relatively cool weather and recorded
14 species, a bit above typical for this time
of year. The record for week 23 is 18 seen in 1998.
See the birds_epoch plot at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
There was one thing that was "bothersome". The seeing
conditions were difficult and about like they were when we
saw Turkey Vultures a while back with no white
under their wings. We subsequently debated about whether
they could have been Golden Eagles, since Golden Eagles
sometimes have the vulture-like dihedral wing shape when
they fly. But we decided we probably couldn't see the white
of the vultures because of the bright background. We heard
later that Golden Eagles were observed in a nearby community
within a couple of days of our sighting.
Well, we didn't see vultures or eagles on this walk but we
did see White-throated Swifts and we could see the white underneath
despite the bright background, making Kent and
me wonder once again if we missed getting Golden
Eagles on the Caltech list.
The stats:
The date: 6/6/06
The week number: 23
The walk number: 836
The weather: 73 F, cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Bill Jones
The birds (14):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon
White-throated Swift
Spotted Towhee
Starling
Bushtit
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/7/06
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu