An ideal seawatch on a day of heavy movement would involve a small team of
observers, with one observer counting ducks, one alcids, one divers etc. That
would slow down the relative “flow” of numbers for any one observer. The
numbers are usually vastly higher than any hawk watch, and sheer volume is a
problem even to the best identifier.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
On Nov 2, 2015, at 4:35 AM, Tim Rodenkirk <timrodenkirk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Like a hawk watch maybe then? With people with clickers! Yep, I have seen
days were scads of birds go bye, it is hard counting numbers for sure.
Although Red-necked Phalaropes are rare in November, there are a few Coos
records seen by reliable observers (early November). So I guess I wonder
about not having any Red-neckeds if there are thousands of phalaropes, it is
safe to assume all our Reds including the ones you don't see so well?
Probably since the majority would likely be Reds...
I was compiling some of the south coast field note data yesterday and was
amazed at the number of BV Shearwater observations in Coos/Curry this fall.
Most years we have a few Manx Shearwater observations- I haven't seen any
this fall. OBRC took them off the review list because they are so regular.
Anyhow, seeing tens of small white-bellied shearwaters at one time lately
makes one pretty sure they are likely Black-venteds. But a single
observation of a distant bird could be either (you can't tell vent color when
they are way out). Wonder how OBRC will handle it? I say this as I have
seen some Black-venteds close with what appeared to be dark vents and many
more that were well, way out but likely that species. Should be a fun one for
OBRC although I imagine not everyone sends in reports.
An amazing day at Boiler Bay for sure!
Tim R
Coos Bay
On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 7:43 PM, W. Douglas Robinson
<w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Tim,
I didn't really understand the value of Phil's approach either until I spent
several hours sea watching Boiler Bay one busy day. The volume is too much to
handle. If one spends several hours watching, you really do end up needing a
way to estimate based on rates of birds moving. It's inexact, for sure. One
hopes to be in the ballpark of at least rank ordering species numbers
correctly and giving some idea of volume.
Other solutions are: have a team of counters with mechanical clickers so that
each observer can focus on particular species groups; count in shorter time
intervals and scatter counts thru the morning. I do 15 min counts. It's about
as long as I can focus and keep 25 species worth of numbers in my head, while
also looking for the rare stuff. I do use a fair number of spuhs.
Probably some other fine solutions out there, too.
Doug
