Caltech Birding

10/26/04

A dearth of birds. That's what we had today. I don't think even Jon Feenstra could have saved us. The weather was good, maybe a little breezy as we brace for another storm tonight. We saw 12 species, which was almost the record low. We missed that by one (in the "modern" era, discounting 1986 when we were just working out the kinks). In 2001 during week 43 we had 11 species. Usually this time of year we have a lot more. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

I think we did set one negative record. I'd bet my hat we have never had a walk since 1987 when we didn't see at least one of Scrub Jay, Mockingbird, or Mourning Dove. I didn't check that stat; it's left as an exercise to the reader. Click on the "raw data" button on the page http://birdwalks.caltech.edu to bring up the Excel spreadsheet of raw data.

About the only highlight was an up close and personal look at an agitated Ruby-crowned Kinglet. But not agitated enough to show us the ruby crown.

The stats:
The date: 10/26/04
The week number: 43
The walk number: 755
The weather: 63 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Glenn Hamell, Kent Potter
The birds (12):

Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bandtailed Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Starling
American Goldfinch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
10/26/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

10/21/04

It was a beautiful day for a bird walk. It started out fairly clear and got cloudier and cloudier as the walk went on, until by the end of the walk it was hard to find a blue spot in the sky. It looks like we may be in for some more rain before this storm system is through with us. The temperature was a pleasant 65 F.

We saw 15 species, which is about typical for this time of year. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm. The record is 19 for week 42 of the year, which was attained twice.

We saw some unusual animals. In the tree at the southeast corner of the fenced-in maintenance yard, we saw a raccoon taking a nap. And just past Tournament Park we saw an Armadillo. Well, it said Armadillo on the side. A man with a dust mask was driving it around and cleaning up the debris from the last couple of days of rain. He seemed to follow us around for awhile, which was a major annoyance, as this Armadillo was not very quiet.

The major bird highlight was a male Black-throated Gray Warbler over by the new artwork near Avery House. We also saw the first Cedar Waxwings of the season and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

The stats:
The date: 10/21/04
The week number: 42
The walk number: 754
The weather: 65 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Kent Potter
The birds (15):

Rock Pigeon
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bandtailed Pigeon
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
Allen's Hummingbird
Black Phoebe (from Kent on his way back to his office)
Respectfully submitted,
Alan
10/21/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

10/12/04

The 753rd bird walk in the series featured the 16th walk by Eric Christian. Eric got his PhD in our group in 1989. He is now at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He got interested in birds after he left Caltech and when he comes back this way for meetings he usually goes along on the walk. Since, 1994 he's averaged 1.6 walks per year this way.

The 753rd bird walk did not feature an over-abundance of birds. We got 15 species, which actually isn't all that bad. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm. The record is 21 for week 41 of the year, which we got in 1997.

There was a major highlight, however. We saw a Merlin fly over. We don't see those very often. We recorded two sightings in 2002 and one in 2003. I'm not sure about earlier this year but I don't recall one. The lowlight was the lack of a Mourning Dove.

The stats:
The date: 10/12/04
The week number: 41
The walk number: 753
The weather: 82 F, partly cloudy
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Eric Christian, Bryan Jacoby
The birds (15):

Rock Pigeon (official name)
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bandtailed Pigeon
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Merlin
Starling
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Red-tailed Hawk
American Goldfinch

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
10/12/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu

10/5/04

An abundance of birds. That's what we had on the 752nd walk of the series. We broke the record for week 40 of the year by 5 birds! The previous record was 20 in 2002. We recorded 25. See the birds_epoch plot at http://birdwalks.caltech.edu/bird_data/two_plots.htm.

I would say the major highlight was the pair of Westen Meadowlarks that flew right over our heads while we were bagging one species after another north of Broad. Last time we recorded Western Meadowlark was 2002 when we saw them once. Then you have to skip back to 1999 when we saw them on 5 occasions. So they are pretty unusual for the bird walk. The Black-throated Gray Warbler observed part way up Wilson came in second for highlight of the day.

The stats:
The date: 10/5/04
The week number: 40
The walk number: 752
The weather: 72 F, sunny
The walkers: Alan Cummings, Ashish Mahabal, Kent Potter, Jon Feenstra
The birds (25):

Rock Pigeon (official name)
Scrub Jay
Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
House Finch
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Crow
Bandtailed Pigeon
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bushtit
Black Phoebe
American Goldfinch
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Orange-crowned Warbler
Cooper's Hawk
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Lesser Goldfinch
Starling
Raven
Western Meadowlark
Downey Woodpecker
Allen's Hummingbird

Respectfully submitted,
Alan
10/5/04
http://birdwalks.caltech.edu