[Birdtalk] Counting Birds

[jbloft]

Thanks to all for the info on bird counting techniques.

The other day I was in Hyrum and went down by the old Tri Miller feed lot. 
I couldn't believe the number of starlings in the area.   In the one spot 
when they were spooked the sky turned black.  My problem of counting 150 or 
so birds of  8 species at home seemed simple when compared to attempting to 
count those starlings.

There was one bunch in a tree and I tried to count them, came up with about 
500.  When they flew I got a visual of the size of the flock of about 500. 
Then when I saw other flocks flying I said that is twice as many or 5 time 
as many.  Just judging by my visual impression of the flock of 500 I came up 
to 5500 starlings for the count.   Nothing scientific about it, but it is as 
good as I could do.

Oh well, I could have just said a Gazillion starlings.

Great Birding

Jim