9/26  Many of us struggle over quickly and accurately estimating numbers of birds in a flock. While conducting a Christmas Bird Count, how many Canada Geese just flew by? The numbers of Tree Swallows that roost at night along the CT River in fall are beyond comprehension. On a recent boat cruise, I heard estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1 million.  That's a large range of estimates. Well, I just saw on the Maine birding list-serve (ABA Birding News) postings by Jan Pierson and Peter Vickery, providing a link to Martin Reid's website that has a terrific exercise in estimating flocks of birds (or butterflies, etc.). He provides numerous photographs of bird flocks in real-life conditions. Make a quick estimate, then click on the image to reveal the actual number; hit the back button to return to the next photo. http://www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/estimatingind.html Give it a try. Practice makes perfect. Thank you Martin for providing this. If you think you have a grasp on estimating numbers, then I dare you to estimate the number of Tree Swallows in my photos, here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/avocetfm/albums/72157658283822659 Good birding, Frank Mantlik Stratford

Thank you, Frank, for the link Marty swanhall Torrington Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 26, 2015, at 10:15 AM, Frank Mantlik via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > 9/26 > Many of us struggle over quickly and accurately estimating numbers of birds in a flock. While conducting a Christmas Bird Count, how many Canada Geese just flew by? The numbers of Tree Swallows that roost at night along the CT River in fall are beyond comprehension. On a recent boat cruise, I heard estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1 million. That's a large range of estimates. > > Well, I just saw on the Maine birding list-serve (ABA Birding News) postings by Jan Pierson and Peter Vickery, providing a link to Martin Reid's website that has a terrific exercise in estimating flocks of birds (or butterflies, etc.). > He provides numerous photographs of bird flocks in real-life conditions. Make a quick estimate, then click on the image to reveal the actual number; hit the back button to return to the next photo. > > http://www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/estimatingind.html > Give it a try. Practice makes perfect. Thank you Martin for providing this. > If you think you have a grasp on estimating numbers, then I dare you to estimate the number of Tree Swallows in my photos, here: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/avocetfm/albums/72157658283822659 > > Good birding, > Frank Mantlik > Stratford > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org