Counting finches

An experienced birder once told me that we underestimate the number of birds in flocks, except when it comes to cranes where we overestimate it. This because cranes are big and fly in loose flocks, so the flocks look very large despite not being composed of that many birds. But anyway, it wasn't cranes I was going to talk about, but those smaller ones.

So, how many birds do you think there are in this picture?


Mostly Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) with some Common Redpolls (Carduelis flammea). Trekanten, Storvreta, December 27 2010.

The answer is 1358. (Well, approximately. Some might be a bit hidden in the photo and hard to see.) That's quite a lot of birds! Taking photos and counting birds on them are a very good way to more accurately assess the number of them than simply trying to approximate when you're out, at least if you're not an experienced bird-counter. I assume there are some people who count birds who can approximate correctly, but I can't.

But counting from a photo also seems like hard work. How do you know you haven't counted that little bird twice? The answer os very simple. Open the picture in Photoshop or similar (I use Gimp), put a grid over the picture, and use the paint tool to simply put a little dot of colour on every bird that has been counted. Count one square in the grid at a time, and note the number. This way you won't count anything twice, and if you get tired you can stop half-way through and continue later.

This is what my photo looked like when I was done: (this is the uncropped picture, the above one is cropped. So, eh, the above picture does not have 1358 birds in it, but a little less. The majority of birds are still there though, maybe 1250-1300 or so. My point still holds!)



The grid isn't shown since it was a feature in the program and not part of the picture. I just painted the number in each grid square, I'm sure some people can write down the numbers in a better way, but this worked for me. After I was done I simple added all the numbers I'd written down, and presto! I had the number of birds in the picture.
Of course I might have missed some birds, and maybe counted one too many somewhere where it was a bit hard to see, but the number should at least be more correct than me trying to approximate just using my eyes. Since this was a mixed flock of course it is a bit harder to tell how many of each species, but I approximated the Goldfinches to be about 80% with the rest being Common Redpolls (and a few other species in such low numbers I could count them, such as seven Twites, three Siskins and a single Linnet.)

I won't pretend it's not a bit tedious sitting there putting dots of paint on each and every bird in the picture though... ;-)


Part of the flock. Trekanten, Storvreta, December 27 2010.

Winter's day

Took a little walk over to mum's place this morning, to get her car. On the way I passed the feeding station in Stabby Backe, which I like to watch now and then. Nothing really special about, the usual Greenfinches, Yellowhammers, Bullfinches and tits milling around. A sharp "pix" alerted me to a male Hawfinch up in a tree. They always seem much shyer than the other birds, and he never came to the feeders while I was there.


Stabby Backe, the feeding station is in the clump of trees behind the gate.

In the afternoon drove to Storvreta, just outside Uppsala, where a huge flock of Goldfinches mixed with Redpolls had been seen. Saw two cars with birders parked by a small road, so drove there, and immediately got on to a Merlin up in a tree. Brilliant! It got chased off by a Kestrel after a short while, and started to hunt the large finch flock there. I've never seen so many Goldfinches in my life, there were at least 500 of them, probably more. And earlier in the day there had been as many as a thousand! Amongst them were loads of Common Redpolls, and we managed to find one certain and one possible Arctic in the flock when they landed in a tree. A Rough-legged Buzzard also passed by.


Merlin (Falco columbarius), Lilla Skärna, Storvreta. Very bad picture, it was the best I could do at a distance and freezing my fingers off!

Drove on a little bit and took off onto a small road on the other side of the main road, and drove along it a kilometer or two. At the end of the road found another birder I know, and chatted a bit while watching a Rough-legged Buzzard in a tree. A male Pheasant looked cold under a bush, a few Roe Deer where hiding in the snow, and then suddenly the finch flock appeared with the Merlin in close pursuit. The falcon managed to separate a Goldfinch from the rest of the flock, and chased after it at breathtaking speed and agility. The Goldfinch managed to escape into a tree though and the Merlin landed in top of a larch looking rather disappointed. Very cool to see it hunt at those speeds, and very close to us.

Eagle vs Goose

Went through some old photos on the computer, and found this video that I uploaded to Youtube. It's a White-tailed Eagle plucking a Greylag Goose, filmed by my brother (mobile phone through scope) at Kvismaren, Närke. We had gone out for a little birding, trying to show my brother and his girlfriend (who are not birders) some birds. We never thought we would see something like this!



The goose was fighting for its life, and the whole thing went on for at least 25 minutes. You can hear my brother in the film being totally struck by the whole thing.

Winter

Winter arrived all of a sudden, and now we've entered that period when days are short and birds are scarce. But certainly not all gone! Some of my friends are surprised when I tell them I go out birding in winter as well, "surely there aren't any birds around now?"

Oh how wrong they are! Now is the time for going out to the large plains around Uppsala, searching for Golden Eagles, those most majestic of birds. Some people are really lucky, seeing them chase after rabbits, something I have yet to see. I've been learning how to tell their age though, it's very interesting and it feels as it lends more to the observation when I'm able to tell that the eagle flying past us is three years old.
On the plains you can also find large flocks of Yellowhammers and Redpolls, and it's usually rewarding to look through them for rarer species. A few weeks ago I had both Lapland and Snow Bunting in amongst the Yellowhammers, and yesterday an Arctic Redpoll among the Common ones.

The forests can also be rewarding at this time, although it's often hard work and there's been times when I've come back having seen like two Blue Tits and nothing else. On a good day (with a bit of luck) there might be wonderful birds such as Black Grouses, Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Pygmy Owls, Pine Grosbeaks, all kinds of Crossbills and, if you just travel a bit north to Gästrikland, Siberian Jays.


Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), male, Kittan, Gästrikland, 7/11-2010

Of course, one might want to stay in the city. Not to fear, Uppsala has it's very own Peregrine, which seems to favour the cathedral this year. I haven't seen it so far, but mom saw it a while back, and other people have seen it hunting around the cathedral. Just next to the cathedral is the Uppland museum, where a Dipper can often be found in the rapid waters of the river Fyris. Both Sparrowhawk and Goshawk can be seen chasing pigeons and smaller birds, and it can sometimes pay off having a look at the Mallards in the Swan Pond (which they must rename when the last swan, Alexander, dies...), I had a Wigeon there a few weeks ago.
The Ural Owl that moved into town two winters ago sadly perished in the following summer, but last year eight Long-eared Owls could be seen in some gardens in central Uppsala.

So, no birds in winter? Nothing could be further from the truth! And I haven't even mentioned the Waxwings, coming here in large flocks from the north; or the likewise northernly Rough-legged Buzzards, seen hovering over the plains; or the elusive Short-eared Owls that can sometimes be seen hunting voles at Årike Fyris; or the occasional rarity that might turn up at birdfeeders anywhere...


Marsh Tit (Parus palustris), not at all uncommon at bird tables. Hjälstaviken 22/10 2010