ML612978684

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

After a question from admin James Eaton for more information about this high number of individuals for this site: I filled in this checklist 8 yrs after the trip, so my memories are not very precise. I however remember that we saw quite some, that they were very much out in the open (see pic) and there were more together than I'd ever seen before. I have checked three sources: my old notebook (where the 35 comes from), my trip report (mentions 'dozens') and my mate's notes (mentions 40; see https://observation.org/observation/108879060/ ). So yes, quite a few must have been present! I'm sure we did not count them 1 by 1 (hence the difference between 35 and 40), but most likely we have estimated the number by using 'blocks' of five birds, like we do more often with larger flocks when we have little time, or when we just want to have an estimate instead of a 'true' number (like here). I'd like to stress that counting birds is what we do. A very considerble amount of our birding time (>half of it) is about counting migration (in terms of nrs on the single best autumn vis mig site in all of NW Europe), breeding birds and wintering water birds. My point being: counting is a second nature and therefore I truly believe the number mentioned here is an estimation close to rality. Pic is a digiscoped one from Gerjon. Only one bird on it, but it shows how easy they were to see, with also several running away from us from under the boardwalk.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 5s

Lens

iPhone 5s back camera 4.15mm f/2.2

ISO

32

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/2.2

Shutter speed

1/733 sec

Dimensions

1600 pixels x 1069 pixels

Original file size

998.4 KB