The Results Are In!

Thanks everyone for taking part in the Linnet count game, I've enjoyed watching the different estimates come in. I've had 35 responses in all, varying from 450 - 1500 birds. Here's the pic again...

So what do the guesstimates look like?  Well I've quickly put this little bar chart together, which I hope makes sense. I have rounded all guesses up/down to the nearest '50' to neaten it up...

As you can see the most popular estimate was the 600 bracket (575-624), with 800 being the second favoured. The 500-700 range received 60% of votes, with the average of all answers working out at 688.  And the answer? Well I took a series of three photos just after I took the above pic, slightly more zoomed in. I have since stitched them together and counted...

After each '00' I changed colour, except for the turquoise on the right, that's 45 birds. Which means the answer is 845 Linnet! Although to be pedantic, in the original photo there's clearly still a few birds flying in, about 15, so 830 would also be correct.  But as I was only after estimates, anyone guessing 800-850 is a winner for me, so well done @bucko41 @CharmouthBirder @cornishbirder @freddyalway @surreywallcreep and @WhitleyBirder.

It's been a bit of a wake up call for me though. I often have to count lots and quickly, and whenever I double check (with photos) I'm always there or there abouts. But my god, I was way out with these! And I think I know why...

Pretty much all occasions I've had to conduct quick mass counts involve larger birds, mostly wading birds and wildfowl, also Wood Pigeons and Starlings/thrushes. And I seem to be able to mass count large numbers of these just fine, but my eye is clearly simply untrained to big numbers of small birds. And thinking about it some more, I'm not surprised, because how often do we see large flocks of finches/buntings these days? Anything up to 250/300 I would count bird by bird, and I can't think of many occasions that I've had a single flock of 300+ small passerines to count!

There were 900-950 Linnet in total in this field, just west of Greendale Farm Shop, which I was really impressed about. A truly massive gathering. I would love to have access to this field and have the chance to give the place a good grilling. With that many birds about, who knows what else could be lurking in there...

Thanks again everyone for getting involved. Those of you that were brave enough anyway :)

A Counting Conundrum and Cattle Egret

So what are your counting skills like? Or estimating skills I should say... We popped into Greendale Farm Shop today (along the A3052 near Westpoint) and I was astonished to see the number of Linnets feeding in a neighboring field. I estimated 500 birds when I quickly counted this flock perched up, but what do you think?

I'll post the answer in a blog post on Sunday night, but before that I'd love to read your guesstimates. And I don't mean sit there and count them one by one, take a quick look, count them like you would a large flock of moving birds in the field, and let me know what number you come up with. Be so interesting to see the variation in responses. Is my 500 bang on the money, or would you go higher or lower?

I've been off work this week, and for the last few nights have been trying to get to grips with the Egret roost, but I've kept missing them! They keep switching sides, one night roosting on the Borrow Pit then the next night roosting in Axmouth - and I kept picking the wrong side!  Tonight finally I was in the right spot, and at Axmouth one Cattle Egret (which I reckon is a wintering bird that's been with us since Nov 2017, just been spending the day time north of the patch) and 48 Little Egrets came into roost.

Also tonight there were good numbers of large gulls on the lower Estuary at dusk. Sadly there was nothing better in them than this dodgy looking third-winter (I think) hybrid-type...

And lastly, Sue Murphy saw the two Musbury Hawfinch this afternoon, both from the car park near the Church.  Delighted that someone else has managed to catch up with them.

Right then, get guesstimating folks...