11/29/10

This was an interesting walk. After Beth emailed in her Yellow-headed Parrots and Band-tailed Pigeons that she saw just after the endpoint of the walk, we wound up with 21 species, just one short of the record for a week 48.

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

Some sort of award ought to be handed out to Kent whose persistence on the California Towhee paid off. We first heard what we thought might be a California Towhee but didn't see it. Then we saw an Orange-crowned Warbler in the same area and some of us decided that the two sounds were the same and were prepared to go on. But Kent thought we might be overlooking the towhee and had me play the towhee sound from my iPhone bird app. Lo and behold we had to duck out of the way as the towhee zoomed by us. Good going, Kent!

The date: 11/29/10
The week number: 48
The walk number: 1067
The weather: 58 F, sunny

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter, Vicky Brennan, John Beckett, Beth Moore

The birds (21):

Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Bushtit
Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-masked Parakeet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Goldfinch
Orange-crowned Warbler
California Towhee
Yellow-headed Parrots
Band-tailed Pigeon

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
12/3/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

11/22/10

It was a beautiful day, about 57 F and partly cloudy, but the birds didn't materialize to the extent we wanted. We observed 17 species, dead on the median for a week 47 and a hair above the average, giving us a small positive walk score. We'll take it.

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

The big highlight was a Great Egret that sailed overhead and was first seen by Viveca and immediately identified by Hannah. It circled around a bit and we all got a good view. It was great, no pun intended.

The date: 11/22/10
The week number: 47
The walk number: 1066
The weather: 57 F, partly cloudy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Barbara Ellis, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Vicky Brennan, John Beckett, Beth Moore, Hannah Dvorak-Carbone

The birds (17):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Common Raven
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Western Bluebird
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
Cedar Waxwing
Wren, sp.
Black throated Gray Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Great Egret

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
11/22/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

11/15/10

Equation of the day? No wind equals excellent walk. Last week we were watching leaves flying faster than birds and were lucky to make the average. This week, the breezes are gone, the leaves are still, the temperature perfect, and we sail past the old record of 23. We had 25 birds to establish a new record but a walk that was really odd in many ways. The species came in pulses like islands, often in areas not usually yielding many birds, and some, usually reliable, spots seem to have been transformed into avian deserts. I can boast of no bird flavored in local rarity, no hawks of any kind, and we didn't even manage to see all of the standards (no rock doves or house sparrows). We did, however, get a bulbul, three warblers, and a highlight pair of dark-eyed juncos. It was the aural compass (aka Darren) who caught their approach and Kent who worked the designated tree for a solid visual. Done and done. We had our first juncos of the season.

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

The date: 11/15/10
The week number: 46
The walk number: 1065
The weather: 74°F, full sun, calm, calm, calm

The walkers: John Beckett, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, Vicky Brennan, Kent Potter, Darren Dowell

The birds (25):

Scrub Jay
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Black Phoebe
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bushtit
Wren, species
California Towhee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Townsend Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Western Bluebird
American Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
Black throated Gray Warbler
Hummingbird, Selasphorus
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Red-crowned Parrot
Band-tailed Pigeon
Common Raven

-- John Beckett

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
11/18/10
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

11/8/10

We had a zero walk. Well, not actually zero. We got a score of 0.03592. So, we just about hit the average for a week 45. We observed 17 species, lower than we hoped it would be but it was windy again.

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

We had to take a detour right at the outset of our walk because of work in the trees. So, I've posted the route on the website. Follow the links to "route map". You'll see how we had to start walking east on California to Arden Rd and then turn south on Arden and then into the Health Center drive to the back of the building. Compare that to the route map for 10/5/10 just below it. Something different. How exciting!

The biggest dent in our total count came because the regulars decided to be irregular. Of the 9 so-called regulars, we got 3 of them. So, if had seen all of them, we would have gotten 23 total and tied for the all time high for a week 45. Sigh.

The date: 11/8/10
The week number: 45
The walk number: 1064
The weather: 66 F, partly cloudy, windy

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Vicky Brennan, Viveca Sapin-Areeda, John Beckett, Beth Moore

The birds (17):

Rock Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird
American Crow
Bushtit
Starling
Black Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wren, sp.
Cedar Waxwing
Western Bluebird
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Raven
Turkey Vulture
Hummingbird, Selasphorus

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
11/10/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html

11/1/10

Wow, what a come back. Last week we only had 12 species. This week we observed 23, which was good enough to tie the all-time record high for a week 44!

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, Margot Hoyt, who works in Chemistry. She is our 123rd person to take a Caltech birdwalk and she brought the total cumulative person-walks to 3756. There have been 1063 walks, so the overall average persons/walk is 3.53. But this year we have been averaging over 6 persons/walk. So, Margot, welcome to the Caltech birdwalks! You will likely be participating in a record-setting year as we have 1.32 ranking points for 2010 and the previous high year was only 0.7. It's been a really great year for birds on campus.

We had a spectacular bird highlight. There were two birds on the north athletic field. They were working in the grass in the shadow of one of the soccer goal posts. This shadow formed a line about 4 inches wide and they would not come out it. They would move right along it and when they reached the end, they would turn around and walk right back down the line, sometimes passing each other on the way. But they always stayed in the shadow. This made identification difficult. John made the trek over to get closer and he reported back that we had two Lincoln's Sparrows on our hands. That's only the 11th time we've seen Lincoln's on the walks, out of 1063 tries, so it's pretty unusual. The other highlight is that we saw all 9 "regulars". That's pretty unusual of late.

The date: 11/1/10
The week number: 44
The walk number: 1063
The weather: 78 F, sunny

The walkers: Alan Cummings, Vicky Brennan, Viveca Sapin_Areeda, Margot Hoyt, Kent Potter, Beth Moore, John Beckett

The birds (23):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
American Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
White-throated Swift
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
House Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Lesser Goldfinch
Lincoln's Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk
Western Bluebird
Downy Woodpecker
Raven
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hummingbird, Selasphorus

Respectfully submitted,
Alan Cummings
11/3/10

http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/index.html