Subject: Counting crows?
Date: Jan 20 18:26:26 2003
From: Eugene Hunn - enhunn at attbi.com


Rob,

We routinely count the Foster Island roost during the Seattle CBC. One team is stationed just to the north across Union Bay at first light. The birds leave the roost and disperse in groups of several hundred during the first 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Another team should, of course, count the dispersal to the south. We estimate the numbers in each departing flock by 10s. I'd judge we are accurate to within 10%. We counted 3500 this year, down substantially from last year and the year before.

Gene.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Sandelin
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 9:15 PM
Subject: Counting crows?


Since crows roost communally during the winter months, is anybody out there doing any baseline counts of roosts in preparation for West Nile Virus reductions? Seems like this would be the best time to do this to establish at least some kind of population baselines. I am thinking of assigning this to a team of students to find and count the Snohomish Roosts. Any ideas about best methods for this would be appreciated

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com