Archive for November, 2007

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noho_bird_club’s Big Little Big Day

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Several times I tried to get 10 distinct identified species in my 10 shots in a day; it was always a lot of fun, even when I didn’t quite make it. Now that I can play with the metadata, here’s the record of the top “Little Big Days” on the system, ranked (first) by the number of species identified, and (second) by the time of the last shot of the day. That is, if two users both got the same number of species, the “winner” was the user who got their last shot earlier in the day.

Anyway, here’s the top 20 performances on the system judged by those criteria:

+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------+
| user           | begin               | end                 | count |
+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------+
| noho_bird_club | 2007-05-18 05:51:10 | 2007-05-18 12:06:25 |    10 | 
| elanus         | 2007-05-12 05:53:19 | 2007-05-12 16:06:32 |    10 | 
| elanus         | 2007-05-05 06:03:41 | 2007-05-05 16:55:51 |    10 | 
| kitcat         | 2007-08-27 08:09:52 | 2007-08-27 17:00:01 |    10 | 
| vireo          | 2007-10-19 09:12:31 | 2007-10-19 17:43:39 |    10 | 
| elanus         | 2007-08-12 09:11:08 | 2007-08-12 19:32:43 |    10 | 
| noho_bird_club | 2007-05-25 06:23:56 | 2007-05-25 12:18:10 |     9 | 
| robin54        | 2007-10-26 07:18:31 | 2007-10-26 13:15:46 |     9 | 
| elanus         | 2007-10-19 07:38:19 | 2007-10-19 16:08:34 |     9 | 
| vireo          | 2007-10-26 16:25:52 | 2007-10-26 17:14:26 |     9 | 
| kitcat         | 2007-10-21 11:54:49 | 2007-10-21 17:52:17 |     9 | 
| vireo          | 2007-10-17 13:26:50 | 2007-10-17 18:16:40 |     9 | 
| noho_bird_club | 2007-05-15 06:38:32 | 2007-05-15 19:27:54 |     9 | 
| elanus         | 2007-10-17 07:35:23 | 2007-10-17 08:46:13 |     8 | 
| noho_bird_club | 2007-06-01 05:51:48 | 2007-06-01 11:20:14 |     8 | 
| spurdin        | 2007-06-12 08:59:27 | 2007-06-12 15:11:12 |     8 | 
| elanus         | 2007-11-07 13:35:32 | 2007-11-07 16:07:46 |     8 | 
| robin54        | 2007-10-20 07:58:33 | 2007-10-20 16:35:22 |     8 | 
| birdbrain      | 2007-10-11 09:41:26 | 2007-10-11 18:03:16 |     8 | 
| birdbrain      | 2007-08-10 13:44:09 | 2007-08-10 18:45:09 |     8 | 
+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------+
20 rows in set (0.22 sec)

As you can see, there were 6 times that a user went 10 for 10; I’m proud that 3 of those were mine. (It probably helped that I was the only person trying to do this 10-for-10 thing most of the time.)

But noho_bird_club is the champion, hands down, in terms of earliest completion of a perfect-10 day: On May 18 he got his 10th shot of a distinct species at 12:06:25 p.m., more than 4 hours earlier in the day than my next-place finish.

Here are the 10 shots he got that day, in order:

American Robin at 5:51:

Image 10419

House Finch at 6:29:

Image 10420

House Sparrow at 7:35:

Image 10437

Pygmy Nuthatch at 8:36:

Image 10444

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (small, but clearly identifiable) at 8:43:

Image 10449

Western Scrub-Jay at 8:48:

Image 10457

Anna’s Hummingbird (a little fuzzy, but again, definitely identifiable) at 8:52:

Image 10461

Mourning Dove, shyly preening but no doubt on the ID, at 10:56:

Image 10517

Several Rock Pigeons on the distant roofline; probably the sketchiest photo of the bunch, but again, for birdcam regulars there’s no question that’s what they are, at 11:42:

Image 10526

And finally, this cute shot of the Dark-eyed Junco looking at us in its reflection in the thistle-seed feeder:

Image 10530

Congratulations, noho_bird_club!

Posted in People, Records and Rarities, Rules and Scoring | No Comments »

Bragging Rights for kryptonkay!

Friday, November 30th, 2007

So, who do you think had the most identified species in the game?

(Drumroll, please…)

+----------------+---------+
| user           | species |
+----------------+---------+
| kryptonkay     |      26 | 
| kitcat         |      22 | 
| annelizabeth   |      21 | 
| birdbrain      |      21 | 
| robin54        |      21 | 
| killeshin      |      20 | 
| elanus         |      19 | 
| vanilla        |      19 | 
| vireo          |      18 | 
| avatar99       |      18 | 
| fingerlakes    |      17 | 
| lal            |      17 | 
| spurdin        |      17 | 
| achadamaia     |      16 | 
| rookie         |      15 | 
| teixeira       |      15 | 
| noho_bird_club |      15 | 
| idbirds        |      15 | 
| sunbird        |      14 | 
| xav            |      14 | 
+----------------+---------+
20 rows in set (0.36 sec)

Here’s kryptonkay’s count of ID’s per species:

+---------------------------+-------+
| bird                      | count |
+---------------------------+-------+
| White-crowned Sparrow     |     1 | 
| Hooded Oriole             |     1 | 
| Lazuli Bunting            |     2 | 
| Wilson's Warbler          |     2 | 
| Song Sparrow              |     2 | 
| California Towhee         |     3 | 
| Townsend's Warbler        |     4 | 
| Ring-necked Pheasant      |     4 | 
| American Crow             |     5 | 
| Red-tailed Hawk           |     9 | 
| Golden-crowned Sparrow    |    16 | 
| Downy Woodpecker          |    47 | 
| Anna's Hummingbird        |    51 | 
| Rock Pigeon               |    55 | 
| Allen's Hummingbird       |    56 | 
| Lesser Goldfinch          |    64 | 
| Steller's Jay             |    68 | 
| Chestnut-backed Chickadee |    71 | 
| Pygmy Nuthatch            |    77 | 
| Black-headed Grosbeak     |    77 | 
| Mourning Dove             |    81 | 
| American Robin            |   118 | 
| Dark-eyed Junco           |   123 | 
| House Sparrow             |   145 | 
| Western Scrub-Jay         |   164 | 
| House Finch               |   297 | 
+---------------------------+-------+
26 rows in set (0.17 sec)

It’s impressive that she was on-hand for so many of the game’s rarities: the Ring-necked Pheasant, the American Crow, the Red-tailed Hawk, Hooded Oriole, Lazuli Bunting; if there was a rare bird spotted, it’s a good bet that she got a shot of it.

Congratulations, kryptonkay! 🙂

Posted in People, Records and Rarities, The Birds | 2 Comments »

Birdcam Birds Sorted by Number of ID’d Photos

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Bryce Lee was kind enough to forward me a database dump of the CONE Sutro Forest metadata, which means I now can obsess much more efficiently than I could by clicking through the Public Gallery page by page.

For example, here’s a list of all the species identified in the game, along with the number of successfully ID’d photos for each:

+---------------------------+-------------+
| name                      | count(name) |
+---------------------------+-------------+
| Yellow-rumped Warbler     |           1 | 
| European Starling         |           2 | 
| Wilson's Warbler          |           3 | 
| American Crow             |           7 | 
| Hooded Oriole             |           8 | 
| Purple Finch              |           8 | 
| Pine Siskin               |           8 | 
| Lazuli Bunting            |           9 | 
| White-crowned Sparrow     |          11 | 
| Townsend's Warbler        |          12 | 
| California Towhee         |          22 | 
| Ring-necked Pheasant      |          24 | 
| Red-tailed Hawk           |          32 | 
| Song Sparrow              |          34 | 
| Allen's Hummingbird       |         182 | 
| Golden-crowned Sparrow    |         206 | 
| Downy Woodpecker          |         333 | 
| Anna's Hummingbird        |         345 | 
| Steller's Jay             |         365 | 
| Rock Pigeon               |         696 | 
| Lesser Goldfinch          |         724 | 
| American Robin            |         975 | 
| Pygmy Nuthatch            |        1275 | 
| Mourning Dove             |        1681 | 
| Chestnut-backed Chickadee |        1752 | 
| Black-headed Grosbeak     |        1789 | 
| Dark-eyed Junco           |        1998 | 
| Western Scrub-Jay         |        2742 | 
| House Finch               |        4712 | 
| House Sparrow             |        5384 | 
+---------------------------+-------------+
30 rows in set (0.16 sec)

This is going to be so much fun to play with. 🙂

Posted in Records and Rarities, The Birds | 2 Comments »

Last Shot

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

It looks like vanilla got the last shot on the birdcam. It was this one of a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, taken at 12:22 this afternoon:

Image 44199

Congratulations, vanilla!

Posted in Favorite Shots | 4 Comments »

Where Were All the Birds?

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

One thing I noticed this afternoon was that there sure weren’t a lot of birds to be seen on the camera. And it wasn’t that we weren’t trying — there were lots of users on the system. Just not many birds. I wonder if there was some kind of noisy construction going on that was keeping them away.

In fact, the following shot of the Western Scrub-Jay taken by robin54 at 1:15 p.m. turned out to be the last bird photo taken today:

Image 44069

If the camera isn’t running tomorrow morning, that could end up being the last bird shot taken from Craig’s deck. I guess that would make me happy; it’s a beautiful shot.

It would have been pretty ironic if the bird shot taken before that one (also by robin54, at 1:04 p.m.) had turned out to be the last one:

Image 44065

I say “ironic”, because (as you probably remember), some 44,000 shots ago a Golden-crowned Sparrow was also the first bird recorded in the game, back on April 20. patti got that image:

Image 1

Nice pair of bookends, eh? I wonder if it’s the same bird.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Emotional Goodbyes

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

I got a little choked up reading all the nice comments people were leaving at this photo taken today by robin54. (And check out the ghostly image of “Casper” left of the T-bar.)

Image 44077

I’m planning to post some retrospective items over the next few days, and I’m certainly planning on reviving posting when the camera goes back up in Texas in March. In the meantime, thanks to everyone for making the CONE Sutro Forest birdcam so much fun.

Posted in Miscellaneous, People | 8 Comments »

What IS That? (Part 2)

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

robin54 pointed out the following very cool image, taken by birdbrain last Thursday at 3:49 p.m.:

Image 43765

If you squint a little you can see a woman’s face in the leaves in the background. It’s totally like the Face on Mars! 🙂

On a sadder note, tomorrow (Sunday, November 18, 2007) is Shutdown Day for the CONE Sutro Forest birdcam. I’m not sure whether or not the camera will be operating tomorrow; it would be nice if we had one more day to play with it, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Posted in Favorite Shots | 3 Comments »

What IS That?

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Here are a couple of shots taken lately that made me scratch my head.

The first one was taken by leacox at 10:53 a.m. back on Wednesday, November 7:

Image 42254

leacox wrote “hawk from behind – white throat, can barely make out eye and beak,” and then later, “looking at the left wing, can see part of chest then the white bib.” When I first saw the image I didn’t notice the comments, and didn’t see anything. But looking at it more carefully now, I can almost imagine there’s a hawk in there (a juvenile accipiter, maybe?)

I’d be interested in seeing another shot of that same location for comparison purposes, both to get a sense of scale of whatever that might be, and (especially) to see if whatever it is is still there (which it could be, if it’s just a branch or something) or is now very much missing (which it obviously would be, if it’s a hawk). Does anyone know where this shot was taken? Can you get another one at a similar zoom?

Then there’s this shot, which was taken yesterday by vireo at 10:25 a.m. According to vireo, the “ghost bird” captured behind the Pygmy Nuthatch was a jay (which I’m inclined to think would be the Western Scrub-Jay, rather than the Steller’s Jay). It doesn’t exactly look like a Scrub Jay, but I imagine the slow shutter speed and rapid motion of the bird does some pretty wacky things to the image.

Anyway, I’m interested in what users have to say about either of those shots. Thanks.

Image 42931

Update: robin54 got a shot of the same place as leacox’s earlier image, and the “hawk” is still there:

Image 43064

So I think that settles that particular mystery: Not a bird, but a branch, or something.

Posted in Favorite Shots, Records and Rarities | 9 Comments »

White-crowned Sparrow (Officially!)

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

I’d complained recently about us not being able to count the White-crowned Sparrow, even though we got some clear shots of juveniles a few days ago. Happily, that problem has now been resolved by virtue of some correctly-ID’d shots that were taken yesterday, including some really stunning views of an adult.

Here’s the official first ID of a White-crowned Sparrow in the game (as of now). It was taken at 9:35 on Saturday morning by kitcat:

Image 42909

There actually were some earlier images of a juvenile, but they’re currently in ‘disputed’. Here’s a cute one that was taken by kryptonkay at 9:14 a.m.:

Image 42902

Here’s a nice close-up of the adult, taken by avatar99 at 9:40:

Image 42923

Congratulations, everyone! Now, if we could just get a microphone so we could hear their singing, I could retire from birdcam blogging a happy man. 🙂

Posted in Records and Rarities, The Birds | 1 Comment »

Ring-necked Pheasant!

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

So, I noticed on Friday that Craig had posted the following image to his personal blog:

He mentioned that it was “in Eve and Claire’s backyard, might be injured…” I emailed to ask if Eve and Claire were neighbors, and he said they were, so I immediately started wondering if the bird might show up on the birdcam. And guess what? A few hours later, on Saturday morning, it did just that.

birdbrain got the honor of the first identified shot, at 7:44 a.m.:

Image 42813

A bunch more photos of the bird were taken in the course of the morning. My favorite is this one, taken by robin54 at 8:51:

Image 42891

Congratulations to everyone who got a shot of this beautiful and very exciting bird!

Posted in Favorite Shots, Records and Rarities, The Birds | 1 Comment »

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