ML616821543

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

The dark smudge is all blackbirds , harder to see toward the right of the tower but it's solid blackbirds all the way across the frame. Birds are at a distance of about 3.75 miles. Photos were difficult due to distance and low light.

Observation details

Massive flyout from roost, the most birds I have ever seen at one time. Megaflock departed south just at sunrise but a few tens of thousands still leaving at 7:40, over 50k at 7:45, and a large group of a few hundred thousand leaving right as I was wrapping up. Due to low light and the waves of birds first thing it was difficult to use any rigorous counting methods, but I kept a rough running tally. Most of the birds departed in the span of a few minutes at sunrise so it was difficult to do much more than guess. However, on a recent evening I made a more rigorous estimate of 2.5M using rates of passage since it was one continuous ribbon for forty minutes. On a subsequent morning (1/12) after making this checklist I used a totally different method, counting groups/waves as they departed the roost, and estimated 2.75M. The day of this checklist (1/9) was the biggest I have seen it, so the slightly higher number makes sense, if not an undercount relative to those other counts. Had I not had a lot of other experience with this roost to use as a measuring stick, I would not have been able to come up with an estimate that had any reasonable level of confidence. Notably, I have been monitoring the radar to check on the blackbird roost and the radar last night was the strongest I’ve seen, which was what encouraged me to come down here this morning, so I was not surprised by the large number this morning. The roost has been consistently large this winter, but last winter I saw it as small as 40k, so it’s worth keeping tabs on this roost and seeing how it changes month to month and year to year. As always for such a big number it is difficult to come up with precise estimates. However, having checked out this roost on numerous occasions now from various vantage points, and having used several different methods to estimate (rate of passage aided by video review, counting in segments aided by photo/video review, and good old fashioned eyeballing) I think we’re in the right ballpark. I encourage others to spend time documenting large blackbird roosts at various times using various counting techniques, as most large blackbird roosts are poorly documented. The massive murmurations is a remarkable spectacle worth seeing. Video showing some of the strands later in the morning right before I left, when some of the birds came a bit closer, before I had to relocate my car:

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX70 HS

Lens

3.8-247mm

ISO

800

Focal length

121.4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/13 sec

Dimensions

5184 pixels x 3888 pixels

Original file size

6.09 MB