5/29/07
I have been under the gun with deadlines for papers so
I have not got these out lately in a timely fashion.
I will try to do better. I will, however, be brief in
this report.
It was a pleasant day but not many birds. We got 13 species.
See the two plots at
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
Note the latest Caltech News has a nice collage
of birds on the back cover and a caption too.
It's very nicely done. Thanks to Barbara Ellis for
the advertisement of our bird walks.
Next week will be the last walk for Brendan Crill for a while.
He will be taking a faculty position in Toronto.
The stats:
The date: 5/29/07
The week number: 22
The walk number: 885
The weather: 70F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore
The birds (13):
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Raven
Black Phoebe
House Wren
Starling
Bushtit
Band-tailed Pigeon
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
6/1/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
5/22/07 5/15/07 5/8/07
Hi, Alan -
Here are my notes from yesterday's walk:
68 degrees, mostly overcast, some sun peaking through
occasionally. We saw 18 species.
We had a pleasant walk that provided as many chuckles as
birds. Perhaps we need to have an *Out-Takes* section of our report
to handle such things as Barbara telling us to look in "the green
tree" for a bird, Beth finding what turned out to be a crack pipe
outside of IPAC and everyone wondering which bird had used it, and
Glenn asking what type of bird the shiny-scalped workman on the roof
of a building was to which Beth replied, "A bald eagle, of
course!" In Barbara's defense she was directing us away from the
purple Jacaranda tree. And if you're really curious, we decided it
must be the ravens, as aggressive as they were showing themselves to
be each time we spied one on the walk, that must have made use of the
glass pipe.
We saw all of our regulars and many White-throated Swift.
The stats:
The date: 5/22/07
The week number: 21
The walk number: 884
The weather: 68F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Brendan Crill, Ashish Mahabal, Jim Carlblom, Glenn Hamell, Barbara Ellis, Beth Moore
The birds (18):
Rock Dove
Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
White-throated Swift
Raven
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Starling
House Wren
Hawk, sp.
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Tree Swallow
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings (report written by Beth Moore)
5/29/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
It was a pleasant walk on Ditch Day at Caltech. So, in addition
to the birds we observed a number of "stacks" that looked
interesting. For a report on this year's Ditch Day
see http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_5906176.
As for the birds, we saw 17 species. The record
for week 20 is 22 in 2003. But 17 is above average for a week 20.
See the two plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
The stats:
The date: 5/15/07
The week number: 20
The walk number: 883
The weather: 68F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Brendan Crill, Simon Radford, Glenn Hamell, Carolyn Ash
The birds (17):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Starling
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Black Phoebe
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon
Raven
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/16/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu
We had a surprisingly good walk considering the heat. It was 93F and sunny.
We observed 19 species which was not a record for week 19. The record
for week 19 is 26 seen in 2002.
See the two plots at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.
However, it was a record in the category of walks taken when the
temperature was above 90F. Previous record was 18, accomplished in
1991, 1992, and 1999.
We had a good turnout of walkers. Barbara Ellis came very late but
by the time we finished, she had put in half an hour and
I say that qualifies as participation. So, we had seven walkers
for the day.
Among the highlights were the White-throated Swift, House Wren,
Wilson's Warbler, Western Kingbird, Spotted Towhee, Lesser Goldfinch,
and Black-chinned Hummingbird. The Ravens are on the nest in the
nook on Parson's Gates above the President's Office. They quickly
rebuilt the nest after the buildings and grounds people tore it out
recently. For an interesting article about the intelligence of Ravens see
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,476266,00.html.
Thanks to Beth Moore for alerting me to this article.
The stats:
The date: 5/8/07
The week number: 19
The walk number: 882
The weather: 90F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Beth Moore, Brendan Crill, Ashish Mahabal, Carolyn Ash, Barbara Ellis
The birds (19):
Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
White-throated Swift
Starling
Bushtit
Western Kingbird
Spotted Towhee
House Wren
Wilson's Warbler
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Raven
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/8/07
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu