03/30/04
Birders:
Well
there was definitely a highlight this week. The co-founder of the Caltech
bird walks, Ernie Franzgrote, surprised us by joining in on the walk. It's
been a long time since I've seen him. Ernie was really the prime mover of
the walks, in that if it weren't for his suggestion and pushing on me, the
walks would not have happened. They were definitely his idea. Although he
was a few minutes late, he remembered the route and found us behind the Health
Center. He is living in Vermont and writing
a book on the hummingbirds of Cost Rica. I'm looking forward to its publication.
Another highlight was that a new walker appeared -- my son Travis. And just as I did on my first walk, Travis bagged a new life bird on his, the Yellow-chevroned Parakeet.
As far as bird highlights go, I guess it would be the Townsend's Warbler, which we haven't seen for awhile, although Jon did email in a sighting on 3/2/04. We saw 19 species which is about typical for this time of year (see the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/two_plots.htm).
The
stats:
The temperature: 80F
The walkers: Alan, Travis, Glenn, Ernie, Kent, Kelly, and Jon via email
The birds:
| Rock Dove | Scrub Jay (from Jon via email) | Mockingbird |
| House Sparrow | Mourning Dove | House Finch |
| Anna's Hummingbird | Acorn Woodpecker | Crow |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | Starling | Raven |
| Red-tailed Hawk | Black Phoebe | Townsend's Warbler |
| Bushtit | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | Yellow-chevroned Parakeet |
| Band-tailed Pigeon |
Repectfully
submitted,
Alan
03/23/04
Birders:
What a fine day of birding it was! We must have set the record for number of species seen by the time we exited Tournament Park. We had 19 at that point. We finished with 23 which is way up there for this time of the year. You can check the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/two_plots.htm to see how well we did against history.
There
were a couple of highlights. Before Kelly arrived, Kent and I were accosted
by either an Allen's or Rufous Hummingbird. They are hard to tell apart and
either could be here this time of year
according to Jon Feenstra (see note at end of report). So we'll call it a
Selasphorus Hummingbird, as they are both members of that genus. We didn't
even need the binocs as it sat in a branch just a few feet from us. After
Kelly arrived, we saw it again in a different tree. We don't see that species
of hummingbird too often. Then Kent once again showed his Sapsucker spotting
expertise as he located the Red-breasted Sapsucker in the "sapsucker"
tree (after I had given up the search). That's two times he's done that in
the last month. Good job Kent.
The
stats:
The weather: Overcast, ~65F
The walkers: Alan, Kent, Kelly
The birds:
| Rock Pigeon | Scrub Jay | Mockingbird |
| House Sparrow | Mourning Dove | House Finch |
| Anna's Hummingbird | Acorn Woodpecker | Crow |
| Cedar Waxwing | Yellow-rumped Warbler | Starling |
| Yellow-chevroned Parakeet | Selasphorus Hummingbird | Red-masked Parakeet |
| White-crowned Sparrow | Cooper's Hawk | Black Phoebe |
| Red-breasted Sapsucker | Bushtit | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Red-tailed Hawk | Raven |
Respectfully
submitted,
Alan
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
PS: Attached is the word on distinguishing Rufous from Allen's from Jon:
Could
be either Rufous or Allen's at this time of year. Both are migrating
north through here right now. The only way to distinguish one from the
other is if you run into an adult male Rufous without any green on it. Many
male Rufous and all male Allen's have green backs and those birds are nearly
impossible to tell apart in the field.
Eaton
Canyon should be pulling in all those little guys now. The sage
around the nature center is just about to be in full bloom and will provide
a great place to study the hummers - up to 6 species at once (including the
rare Calliope).
Jon
03/16/04
Birders:
I'm
trying to find a highlight in today's walk. Maybe the highlight was that Glenn
finished the walk. And that was thanks to Kelly who urged him on. Once we
got past the area just west of Millikan
Library we were relatively safe, as it was almost easier to finish the walk
at that point than head straight for his air conditioned office. Glenn complained
periodically that the temperature was above his MOOT point. That would be
Maximum Optimal Operating Temperature. Actually, he didn't bring the thermometer
but I estimate it was about 85F out there. A little hot but it can, and will,
get a lot worse.
If
there was no real bird highlight, there were two lowlights. One was the lack
of a House Sparrow.
Ridiculous. The other was the absence of the Mallards. This was particularly
disturbing because of the incident yesterday when I saw a woman and her two
grandchildren (I presume) harrassing the two
Mallards which are trying to call the three ponds their home. But I guess
it wasn't the harrassment that did it. Glenn went to check on them at 11:10
am this morning and they were there and
in fact he fed them a piece of a dog biscuit that he just happened to have
in his pocket. Yep, he carries a dog biscuit around in case of an emergency.
He told me he bit a piece of it off and fed it to the female Mallard. Well,
maybe that killed her, because neither Mallard was there during the
noon hour.
We
saw 15 species. Jon emailed in a few he'd seen on his walk home to lunch but
none were different from what we saw. The historical range for mid-March is
13-23, so we were near the bottom of
the range.
The
stats:
The weather: 85F, sunny
The walkers: Alan, Kelly, Glenn
| Rock Pigeon | Scrub Jay | Mockingbird |
| Mourning Dove | House Finch | Anna's Hummingbird |
| Acorn Woodpecker | Crow | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | Bushtit | Starling |
| Cedar Waxwing | Raven | White-throated Swift |
The birds:
Alan
PS: Check us out at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
03/09/04
Birders:
There was good news and bad news today. The bad news was that it was hot -- about 88 F. That may be why we only saw 18 species today versus last week's 26 at 55 F. Eighteen is about average for this time of the year, however. The good news was that Kelly said she loved the heat. So when summer really comes and the temperature is near 100 and some birders are tempted to stay inside in the air conditioning, I can look forward to at least one accompanying birder. Actually, that's unfair to Kent, who is a reliable summer birdwalker. But I doubt if he likes the heat. Nor do I.
There
were two highlights, sort of. One was a Red-tailed Hawk who appeared to be
having fun folding his wings up and doing some dipsy-doodles. Or he might
have been on the attack and then called it off. Anyway, I'd never seen one
do quite what that one did today. The other highlight was a Bushtit trying
to get through a window on the IPAC building. It was fluttering around and
provided a very good view. It had a light eye which meant it was a female,
as we learned when we looked in the
Kaufman bird book.
The
lowlight was the lack of a Sapsucker on the sapsucker tree. It just couldn't
make the effort be there two weeks in a row. The
mid-light was the Raven which is back on the nest over Baltimore's
office. Dr. Baltimore stopped by to see what we were looking at. I advised
him not to walk along the sidewalk directly under the nest. He agreed that
that was a good idea.
Stats:
Temperature: ~88 F
Conditions: Sunny
Walkers: Kent, Alan, Glenn, Kelly, Jon by email
The list:
| Rock Pigeon | Scrub Jay | Mockingbird |
| House Sparrow | Mourning Dove | House Finch |
| Anna's Hummingbird | Acorn Woodpecker | Crow |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | Red-tailed Hawk | White-crowned Sparrow |
| Bushtit | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | Cedar Waxwing |
| Band-tailed Pigeon | Raven | Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (from Jon via email) |
Respectfully
submitted,
Alan
PS: Check us out at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
03/02/04
Caltech birders:
Wow, what a good birding day! It was very cool, about 55 F, and very cloudy. In fact, a few sprinkles fell at the beginning of the walk but a nice hole in the clouds developed over Caltech and the rain held off.
We had a lot of bird activity. On the main walk we saw 24 species and then Jon emailed in 2 additional sightings for a grand total of 26, which ties the record for March. The only other March walk with 26 species occurred last year.
Had
Jon been along on the main walk we might have gotten one more, a flock of
10 big birds in the
far distance headed west. Bill and Glenn mulled it over and about 45 minutes
after the sighting voted for Pelicans, but others of us thought that was an
iffy call. So we didn't call them anything.
They might have been Gulls, but their wings looked a bit too wide to me for
that. They resembled a flock of Hawks but with kind of swept back wings as
if they were in the early stages of diving for prey, only they were gliding
along at a steady altitude (very high by the way) and did not flap their wings.
The
big find of the day was a Red-breasted Sapsucker on the "sapsucker tree"
in Tournament Park.
Thanks to Kent for that one. The Mallards were in the Throop site ponds at
the beginning of the walk but not at the end. Good thing we looked for them
early.
It
was Bill Schaefer's last regular walk as he is moving to Northern California
later this week
(after 43 years at Caltech!). He hopes to get back at least once a year and
maybe will join us
on a Tuesday walk or two. He will keep track of our exploits at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu,
which is not finished yet but well along thanks to Kelly Jung our newest walker
and website
creator/manager. We wish Bill well in his new birding habitat.
Stats
of the day:
Temperature: ~55 F, cloudy
Walkers: Alan, Bill, Glenn, Kent, Kelly
The list:
| Rock Pigeon | Scrub Jay | Mockingbird |
| House Sparrow | Mourning Dove | House Finch |
| Anna's Hummingbird | Acorn Woodpecker | Crow |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | Mallard | Band-tailed Pigeon |
| Nuttal's Woodpecker | Black Phoebe | Red-tailed Hawk |
| White-crowned Sparrow | Red-breasted Sapsucker | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Starling | Lesser Goldfinch | Cedar Waxwings |
| Gull | Turkey Vulture | Cooper's Hawk |
| Orange-crowned Warbler (from Jon) | Townsend's Warbler (from Jon) |
Alan
PS: Here is Jon's report:
I
didn't get Bushtits or the parakeets but I did have:
American Crow
Band-tailed Pigeon
Yellow-rumped Warbler
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Western Scrub-jay
Rock Pigeon
Acorn Woodpecker
Townsend's Warbler
The Orange-crowned was actually on the north side of Del Mar but I made sure that I could still hear it from the south side.
Jon