Caltech Birding

6/24/08

Let me cut to the chase. The highlights of today's walk were 1) We had seven walkers in spite of the [relative] heat, which brings me to 2) it was a good 20 degrees cooler than just three days ago! Yep. Those are the highlights. It was a lazy, hazy day of summer with only 13 species spotted; probably average for this time of year.

Once Alan returns from Utah you can: 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: 6/24/08
The week number: 26
The walk number: 941
The weather: 84F, slightly hazy
The walkers: Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Jim Carlblom, Fiona Tindall, Glenn Hamell, David Werntz, Sachin Shenoy, Beth Moore

The birds (13):

Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bushtit
European Starling
Hummingbird, sp.
Spotted Towhee
Raven
Red-masked Parakeet

--- Beth

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/30/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

6/17/08

This was a hot walk, temperature wise. It was 89 F and sunny. The birds seemed to be suffering along with us. We saw one crow in a tree panting like a dog with its tongue hanging out. A lot of the birds must of been sitting quietly under the shade somewhere because we saw only 12, one less than the median for a week 25. After 7 straight weeks of being above the median, we dropped below. For the year, we are 9 times below the median, 2 times on the median, and 14 times above the median. So, in some sense we are having an above average year, even if we didn't have an above average week.

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

The star bird was spotted by Kent, a Turkey Vulture, undoubtedly looking for an unwary SURF student to pick off for lunch. Actually, vultures are not killers, so they'd be looking for a SURF student who had gotten lost and keeled over from the heat. SURF students seeemd to be everywhere lugging their bags to a check-in place on campus.

The stats:
The date: 6/17/08
The week number: 25
The walk number: 940
The weather: 89F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter, Sachin Shenoy

The birds (12):

Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bushtit
European Starling
Turkey Vulture
Band-tailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Hummingbird, sp.

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/17/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

6/10/08

Wow, what a walk! Again. This is going to sound kind of like a repeat of last week's report. First of all, we had a new walker. Darren Dowell is a former post-doc with Tom Phillips in Physics, now working at JPL. Darren is our 100th individual to walk the Caltech birdwalks. He brings the cumulative person-walks to 3059 for the 939 walks dating back to October 1986. Welcome Darren!

Second, it was a nice and comfortable 78 F with clear, sunny skies. Third, although we started slow with only 4 birds entering Tournament Park, we finished strong and tied the all-time record for a week 24. We got 18 species. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

We didn't have a stellar sighting like last week's Yellow-headed Parrot, but we were good on the regulars. We got them all, including a Scrub Jay. We also got the Lesser Goldfinch, which seems to be hanging around longer than usual.

The stats:
The date: 6/10/08
The week number: 24
The walk number: 939
The weather: 78F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Prabha Mandayam, Ashish Mahabal, Kent Potter, Darren Dowell, Sachin Shenoy, Beth Moore
The birds (18):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Swallow, sp.
Raven
European Starling
Black Phoebe
White-throated Swift
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Lesser Goldfinch
Cooper's Hawk

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/10/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

6/4/08

Wow, what a walk! First of all, we had a new walker. Prabha Mandayam is a 3rd year graduate student working in theoretical physics. Welcome Prabha, our 99th walker in the history of the series going back to 1986. Second, it was a nice and cool and comfortable 62 F with overcast skies. Not great seeing conditions but good weather for birds. Third, we came within one of the all time high for a week 23 of the year. We got 17 species. See the plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html and http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm

And fourth, I thought for a while that we had added a new bird species to the Caltech list. We saw an adult and juvenile Yellow-headed Parrot in a tree just north of the west end of the Moore building. They were making a huge racket. When I got back to my computer, I discoverd that we had seen them once each in 1987, 1988, and 1990. The week numbers of the previous sightings were 15, 17, and 25, so pretty similar time frame to today's sighting -- but a long time ago. I thought they had been declared extinct in Southern California. So, anyway, that was exciting. We also saw an adult Lesser Goldfinch feeding a young one near the Sherman Fairchild library. All in all, a very interesting walk.

The stats:
The date: 6/4/08
The week number: 23
The walk number: 938
The weather: 62F, overcast
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Prabha Mandayam, David Werntz, Beth Moore

The birds (17):

Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
European Starling
Raven
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
House Wren
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
White-throated Swift
Lesser Goldfinch
Flycatcher, sp.
Yellow-headed Parrot

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/4/08
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu