Thursday, February 4, 2010

Bird brains

 
Waxwings over Tranquille


It was bugging me. Really bugging me. My friend, Doug Butler had seen a flock of waxwings out at Tranquille and said there must have 2,000 or so in the flock. I saw the same flock and thought it must be closer to 200. Or at least it might have been the same flock, but as it was two different days at two different times, so it might have been two different flocks.

I took the above photo - and started crossing the birds out one by one - just to get an accurate count. My best guess of that flock was, now wait for it. Nope I want you to guess first. The total was 928. That's a lot of plucking. I had seen a couple of flocks like this on the one day , so it is very likely that Doug was bang on in his guestimate of flock numbers had the two flocks joined up.

Next question - how many seeds on a dandelion head?

 
My cipherings to figure out how many

1 comment:

  1. I appreciate and understand your concerns, after all, guys are always concerned about size.

    I remember as a little tyke, standing side by side measuring the size of our feet. Even long toe nails helped a little guy get closer to being a man.
    And when it came to age, I wasn't 6 years old, I was 6 and 1/4. After all that extra 1/4 meant a lot in those days.

    Today, I cann't even remember how old I am. I have to quickly do the math feeling satisfied that I still have the ability to remember the year I was born.

    So when I guestimated the size of the flock of Bohemian Waxwings, I estimated that about 1/3 were in flight while 2/3 were perched in the trees behind me. How did I determine that? Well being a retired teacher, I got those figures by doing a roll call....Wilbur, "chirp", Warren, "chirp", Willy,Willy......"he's flying Mr. B.".

    Very scientific you see. But I also used the Ritcey method of counting a photo and just like my shoes when I was 6, my photo had more birds than yours.

    I was guiding up at Sun Peaks on Wednesday. I guided a group in which included a fella from San Fransico. He was just thrilled with the new snow and the whole experience. He passed on a thought which I would like to share with you. He said "life is not counted by the number of breaths that you take but rather by the number of times your breath is taken away". When I think of the things that really make a difference, they truly are the things that take your breath away.
    Thursday I head for the Bahamas for 11 days of diving. Sailing and diving in the Bahamas has always been on my "bucket list" and finally I'm doing it. It truly will take my breath away.....yikes, where's my regulator?

    Cheers always Frank

    your friend Doug

    ReplyDelete

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