Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 18:02:38 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Wilkerson, Jordan T." Subject: Re: Counting Birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Jordan, One method for doing this quickly is to approximate (or count if you can) a smaller subset of the whole flock. Then you can estimate how many subsets of the same size are in the entire flock. Describing this without drawing a picture may be difficult, but you can practice this with a handful of pebbles. Take a small handful of rocks and scatter them over a small area on the sidewalk. For starters, look at the left half and estimate how many are there, then multiply that number by 2 to get the entire estimate. Now start over, but only estimate the top left corner or quadrant. After you've estimate how many you think are in that quarter, then multiply it by 4 to get the how estimate. When you see a flock of hundreds of blackbirds flying over, quickly estimate or count a small group of them (start with 10 but more when you have time) then estimate how many groups of 10 are in the entire flock. This is, of course, only an estimate. When documenting your count, make sure you indicate that it was an estimate, and not an exact count. Good luck, Jordan, Cloverly, MD Montgomery County __________________________________________ Jordan T. Wilkerson Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Aeronautical Science and Technology Group M/S 10A-116 11100 Johns Hopkins Road Laurel, MD 20723-6099 (240) 228-8573 (phone) (240) 228-5850 (fax) jordan.wilkerson@jhuapl.edu __________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Keith Rutter [mailto:pogo@POGO.ORG] Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 5:59 PM To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Counting Birds Hi, My name is Jordan Rutter and I am in sixth grade. I recently had my field notebook judged. The most common criticism was that in my list I didn't say how many of each type of bird I saw. Now I know that you often need to estimate the number, but still this seems very difficult. I recently went to Black Water and saw hundreds of Canada Geese. I also saw big black clouds of Starlings and huge flocks of Red-winged Black Birds. My group also encountered two Golden Eagles flying. Later, after driving in the direction the birds were flying, we saw a Golden Eagle on the ground eating a duck. I am looking for guidance. How do you accurately estimate very large numbers of birds? Is there a good rule of thumb? Are there Christmas Bird Count guidelines? My dad said that we may have to count a portion of the flock, for example one quarter or one tenth, and then calculate from there. This seems both difficult - especially when they are in flight - and could be way off. And, what do you do when you think you may have seen the same bird twice? Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance Sincerely, Jordan Rutter Wheaton, MD -- _______________________________ http://www.pogo.org Project On Government Oversight POGO investigates, exposes, and seeks to remedy systemic abuses of power, mismanagement, and subservience by the federal government to powerful special interests. POGO is a politically-independent, nonprofit watchdog that strives to promote a government that is accountable to the citizenry. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================