Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: jwolf

How do you know all the birds of one type were distinct? Or does it matter?

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

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ORIGINAL: jwolf

How do you know all the birds of one type were distinct? Or does it matter?

The rule is that you count the largest number of whatever species you can see at one time. Therefor you must positively identify every individual you are counting. For practical purposes, if you can't certify that a bird was a female House Finch versus a female House Sparrow, you can't count it at all. Today I was dead certain I saw two female House Finches at the same time. There were scores of small birds out there at the same time and there was no way I could count them all. I could only count the ones I could positively identify and tally the largest number of them that I could see and identify at the same time.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I try and identify gender in species that are sexually dimorphic, but today was a dreary day and the lighting was inadequate to confidently make such identification comprehensively. Meaning I had difficulty telling female House Sparrows from House Finches and they were flitting about back and forth and here to fro and I could only count them if I could positively identify them, and in today's lighting that meant getting a clear look at them through binoculars, and there were just too many of them today. So I wrote down what I was absolutely sure of and that will be collated with what I see tomorrow. I got a pretty good representations of the usual suspects but had a highly unusual visitor as well. I've only laid eyeballs on one of this species once before, not saying it isn't common, it ranges over both North and South America, I just haven't seen it and known what I was seeing but once before. It just came in to get a sip of water from one of my bird baths, but frightened off about 14 Mourning Doves that were foraging in my yard. It's certainly big enough to take a dove but mostly feeds on songbirds and small rodents. A beautiful bird, an American Kestrel. It was at my bird bath so shortly that I barely put my binocs on it and it flew off. I dearly would have liked to get a pic of it. Here's a couple of pics I Googled so you could see what a gorgeous babe it is.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Orm needs his fix.

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Heisenbird's uncertainty principle

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ORIGINAL: witpqs

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Heisenbird's uncertainty principle

Fixed your caption for you.

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ORIGINAL: Zorch

We are not amused.

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ORIGINAL: Orm

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

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ORIGINAL: jwolf

How do you know all the birds of one type were distinct? Or does it matter?

The rule is that you count the largest number of whatever species you can see at one time. Therefor you must positively identify every individual you are counting. For practical purposes, if you can't certify that a bird was a female House Finch versus a female House Sparrow, you can't count it at all. Today I was dead certain I saw two female House Finches at the same time. There were scores of small birds out there at the same time and there was no way I could count them all. I could only count the ones I could positively identify and tally the largest number of them that I could see and identify at the same time.

Thank you for sharing this. And your figures above.

I am somewhat surprised that you didn't have to report the largest total number of birds you could see at the same time.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Let me check my records ...

Yes, here is one. There were a bunch of birds, I can recall lots of doves and sparrows and finches. Then a flock of starlings arrived. I'm quite sure there were 99 birds total, or at least that number anyway.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Here's a sheet from last season. The "T" figure by House Finch is the total number I saw but I was unable to say how many males and how many females. I did note how many of each I was able to identify at the same time. I don't even try on the Juncos though if in sunlight and if I get a good look through the binocs I can tell. When I enter the counts online and I enter a count for any species of finch it asks me if I checked for an eye disease that's been going around and I report any cases. I've never actually seen one with the disease. I sometimes take pictures as my camera has more zoom in it than my binocs. I mention gender counts in a comments section. There's also a way to cite instances of conflict, either predation attempts or displacement from a feeder spot, IDing each species involved, whether the attempt was successful, and any description I might want to add. I usually don't do that except in exceptional cases as there are just hundreds of such on a given day, and they want each distinct event recorded uniquely. But they only ask you to do that if you feel like it.

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ORIGINAL: witpqs

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Here's a sheet from last season. The "T" figure by House Finch is the total number I saw but I was unable to say how many males and how many females. I did note how many of each I was able to identify at the same time. I don't even try on the Juncos though if in sunlight and if I get a good look through the binocs I can tell. When I enter the counts online and I enter a count for any species of finch it asks me if I checked for an eye disease that's been going around and I report any cases. I've never actually seen one with the disease. I sometimes take pictures as my camera has more zoom in it than my binocs. I mention gender counts in a comments section. There's also a way to cite instances of conflict, either predation attempts or displacement from a feeder spot, IDing each species involved, whether the attempt was successful, and any description I might want to add. I usually don't do that except in exceptional cases as there are just hundreds of such on a given day, and they want each distinct event recorded uniquely. But they only ask you to do that if you feel like it.

So they have symbols for male, female, and "T". What is "T"?

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Did you make that yourself MakeeLearn? That's hilarious.