ML217396311
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
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Media notes
Group of 250 in one tree. Another group of 50 joined them halfway through
Observation details
Large numbers coming into a night roost. Roughly 5,000 blackbirds flying overhead in groups sizing from 10 to 500 for the early minutes of our observation period, but significant movement picked up towards the last minutes of our observation period. Steady stream approximation by counting the birds streaming along the horizon for 10 seconds and extrapolating for the total time of the stream. In 10 seconds, we were counted between 1,000 and 1,500 mainly RWBL moving. The total flight lasted three minutes in this flux. That estimates between 18,000 and 27,000 blackbirds moving for just those three minutes. The flight never entirely stopped, as more birds came into the saltmarsh and surrounding trees for the rest of our observation. I would feel comfortable taking the same numerical amount counted in the stream and adding that to the total to account for the smaller groups moving around. This produces a total estimate of between 41,000 and 50,000. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. Photos of parts to come
Technical information
- Recorder
- Tascam DRMKIII
- Microphone
- Wildtronics Mono
- Accessories
- Wildtronics Parabolic Reflector
- Original file size
- 11.54 MB