Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 22:03:56 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rich Dolesh Subject: Re: Counting Birds In-Reply-To: <3C76CD1A.D22B98B2@pogo.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Jordan, I'll give you one more method that builds on those suggested by Norm and Jordan: Start with the idea that you are going to break up a large flock into small pieces and count the birds in just that one piece. Randomly pick a small portion of a flock of birds that you can reasonably estimate. It may be 5, 10, 20, or 50. (Less of a grouping won't help you count a very large group of birds quickly, and more than 50 at a time gets pretty iffy). I have found that if I start at the left of my field of view, decide on the size of the subset that I am going to use as a comparison estimate, then I can quickly scan from left to right superimposing that size of subset on the flock that I trying to count. If I am looking at a group of about 100 birds, and I choose 10 as a subset, I can pretty reliably chop up a flock into ten pieces of equal size and get a fairly accurate estimate by scanning and counting. I have used this method with a number of species of birds, and it works pretty well. If you practice with a small size flock, you can check your estimates by actually counting all the birds after you "guestimate" and compare results. You will soon feel confident that you can estimate flock size fairly well. Good luck--you write well for a sixth grader! Rich Dolesh Aquasco, MD. -----Original Message----- From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM]On Behalf Of Keith Rutter 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================