David,
>Likewise, in the Hunter, some species were much more common than counts
>by land based counters indicated. Marsh Sandpiper and Greenshank often
>used roosts away from the major roosts containing other species. My
>counts might amount to 500 of eash species while other birders were
>reporting only 30 or so. This is fine as long as those looking at the
>figures are aware of the differences in how the counts were obtained.
>There is a real danger that, in the future, the figures are interpreted
>as a decline in polulation when in actual fact only a small proportion
>of the population was being counted.
I must check the countsheets more closely in future regarding the Marsh
Sandpiper and Greenshank to compare with the Hunter region. I know of 3
main roosts where Greenshank can be found at high tide (Manly Boat
Harbour, Toorbul and Deception Bay), the later site had 37 Greenshank
and 4 Marshies during the high tide count on 11-12-99. This site, which
Phil & I count usually has good numbers of both but the lagoon only had
a pool of water covering 10% of the site and suspect that it could have
been the reason Marsh SP numbers were lower.
I am in agreement with you regarding future interpretation of wader
count figures.
Linda Cross
QWSG
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