[TN-Bird] Additional link of interest

From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:35:03 +0000

I meant to include this link the other day, but I guess I'm a little sleep 
deprived and forgetful.

David Sibley regularly posts bird ID quizzes and other interesting articles.  A 
couple days ago there were quizzes on estimating numbers of birds, but he used 
lentils on a white piece of paper that look like a flock.  There's several 
examples over two days (scroll down on the page a bit to find them).  This is a 
very useful tool to practice estimating birds (or lentils) in flocks of 100-250 
(which you can extrapolate out to bigger flocks).  There is also some 
discussion on how to approach counting flocks, which can be very helpful as 
none of us are very good at counting big flocks!
http://www.sibleyguides.com/

For what it is worth, I tried estimating the lentils by groups of 10 and did a 
"count" of the "flock" very quickly.  It was a quick estimate and I treated it 
as I would handle a flock of waxwings or blackbirds flying by.  I was correct 
1/3 of the time (some errors were for flocks that were 140  and I estimated 150 
birds, which isn't too bad in my mind), but was about 20-30% low (if not lower) 
for the biggest flocks.  Although this is just a simple test, it confirms my 
thought/suspicion that I am NOT overestimating big flocks of birds.  I'm almost 
certainly underestimating (sometimes by a large percentage), which is 
definitely better than overestimating.   Time for more practice.

Now we need Sibley to put out 1000-10000 lentils and test us again!  Good 
learning experience.

Cheers,
Scott Somershoe

State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (office)
615-781-6654 (fax)

[TN-Bird] Additional link of interest

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