6/27/11
Not a bad walk. It was a bit hot, however. And
the new person on the walk, Melanie Channon, a
graduate student in the Geology and Planetary Science Division,
who appeared to be sipping water the entire walk,
a first as far as I can remember,
said she'd bring a hat next time. It was great
having Melanie join the walks; she's the 129th individual
to partake in them and brought the total person-walks
to 3973 since the walks began in 1986. We are about to crack
the 4000 person-walk mark! Who will it be? We should
have a contest. Unfortunately, I don't have a prize at hand.
However, I will endeavor to keep track of when
people arrive for the walks and let everyone know
who the 4000th person-walker is.
We observed 17 species ---- which tied the record high for a week 26!
I just noticed that. Let's start over. It was a great walk!
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
Vicky joined the walk in a hyper-excited state. She saw
two Rock Pigeons on her way to the walk. When I (and
Ernie Franzgrote) started this walk in 1986, I would
never have envisioned getting excited about seeing Rock
Pigeons. But that is where we are. We rarely see them anymore.
After Vicky completed her cart wheels, we proceeded
on the group part of the walk.
I believe Vicky was also the first to see the Western
Meadowlark on the north athletic field. That was a good
find, as we don't see those very often.
Anyway, it was a great walk indeed.
The date: 6/27/11
The week number: 26
The walk number: 1097
The weather: 84°F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, John Beckett, Melanie Channon, Vicky Brennan, Vivica Sapin-Areeda
The birds (17):
Rock Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Mallard
European Starling
Red-masked Parakeet
Spotted Towhee
Western Meadowlark
Red-shouldered Hawk
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Lesser Goldfinch
Black Phoebe
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/27/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
6/20/11
We ended up with a respectable 18 species, below
the record of 21 for the week but well above the
average of 13.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
We saw three hawk species and,
with some luck, we could have been in record
territory, but we couldn't buy a hummingbird or a
woodpecker for prayer or money. The lack of
hummingbirds was surprising, but acorn woodpeckers
have become a fairly tough catch since Caltech
cleaned out the palm fronds along Wilson and
California earlier this year. On a more positive
note, the mallards, who have lately been sneaking
off for lunch, were sighted at noon snoozing away
on Mallard Rock.
We had a number of highlights. My favorite is an
image, not of a bird, but of birders arrayed in a
dense cluster. Some are kneeling as if in
supplication, others standing, all in concert,
all wrapped within the sweet boasting aria of a
house wren singing life from the altar of a
branch in Tournament Park. He may have been
swimming in the shallow waters of our esteem for
counting birds but there is little that can match
a house wren singing for or to a mate. We had
the moment's charm and the soul of the walk.
We also saw a Pacific slope flycatcher. In
contrast to the house wren, this bird was almost
constantly on the move, flitting in and out of
view though, fortunately, in the same general
area (think kinglet though definitely doing the
flycatcher thing). It was initially quite
entertaining in a frustrating sort of way but we
eventually pieced together enough partial views
and snapshots to confidently assign the species.
A third highlight bird was first noticed by
Hannah. This was a small drab warbler-like bird
sticking to the shadows but singing. Now the
interesting thing about this, aside from the time
of year, which I discuss below, is that I could
actually hear portions of the song. Since the
only way I can normally hear a warbler song is by
running it on a computer with the volume maxed
out, probably about the equivalent of a warbler
sitting on my shoulder and singing directly into
my ear, I'm thinking this can't be a warbler, but
the views of form and motion I was getting were
just as clearly saying this must be a
warbler. Finally, he pops out into the sunlight
orange crowned warbler! No doubt about it.
We had a species but I was left with a mystery of
song. What had I been hearing? Could it have
been the warbler? When I returned to my office, I
rooted around on-line and, as it turns out, there
are variants of this species that have a portion
of their song I can easily hear and it matches
perfectly with what I had been hearing in
Tournament Park. Our orange crowned warbler
lives on one of the Channel Islands during his
breeding season in the Winter and Spring, then
pops over to the mainland for Summer and Fall
while his mainland relatives, whose songs I can
not hear, are snapping up big bugs and breeding
in Alaska. Our last Spring sighting of a
mainland orange crowned warbler is generally in
weeks 13-17 and we don't see them again until
weeks 35-40. We have just three previous
sightings of an orange crowned warbler in weeks
18-34, the earliest in week 20 of 1989, which was
a very dry year (earlier departure from the
islands). Our most recent off-season report of
an orange crowned warbler was in 1998, so this
was a decadal level sighting. Also, a Channel
Island male usually stops singing not long after
leaving the island. Having this bird sing for us
was pure luck. Apparently, he decided to try out
some inland amenities after leaving his island
rather than sticking to the coast, thereby giving
the dual gifts of a very rare summer sighting and
a complimentary concert.
Finally, I can report that Alan's soon expunged
but not forgotten prediction that we wouldn't
be seeing any more yellow-rumped woodpeckers this
season seems to be holding up. I anticipate
another try for this elusive species next week.
The date: 6/20/11
The week number: 25
The walk number: 1096
The weather: 77°F, full sun, calm to very light breezes
The walkers: John Beckett, Vicky Brennan, Vivica Sapin-Areeda,
Carole Worra, Hannah Dvorak-Carbone
The birds (18):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Crow
Mallard
White-throated Swift
European Starling
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-shouldered Hawk
Black Phoebe
Red-masked Parakeet
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Bushtit
House Wren
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Orange-crowned Warbler
-- John Beckett
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/24/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
6/13/11
We observed 18 species vs the record of 21 for a week 24.
Not half bad.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
We observed two types of towhees and three types of hummingbirds,
so that was good. No Acorn Woodpecker this time -- bummer! And no
Mallard, although if has been seen recently. The Red-shouldered
Hawk, however, is still in the area. We heard it loud and clear.
The date: 6/13/11
The week number: 24
The walk number: 1095
The weather: 69°F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Hannah Dvorak-Carbone, Karin Bugge, Darren Dowell,
John Beckett, Vicky Brennan
The birds (18):
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
American Crow
Bushtit
White-throated Swift
Spotted Towhee
Red-shouldered Hawk
Starling
Lesser Goldfinch
California Towhee
Bewick's Wren
Black Phoebe
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/15/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
6/6/11
It turned out to be a terrific walk. We observed 19 species,
which set the record for a week 23! -- by one.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
And we had a new walker -- Debi Tuttle, who works in Student
Affairs at Caltech. She also is a terrific photographer and has
sent me many beautiful pictures of birds in the past. Debi
is the 128th individual to walk the walks and
brings the total cumulative person-walks to 3957. It was great
having her along. Welcome to the Caltech birdwalks, Debi.
We had an outstanding sighting. A Red-shouldered Hawk was
in the big Oak tree in the southeast corner
of the maintenance yard. It hopped around from
branch to branch as if it were a warbler. Perhaps
it was a juvenile, since we've watched them in a nest
not too far from that spot over the last many weeks.
It was spectacular.
We also saw an Orange-crowned Warbler in the same area. It
was the latest Spring sighting of one of those in
the 24-year history of the walks. And to cap it off,
we saw a Western Bluebird, which is also unusual for this
time of year.
Great walk!
The date: 6/6/11
The week number: 23
The walk number: 1094
The weather: 64°F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Debi Tuttle,
Vicky Brennan, Tom Palfrey, Carole Worra, John Beckett, Ashish Mahabal
The birds (19):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
White-throated Swift
Common Raven
Starling
Red-masked Parakeet
Red-shouldered Hawk
Orange-crowned Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon
Western Bluebird
Red-crowned Parrot
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/7/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html