I have seen the magnificent flock of Golden Plover on the west bank of the Cleddau from Landshipping several times in recent weeks. I have not made a serious attempt to count them, my various estimates range from 800-1000 to 1800+.
On October 31, by estimating blocks of 50 and then a hundred, first of the birds in the mud, but mostly when flying (they often fly in the air), I thought there were about 2000-2300.. .
But how accurate is it? I got a flight shot of the flock, so to try to answer this I edited the best photo so that the birds stood out from the background as much as possible, printed it in A3 size, then drew around the each group of 10 (see pictures). It’s a very difficult but strangely satisfying process! (there should be software that can do this in seconds!). Remarkably and delightfully the total reached 2270!
Of course there will still be a margin of error, eg it’s often hard to tell if a larger bird shape is two (or even 3) or just one so some of my ten are probably nine or even eleven! And does the picture show the whole herd? Probably not….
Anyway an interesting exercise and a nice sight in any case……..
