3/28/11
Revised (recorded an actual swallow, not Swallow, sp.)
We broke all records known to man with regard to the Caltech
birdwalks! We observed 37 species, two better than the previous
all-time record for any week. It was also the highest-scoring walk
ever posted, a 3.25759. Wow!
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
Just an unbelievable walk. It's the fourth one in a row in
which we observed 30 or more species. And the two weeks before that?
28 each. The Caltech birdwalks have never been better.
I had a bit of a cold and actually got into a coughing jag about
a third of the way through. The other walkers, prompted by Darren,
began discussing what action they should take if I keeled over.
That was the exact terminology used. Keeled over. Viveca decided for the group:
take the list and keep going. I guess they would unstrap my
belt and get my bird books too. I wouldn't blame them. We were on a roll,
headed for the all-time record, but we didn't know it then. In fact,
I only found out after the walk. Kent emailed in a Gull, sp. seen
on his way back to his office. And Darren reminded me by email that we saw a
Falcon, sp. overhead. Way to go guys!
Those weren't the only bird identifications relegated to sp. status.
We saw Kingbird, sp too. I don't particularly like these
categories, especially if I haven't previously created the position
for a species. But fortunately, I discovered I already have these categories.
No problem. And since they are definitely a different species, they
have to count towards number of species seen.
What was the outstanding moment or bird? I'd say the number of swallows
moving through was pretty outstanding. And the Yellow-headed Parrots
weren't half bad. Especially the last one we saw on the North
side of campus grabbing on to a palm frond hanging down from the tree.
It was classic -- beautiful, full-bore Yellow-headed Parrot.
Otherwise, as usual, it could have been more. No Scrub Jay, no Rock
Pigeon, no American Goldfinch, no House Wren, no Downy Woodpecker,
no Cooper's Hawk, no Western Bluebird, no Cedar Waxwing, no Hermit Thrush,
no Robin, and no California Towhee, all of which we've spotted recently --
well maybe not the Scrub Jay and Rock Pigeon.
I'd say 45 is achievable. I hope I didn't just now jinx next week.
The date: 3/28/11
The week number: 13
The walk number: 1084
The weather: 62°F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Jim Carlblom, Vicky Brennan, Kent Potter,
Darren Dowell, Carole Worra, Vivica Sapin-Areeda, Ashish Mahabal, John Beckett
The birds (37):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
White-throated Swift
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Starling
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Common Raven
Falcon, sp.
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-headed Parrot
Red-shouldered Hawk
Orange-crowned Warbler
Red-crowned Parrot
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Nuttal's Woodpecker
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Lesser Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Townsend's Warbler
Western Tanager
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Bewick's Wren
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
White-crowned Sparrow
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Dark-eyed Junco
Spotted Towhee
Kingbird, sp.
Gull, sp.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
3/28/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
3/21/11
This is getting ridiculous. Three straight walks of 30 or more
birds. It's unheard of. Today we got 31 species and it could have been
a lot more. But we are not complaining. Well, we could. Maybe
we should. It was COLD and it rained for the first half of the
walk. But at the end, Darren's parting words were "No regrets".
I agreed. Our fingers will thaw out and our clothes will dry.
But you just can't pass up setting another record. This one set
the record for a week 12, breaking the old mark by 3 birds.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
The walk score was a paltry (compared to the previous two walks) 2.45392.
So, no record there. But we had kind of a surreal moment. We
were just about to exit Tournament Park and were looking
at part of a parking lot which is covered with asphalt but where cars
don't park. The area is underneath a huge tree and the rain was just
stopping, but lots of drips off the tree leaves were raining down.
The birds thought this was a great situation. On that asphalt
and in the immediate vicinity we saw a few somewhat-tough-to-get
birds: Dark-eyed Junco, Western Bluebird, White-crowned Sparrow,
and Bewick's Wren. Well, Bewick's is not that tough. But still,
it was sort of surreal thje way some of these great birds were hopping
up in the tree and back down to the parking lot over and over.
We had just seen a Black-throated Gray Warbler and Yellow-headed
and Red-crowned Parrots. We were hot in the birdwatching department
but were cold physically. What we missed were Rock Pigeon, Scrub Jay,
House Sparrow, Acorn Woodpecker, and Mallard. The Mallard showed up an
hour late according to John. Give us those and we would have broken
the all-time record two weeks in a row. It's amazing lately.
The date: 3/21/11
The week number: 12
The walk number: 1083
The weather: 45°F, cloudy with some rain
The walkers: Alan Cummings, John Beckett, Vivica Sapin-Areeda,
Carole Worra, Darren Dowell, Nathan Dalleska
The birds (31):
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
American Crow
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Black Phoebe
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Gull, sp.
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-headed Parrot
Red-crowned Parrot
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Downy Woodpecker
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Bluebird
White-crowned Sparrow
Bewick's Wren
Lesser Goldfinch
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
American Robin
Bushtit
Hermit Thrush
Townsend's Warbler
Band-tailed Pigeon
Cooper's Hawk
Common Raven
Red-tailed Hawk
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
3/22/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
3/14/11
There is a magic window that comes with the
opening of Spring. We begin to see migratory birds from
Central and South America heading for their
summer homes but many of the birds that overwinter here
are still around. We caught it perfectly this
week. We had nine walkers, a lot of interested eyes and
some really good ears, an early start due to
daylight savings time kicking over on Sunday, pleasant
conditions, and a supportive collection of
birds. Before the walk even started, we had a pair of rock
doves hanging out on top of Millikan backed by
white-throated swifts. When we caught sight of a
house sparrow in back of the tennis courts just a
few moments later, I had the feeling we were onto
something special. Laugh if you must but getting
house sparrows and rock doves has been like
engaging the perils of Pauline, lately. To get
them so early in the walk could only bode well or
harbor a god with a faulty sense of humor. By
the time we got to the maintenance yard, we
had eleven species and by the time we left we had
21 with an extraordinary migratory described below.
Tournament Park yielded some active house wrens
(both tree holes are occupied), a pair of very
affectionate yellow-headed parrots (may this lead
to a few more), and a hermit thrush who posed
patiently until everybody had obtained a very
good look. It was like being in an aviary. We continued
to pick up birds as we headed towards Wilson,
including a western tanager, black-throated gray and
Townsend warblers, a dark-eyed junco and a
Bewick's wren. Some of us also had a nice chat with
the lady who lives in the hummingbird feeder
house. She was very interested in our walk and might
actually be with us next week. By the time we
got to Wilson Avenue, we had 33 species, already an
all-time record, but we weren't finished. There
were several relatively common birds we hadn't seen
(starling, American goldfinch, mourning dove,
band-tailed pigeon, scrub jay, and black phoebe were
among the obvious targets). We worked our way up
Wilson without success but, finally, near Avery,
our pattern recognition specialist Viveca, picked
up a quiet mourning dove. We added one more species
when we caught sight of half a dozen band-tailed
pigeons lounging around like big gourds in a tree near
San Pasqual. This brought the final walk total
to 35, three higher than the previous all time record of 32
species set just a couple of months ago and five
higher than the previous record of 30 for week 11.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
The walk was unusually long (I didn't get back to
my office until 1:50) and I apologize to those on tight
schedules but I can' say that I regret not
pushing the pace. At first, I think we were slow because it felt
good and then we were slow because there were so
many willing birds. How could we not take advantage
of such an accommodation? Also, as it became
clear that we were treading near record territory, there
was a palpable sense of, well, history. People
worked birds very hard rather than giving up on them and
I suspect this yielded two or three species we
wouldn't have otherwise picked up.
We had a terrific highlight bird. We were
looking at a couple of hawks from the maintenance yard and
Darren, who is usually very quick to call a bird
when confident of identity, was suddenly completely
uncommunicative (he didn' want to prejudice the
rest of us). I found this behavior a little odd but I
was soon caught up in a "holy mackerel" moment,
as I finally brought the nearest bird into focus with good lighting.
It was a buteo with a two-toned underwing and
clearly defined light-dark ordering opposite that of a
turkey vulture. We were watching a Swainson's
hawk! A few Swainsons stay in the U.S. throughout
the year but most of them winter in South America
and summer well to the north of us, so we can generally
only hope to catch them as they fly past on
migrations that, although not quite in red knot class, are still very
impressive. We've seen a Swainson's hawk on just
two previous occasions covering more than two decades
and over a thousand walks. This was special
indeed and, surely, a fitting capstone to a great walk.
The date: 3/14/11
The week number: 11
The walk number: 1082
The weather: 70°F, partly cloudy, and generally calm
The walkers: John Beckett, Ashish Mahabal, Hannah
Dvorak-Carbone, Vicky Brennan, Vivica Sapin-Areeda,
Carole Worra, Kent Potter, Sridhara Chakravarthy, Darren Dowell
The birds (35):
Rock dove
Northern mockingbird
House sparrow
Mourning dove
House finch
Anna's hummingbird
Acorn woodpecker
American crow
Common raven
Yellow-rumped warbler
White-throated swift
Mallard
Red-tailed hawk
Orange-crowned warbler
Red-crowned parrot
Hummingbird, selasphorus
Red-whiskered bulbul
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Swainson's hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
House wren
Hermit thrush
Yellow-headed parrot
Bushtit
Black-throated gray warbler
Yellow chevron-winged parakeet
Lesser goldfinch
Western tanager
Dark-eyed junco
American robin
Bewick's wren
Townsend's warbler
Band-tailed pigeon
-- John Beckett
Ed. note: Congratulations to the team that got the all-time record!
And thank you John for a great report. John wanted me to add the walk score.
It was 3.02977, 3rd best. The previous walk on 3/7/11 still holds on to
the best walk score with a 3.13995. Those are two amazing walks in a row.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
3/20/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html
3/7/11
Wow! What a walk. Week 10 had been something of an anomaly for a while.
The record high for week 10 was 24 and the record highs for
the two adjacent weeks, 9 and 11, were both 30. Well, that problem
has been solved. We observed 30 species, 6 above the previous record
high for the week. And not only that, WE SET THE ALL-TIME HIGH RANKING
SCORE FOR ANY CALTECH BIRDWALK. The previous high was a 3.10979 scored
on 3/30/06. Today's walk came in at 3.13995. So, congratulations to
all who participated in this historic walk.
See the plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/species_time.html
and
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm
It could have easily been more. We did not record a Rock Pigeon,
nor a Cooper's Hawk, and no Mallard, just to mention three that
would have given us the all-time record high for any walk,
which stands at 32. The Mallards were present today, Tuesday,
but missed being recorded by a day. The Rock Pigeon and Cooper's Hawk
were seen last week. And in that same category, the following birds
were observed last week but not this week: Starling
Say's Phoebe, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker,
Cedar Waxwing, and California Towhee. So really, we were oh
so close to getting the al-time record.
Just a fantastic walk.
The date: 3/7/11
The week number: 10
The walk number: 1081
The weather: 65 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Vicky Brennan, John Beckett, Ashish Mahabal, Carole Worra, Darren Dowell
The birds (30):
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Bewick's Wren
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Swift, sp.
Bushtit
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Orange-crowned Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Townsend's Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-shouldered Hawk
Common Raven
Lesser Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon
American Goldfinch
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
3/8/11
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html