Thanks, Beth! I just added that to the public documents folder for our
Kingsville count.
On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 9:15 PM, Beth McBroom <bethmcb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ever had that conversation with a group of birders about "how many?" while
viewing a large flock of birds? Seems like we get as many different
answers as there are birders and the answers often greatly vary.
David Sibley has written an article about estimating numbers of birds in
flocks. He includes hints for estimating birds in large, dense, streaming
and mixed flocks and psychological research on the subject. He also
includes quizzes for practicing or testing your ability to estimate.
From the article: Estimating numbers in the field is one of the many
challenges facing birders, and research has shown that most of us are not
particularly good at it, and not just wrong but inconsistent to boot.
Fortunately, there are some simple tips and techniques that can help.
Several studies suggest that we could be more accurate and more consistent
in our estimates simply by referring to images with a known number of dots.
This allows us to "recalibrate" our number sense, and make better
judgements about how many birds we are seeing (lots more details below).
Here's the link:
http://www.sibleybirds.com/w/index.php?title=Estimating_numbers
Happy birding!
And Merry Christmas!
âBeth McBroom
Helotes, TX
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