I can understand both sides of this discussion to a certain extent. I have
used “conservative count” at times when I perhaps shouldhave used “conservative
estimate” or simply “estimate”.
However, I cansympathize with Reuben’s LeConte’s Sparrow illustration. There
isa difference between counting Coots in a small pond and counting anynumber of
birds, even large and solitary ones, in a refuge in whichthe trails sometimes
criss-cross in a figure eight pattern because oflevees or other features, and
the birds are flying back and forthacross the refuge. You can have an “exact
count” of 55 birdswhen there are only 15 on the refuge. You may have counted
exactly55, but you suspect that there are actually somewhere between 10 and30.
So you give a “conservative estimate” of 15. Or perhaps youknow that there are
at least 15, and you have counted what you arereasonably certain is the same
group of 15 three times: therefore 45birds “counted”, but in reality only 15
birds. Then you see anadditional 10 birds that may or may not be part of the
same group. Do you count them or not? There are either 15 or 25 birds on
therefuge. Opting for the conservative side, you report a “conservativecount”
of 15.
On the hand, I don’toften use a mobile app, mainly because I often have to go
back homeand examine photos or voice recordings to determine whether it was
aGreater Scaup or a Lesser Scaup, a Common Tern or a Forster’s Tern,a Louisiana
Waterthrush or a Swainson’s Warbler. Therefore I don’thave to report
“approximately 247” birds. I can round up or downwhen I add things up and type
in my report. This helps resolve themathematical monstrosity of significant
figures. On this I cansympathize with the article to which Scott linked and the
concept ofsignificant figures and false precision.
I once saw a largeflock of turkeys in a field. I counted them. There were 100.
Not99; not 101. There were 100. Sigh… I looked for a while tryingto come up
with 101, but to no avail. So I noted “exact count”on my report. It happens.
Do the best that youcan. Nobody is going to put you in jail for missing it by a
few. Good birding.
Randy WinsteadMaryville, Blount County
On Monday, December 16, 2019, 09:56:09 PM EST, Ruben Stoll
<birdchaserrws@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
For those of you that find the term “conservative count” or “conservative
estimate” confusing, here is what they mean to me, and I actually find them
quite useful. (I’ve personally never heard of a “liberal count” so I’ll just
leave that term to you liberals).
CONSERVATIVE COUNT: I’m walking through a field of Leconte’s Sparrow habitat
and I count 39 Leconte’s Sparrows flushing ahead of me over the course of 20
minutes as I walk all the way across the field. 18 of them come back up exactly
where they had dropped in earlier, and therefore are most likely the same birds
being counted again. I throw those out as recounts. That leaves 21 different
birds, but out of those 21, another 6 could easily have run a ways and been
counted again when they flew a second time. I throw those out as well. That
leaves 15 birds that flew back around or far enough to the side to be confirmed
as “different” birds. The count is therefore 15. This is a conservative count.
It’s not a 1 by 1 count. That’s usually not possible in field conditions. It’s
not an accurate count. That would be much higher.
CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE: I didn’t take the time to count the Mallards along
Refuge Road today because I didn’t have time. (If I did I would accomplish
little else). Two weeks ago I did try to count them by 10s, 50s, 100s,
(They’re scattered everywhere) and I came up with 6,000 though that count could
easily be off by several thousand. Today I’m pretty sure the numbers are
still just as high as they were last time I was here, and might be anywhere
from 4,000 to 20,000 along Refuge Road. So I take the low number and report
4,000 as a conservative estimate. It’s definitely not a count and it’s also not
accurate but it’s better than an x and it’s an amount that I can easily verify
if necessary. (Of course, on a Christmas Bird Count I usually don’t get off
this easily).
Something else that I noticed happens a lot if you actually get out there in
real life. At least it happens to me: I start an ebird checklist. Three
Starlings fly over, so I enter 3 Starlings. Ten more Starlings fly over so I
enter 10 more. 15 minutes later a big flock of Starlings comes through, all
headed in the same direction. I frantically count Starlings by tens, and I
round it off to 500, which I think was reasonably accurate. Unfortunately, now
I have a grand total of 513 European Starlings, and it’s flagged on ebird. I
realize this is an irritating number for some people but it’s the closest I
could get and I really don’t have time to go back and take off those first
three birds. This happens all the time when using the mobile app. If you guys
wanna quibble about these numbers you clearly have more time on your hands than
I do. Ruben Stoll, Centerville Tennessee.
On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 10:50 PM Scott Somershoe <ssomershoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All,Here is a good essay on how to count and report birds for your eBird lists.
There are a few specific points in here that rise to the top during CBC time,
especially when counting large flocks of birds and reporting a “conservative
count or estimate” of which no count is conservative not liberal. I encourage
you all to read this. It’s great!
http://cowyebird.blogspot.com/2019/12/details-provided-about-counting.html?m=1
Scott SomershoeLittleton CO
Sent from my iPhone
