The other issue I’ve been wondering about is counts of migrating birds crossing the count circle, in particular migrating swans this year. Perhaps this was addressed at the compilation dinner, otherwise I suspect the 396 total that Dave posted in his quick summary involves flocks being counted multiple times. Unless flock size and timing is noted, I don’t see how this can be avoided except perhaps if we take the highest count by one survey party.
While covering section VI, I noted southbound swan flocks of 19, 15, 29, and 53 between 2:15 and 3PM (I have exact times and trajectories if anybody’s interested). All these flocks likely passed over sections VIII & IX and some would have been visible from sections V & VII. Unless redundant counts were somehow culled out at the compilation, I wouldn’t be surprised if these four flocks made up the bulk of the 396 swans in Dave’s quick summary. Typically in the past we’ve had no substantial visible migration on count days, though I remember one year more than a decade ago when the count coincided with the passage of a brutal cold front and there was massive southbound evacuation of 1000s of Canvasback and other Aythya. As I recall, there wasn’t a problem in double counting that year because only one party in section VIII happened to witness the event. Bill E -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
