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If counting birds is your thing.......

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Larry Sheldon...

Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:50 pm

Guest

....I have got a deal for you!

As I have written elsewhere that we visited Squaw Creek National
Wildlife Refuge in Missouri yesterday (twice actually--long story).

I have no idea how they do the counting but I have in hand "census" for
11/09/09 that shows things like

Snow Goose 8,500
White-fronted Goose 1,700

Those look like reasonable estimates to me. But then we have

Canada Goose 1,248
Mallard 71,443
Gadwall 19,065

which numbers suggest a precision I find unlikely.

Given (from the same "census" (my term, not theirs) "about 3,3300" acres
of water (total area unknown to me, but the perimeter road is 10 miles
long and there is some stuff outside that line) and a wide-spread
tendency of the guests to move about freely.... how can they be sure
that there are exactly

Bald Eagles--Adult 1
Bald Eagles--Imm 8
Trumpeter Swan 1
White Pelicans 37
And so forth?

(Side question--it seems like every time we saw geese at DeSoto Bend and
now at Squaw Creek, there is precisely 1 Trumpeter Swan?

There is a summary box on the sheet that shows

Total Geese 11,448
Total Ducks 140,366
Total Dabblers 125,571
Total Divers 14,795

which raises the precision issue in two dimensions.

If you want to see a lot of birds or a lot of different birds (they
don't inventory the Grackles, Pheasants, Starlings, and I don't know
what all that we saw) I know just the place for you.

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/SquawCreek/
http://www.squawcreek.org/
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Rick...

Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:09 pm

Guest

Larry Sheldon wrote:

Quote:

...I have got a deal for you!

As I have written elsewhere that we visited Squaw Creek National
Wildlife Refuge in Missouri yesterday (twice actually--long story).

I have no idea how they do the counting but I have in hand "census" for
11/09/09 that shows things like

Snow Goose 8,500
White-fronted Goose 1,700

Those look like reasonable estimates to me. But then we have

Canada Goose 1,248
Mallard 71,443
Gadwall 19,065

which numbers suggest a precision I find unlikely.

Given (from the same "census" (my term, not theirs) "about 3,3300" acres
of water (total area unknown to me, but the perimeter road is 10 miles
long and there is some stuff outside that line) and a wide-spread
tendency of the guests to move about freely.... how can they be sure
that there are exactly

Bald Eagles--Adult 1
Bald Eagles--Imm 8
Trumpeter Swan 1
White Pelicans 37
And so forth?

(Side question--it seems like every time we saw geese at DeSoto Bend and
now at Squaw Creek, there is precisely 1 Trumpeter Swan?

There is a summary box on the sheet that shows

Total Geese 11,448
Total Ducks 140,366
Total Dabblers 125,571
Total Divers 14,795

which raises the precision issue in two dimensions.

If you want to see a lot of birds or a lot of different birds (they
don't inventory the Grackles, Pheasants, Starlings, and I don't know
what all that we saw) I know just the place for you.

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/SquawCreek/
http://www.squawcreek.org/
Here are the estimates for Sand Lake NWR

Waterfowl Estimates for Sand Lake NWR - 11/10/2009

Canada Geese - 800

Snow Geese - 42,000

Ducks - 30,000

Swans - 350

More snow geese have moved into the Sand Lake area this past week. Besides
Sand Lake, there currently are snow geese on Putney Slough, using an area
near the James River along Highway 12, and also in an area south of Groton.
There are several hundred thousand snow geese total between these areas.
Some wetlands in Brown County continue to hold many ducks, but they are
shifting around between wetlands throughout the area.

The tundra swans on the refuge remain in the same areas, which are near the
south end and in an area about 1 mile south of State Highway 10. Swans are
still using some wetlands throughout northern Brown County.

Farmers are making good progress on the soybean harvest, and a few more
fields of corn have been harvested in the area since last week.

Waterfowl Estimates for Sand Lake NWR - 11/3/2009

Canada Geese - 800

Snow Geese - 20,000

Ducks - 38,000

Swans - 300

More ducks and snow geese moved into Sand Lake and the area over the past
weekend. Snow geese are being seen regularly on the refuge and in the
area. Several thousand have been reported in the Scatterwood Lakes area
and in the area south of Groton. Mallard numbers have increased
significantly on the refuge.

The tundra swans on the refuge are near the south end and in an area about
1 mile south of State Highway 10. There are also many swans using wetlands
throughout northern Brown County.

Farmers are continuing with the soybean harvest, and a few small fields of
corn have also been harvested in the area.

Good waterfowl numbers are still being seen throughout northern Brown
County, with the excellent wetland conditions.

--

Rick
Fargo, ND
N 46°53'251"
W 096°48'279"

Remember the USS Liberty
http://www.ussliberty.org/

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