Gooney Birds, Flocks and Murmurations.......
I have been playing about with the bit of bird-counting software that i linked on a previous post.
It works best on aerial flocks with no buildings or vegetation to clutter up the readings imo. Removal of unwanted areas can be attempted with the options available but i prefer to put the image in Photoshop, crop the unwanted areas and then analyze as will be explained. I made the mistake on my initial image of
Knot by reading the wrong table which gave me
255, when i did another photo it gave the same reading when it was patently obvious that it was far more birds. I should have been reading the left hand side of the statistics which also gives a corresponding number to every bird/group contained within the image. As stated the upper limit is 30k so an image estimated to contain more individuals than this should be enlarged and then broken down into chunks for analysis. Bear in mind that 'clumps' of birds will be ascribed a single number so concentrations of, for example, a
Starling roost might contain several hundred individuals if the picture is taken at some distance. Large groups like this can be isolated, enlarged (if the definition allows) and analysed independently of the main image - like the birds, those Winter evenings will just fly
5 examples, including the original Knot image are reproduced at the end of the post but here are the details.....
The first image is of the Knot flock with the revised number of birds which was
1822!
The second image is of a flock of
Starlings, note the concentration towards the right-hand end and in particular one dense area. The reading gave me
5022 birds this will be a minimum.
Image number 3 is of a loose flock of larger birds with far fewer individuals to contend with and yielded
130.
Pictures 4/5 is of a party of
Red-Billed Queleas flocking around a water hole in South Africa. Reproduced here is the original image which shows background scrub which also contains flying birds. I was intrigued as to what the software was going to do with this one. It gave me a reading of
4604 birds. I then put the image on Photoshop, cut out just the birds above the tree-line and then pasted the image onto a plain Blue background (which bears an uncanny resemblance to Australia?). The re-analysed image gave an estimate of
4127 - nearly
500 less, were these birds, little branches, leaves? Hard to say but an interesting excercise. Both images are reproduced here.
Further to the
Laysan Albatross. The island in question was
Midway, i should have remembered that from the War film section of my head! Midway was the turning point in the Pacific conflict when the US Navy sunk a number of Japanese aircraft carriers thus gaining air superiority then the writing was on the wall and from that day the Rising Sun was on the wane. The Yanks established an airfield on Midway but had constant trouble with returning Laysan Albatrosses (they initially shot a lot of them:C) They nick-named them.....
Gooney Birds because of their landing style and their nuptial displays. To think that the bird in question nested there in
1951 and is still able to synthesise Calcium.
I take my hat off to her and feel suitably humbled.
The Guardians take.....
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/albatross-aged-62-hatches-chick
The birds themselves.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxwIk3prdDI
Midway for the military-minded.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway
A bit self-indulgent but a scene from
Steven Spielbergs'
'Empire of the Sun' where Jamie, the schoolboy (played by an incredibly young Christian Bale), whilst working on the new airfield with other ex-pat conscript labour is drawn to the repair facilities on the far side and despite being challenged by a guard is shown mutual respect by soon-to-be Kamikaze (Divine Wind) pilots, bonded by their shared love of both flying and aircraft.....enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ1wE7Fx9a8
It's the time of year for
'murmurations'. I have little time for this Victorian habit of collective nouning of birds based on human perception. The term for these large, seasonal gatherings of Starlings is, for me, an exception. The term is very apt and its' etymology is probably from the low murmur or grumbling that the flocks make whilst wheeling around in pre-roost flocks or mobbing a predator intent on a last snack.
Here is a link to the BBC's Dylan Winter with his local murmuration somewhere down South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88UVJpQGi88
I shall be posting, with the estimated number of birds, a murmuration of the day (probably every other day) when suitable images from this seasons birds are found. I have to follow up a local roost i was told about in Cradley asap.
Laurie:t:
Below - Knot, Starlings, flock and both Quelea images.