5/24/10

Twenty, twenty-one, 120, and 121. That's what I noticed in my spreadsheets as I was entering the data from the walk this week. First, we had a new walker, Karin Bugge. She is a friend of Barbara Ellis. She is the 120th individual to participate in the Caltech birdwalks. Welcome, Karin. Karin is walker #120 and we have seen 121 different bird species on the walks. It was week 21 and we saw 21 species. It was the 20th walk this year. See what I mean? I could add that it was walk number 1040, which divided by 20 is 52, the number of weeks in a year, but then what does that mean? Not too much.

Twenty-one species for a week 21 is good. The record is 26 and the median is 15. So it was a good walk.

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

Best bird was a ... Rock Pigeon. No, just kidding, but we did see one, which hasn't been the case lately. Let's see, I guess the Northern Rough-winged Swallows circulating over the north athletic field qualify as good finds. We were disappointed to find the grounds people has mowed down the central part of the garden area north of Avery. Last week it held a large number of Lesser Goldinch. This time, we saw one lonely goldfinch trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The date: 5/24/10
The week number: 21
The walk number: 1040
The weather: 67 F, partly cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Barbara Ellis, Karin Bugge, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Simon Radford, John Beckett

The birds (21):

Rock Pigeon
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Raven
Starling
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-crowned Parrott
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
House Wren
Black Phoebe
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Flycatcher, sp.
Bushtit
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Lesser Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mallard

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/26/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

5/17/10

Another, outstanding, record-setting walk. And it almost didn't happen. Kent and I were standing at the meeting point at about 5 minutes to noon in a light drizzle that had not been forecast. We debated about whether or not we should do the walk given the weather conditions. When the others showed up, the consensus was to forge ahead. And I'm glad we did. The drizzle eased up and the birds eased out into view. We saw 27 species, breaking the old record for a week 20 by 5 species! Wow! As you might imagine, the score for the walk was very high, a 2.84655, the fifth highest score of all time (out of 1039 walks). So, it was a spectacular walk.

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

I guess the highlight bird was the Red-crowned Parrot. We saw a small flock land in a tree near us. We usually see Red-masked Parakeets, so this was a bit unusual. On the down side, we did not see Rock Pigeon or Acorn Woodpecker. We usually see the latter. Otherwise the bird variety was similar to that of recent weeks, which has been exceptionally good.

The date: 5/17/10
The week number: 20
The walk number: 1039
The weather: 56 F, partly cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Mark Scheel, Daniel Martin, Beth Moore, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, John Beckett

The birds (27):

Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Crow
Starling
Bushtit
Lesser Goldfinch
Band-tailed Pigeon
Raven
Red-crowned Parrott
Flycatcher, sp.
White-throated Swift
Downy Woodpecker
House Wren
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
California Towhee
Orange-crowned Warbler
Gull, sp.
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Mallard
Spotted Towhee

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/20/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

5/10/10

We had a great, record-setting walk. This marks the 7th walk out of 18 this year when we have either tied or broken the record for the week. 2010 is looking like a record-setting year, if we can keep it going for another 33 walks.

We observed 28 species, two above the previous record for a week 19.

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

Ashish was a little concerned that we took a bit of a detour 75% of the way through the walk to take in a garden plot just north of Avery House. Several of us didn't even know it existed, but Kent thought we should check it out. We only found one new bird there, a Black-chinned Hummingbird, but we have decided to make the garden a permanent change to the route. Ashish whipped out his camera and took a picture of me on the detour, implying that I was improperly changing the route and thus affecting the previous 24 years worth of data. But, I counter with the fact that that particular section of the route has changed several times over the years due to construction projects. So, while the route has generally been the same over the 24 years of the walks, there have been minor deviations and I would classify this as one of them.

Our best birds were the Black-chinned mentioned above and a Nuttall's Woodpecker and a Warbling Vireo, seen on the same tree on Holliston in front of the Admissions building. We also recorded a Downy Woodpecker and an Acorn Woodpecker, making it a rare, three-woodpecker day. We also saw three species of hummingbirds, if that rocks your boat.

It was a just a great walk.

The date: 5/10/10
The week number: 19
The walk number: 1038
The weather: 65 F, partly cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, John Beckett, Kent Potter, Ashish Mahabal, Mark Scheel, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Darren Dowell, Beth Moore
The birds (28):

Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Starling
Mallard
Raven
Lesser Goldfinch
Bushtit
Townsend's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Black Phoebe
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
House Wren
Downy Woodpecker
Band-tailed Pigeon
White-throated Swift
Cooper's Hawk
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Warbling Vireo
Cedar Waxwing

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/11/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

5/3/10

The bird count was down but the bird walker count was up. By one. We were joined by Himanshu Mishra. Himanshu is a 2nd year graduate student in Materials Science. He is Caltech birdwalker number 119 and brought the cumulative person-walks to 3605 since the inception of the walks on 10/15/1986. Welcome aboard Himanshu.

We saw 21 species, above the median of 17 for a week number 18, but short of the record 23 for the week.

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

Our best bird was a Warbling Vireo, seen first by a diligent Kent Potter, who had to wave us back to see it. Thanks, Kent. We saw both towhees and both wrens but we didn't get Rock Pigeon or Scrub Jay. Nonetheless, it was a nice, pleasant walk.

The date: 5/3/10
The week number: 18
The walk number: 1037
The weather: 78 F, sunny

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Beth Moore, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Simon Radford, Ashish Mahabal, Himanshu Mishra

The birds (21):

Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Starling
Mallard
Bushtit
White-throated Swift
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Lesser Goldfinch
Raven
Cedar Waxwing
Black Phoebe
House Wren
Warbling Vireo
Bewick's Wren
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
5/3/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu