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Guess the number of Geese (1 Viewer)

Jonny721

Well-known member
Just a quick one as I'm interested to see what people guess. I photographed this flock of Pink Footed Geese on my local patch a couple of weeks ago and I took an estimate for the number of birds present. However I just took a count using this photo and was surprised by the actual number. How many do people think are present in the photo?

2.JPG

Cheers Jonny
 
I think I would have guessed 800 in real life, I'm sure there are more than that, shows again how easy it is to get estimates wrong.
 
450
485
700
800
950
1000
1200
1400

A wide range of answers showing how hard it can be to estimate numbers in bird flocks! I estimated around 500-550 birds present however in the photo I counted 1036 birds in all.
 
A very interesting thread Jonny,

My initial estimate was of c400 birds but as I scrolled down the page I realsied how off track I was.

This also goes to prove how easy it is to make underestimations!

I had a similar experience last year. I along with some other birders were duck watching at one of our local patches. A large flock of Garganeys flew over. Fixing our eyes to our scopes we agreed that there were around c500 birds in that flock. Luckily my friend had taken a photograph and did precisly what you did-he recounted the birds in the comfort of his home. Through the recounting we got to know that the flock had over a 1000 birds and not 500 as we previously taught!

It also shows how important technology can be when used well. Taking photographs of such scenes can help in getting the counts more accurate

Cheers
skylark25
 
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