6/26/07
Despite a good turnout of birders, eight, we set no records.
We observed 13 species, about average for this the 26th week of the
year. The record the 26th week was set last year with 16.
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We saw another Black-chinned Hummingbird and Melinda came
up with a Lesser Goldfinch towards the end of the walk.
Those were about the only bird highlights. No Scrub Jay ... again.
The stats:
The date: 6/26/07
The week number: 26
The walk number: 889
The weather: 81F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Simon Radford, Melinda Morang, Matt Bradford, Kent Potter, Ann Patterson, Carolyn Ash
The birds (13):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/26/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/19/07
(Original report changed to include Yellow-chevroned Parakeet seen by
Kent on his way back to his office.)
We had a very good walk today. We came in 2nd place for a week 25 walk.
We recorded 18 species, one short of the record 19 for week
25 set in 2004. We could have easily broken the record if we had seen two of three
"regulars", a Raven, Band-tailed Pigeon, and an Acorn Woodpecker.
It's been a while since we've missed an Acorn Woodpecker. See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We welcomed another new walker today, Melinda Morang. She is
an undergrad at the University of Chicago and is on a SURF
at Caltech for the summer studying neutrinos. Melinda
arrived late but found us in the maintenance yard anyway.
She had actually looked on the web and found my map of the route.
Wow! Melinda is the 90th individual to walk on a Caltech bird walk.
Her walk was kind of eventful as she practically stepped on a
Spotted Towhee in the ivy in the maintenance yard. It just flew
right out from where she stepped. It cooperated and gave us some good looks.
It was a three-hummingbird day. Pretty unusual to see Anna's,
Black-chinned, and either a Rufous or Allen's (recorded as Selasphorus).
We saw lots of Mourning Doves, but no Scrub Jay. Scrub Jays are
getting to be hard to find.
The stats:
The date: 6/19/07
The week number: 25
The walk number: 888
The weather: 81F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Kent Potter, Simon Radford, Melinda Morang, Ashish Mahabal
The birds (18):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Spotted Towhee
Woodpecker, sp.
Red-masked Parakeet
House Wren
Hawk, sp.
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
Starling
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/19/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/12/07
As I walked into work this morning, I saw a female
Mallard and her 7 baby ducklings walking along just north
of Parsons-Gates. So, I had high hopes that we'd see them on the
walk today. But no such luck. On the other hand, we did have a great
walk. We tied the record for a week 24 walk. We saw 18
species, tying the mark set in 2002. See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
We had two new walkers along, Shirley Cohen and Ann Patterson.
They are the 88th and 89th individuals to walk the walk since the
walks started in 1986. They brought the total number
of person-walks to 2,767. Welcome, Shirley and Ann.
The walk started with an unusual sighting. There was a Cooper's Hawk
sitting on top of Millikan. Usually there are Rock Pigeons sitting
up there, but not today. I don't recall seeing a hawk on
top of Millikan at the start of a walk. We had an interesting
Spotted Towhee day. We heard about three of them and then
finally saw an adult with a juvenile. As we watched, they both
got nailed by a Mockingbird. A House Wren lurked around in Tournament
Park. Towards the end we had a good sighting of a Black-chinned
Hummingbird. All in all, a very good day.
The stats:
The date: 6/12/07
The week number: 24
The walk number: 887
The weather: 84F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Jim Carlblom,
Ann Patterson, Shirley Cohen, Ashish Mahabal, Carolyn Ash
The birds (18):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Cooper's Hawk
Spotted Towhee
Band-tailed Pigeon
Raven
House Wren
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Starling
Black-chinned Hummingbird
White-throated Swift
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/12/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
6/5/07
It was Brendan's 44th Caltech birdwalk and it may be his last
for sometime. He's moving to Toronto but he still has
collaborations with Caltech people so he said
he will be back. I told him to make sure it was on
a Tuesday. We will miss his Lesser Goldfinch detector
that he carries around inside his head. Today we saw and heard
one and he tried to teach us the song, but Kent and I didn't
think we would be able to remember it long as we
don't seem to have much of an audio memory. Anyway, good luck
to Brendan in the next phase of his life/career.
It turned out that we did see a fair number
of birds. We got 16 species, which is only two shy
of the record 18 for week 23 seen in 1998. I think
the cool weather helped, as looking back through the
records for week 23, twelve seems to be an average number.
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
The stats:
The date: 6/5/07
The week number: 23
The walk number: 886
The weather: 63F, overcast
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Carolyn Ash, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Beth Moore, Barbara Ellis, Brendan Crill
The birds (16):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Lesser Goldfinch
Black Phoebe
Cooper's Hawk
Bushtit
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Band-tailed Pigeon
Starling
Raven
Hummingbird, sp.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/5/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu