I'll bet that this question has been answered in the moonwatching literature or someone out there has done the calculations but as I was moonwatching last week and over an hour counted about a hundred birds, it occurred to me that based on this sample I could roughly calculate how many birds may have flown over me in that hour. I guessed that the part of the sky I sampled (i.e. the disk of the moon) may have been something like a thousandth of the area from horizon to horizon (just very rough guess-estimate by eye) and if the part of the sky I was watching was a fair representation of the number of birds passing over all parts of the sky above me, then that would mean that roughly 100,000 birds passed over me during that hour.
I am sure that there are a lot of caveats related to angles of sight, etc., etc., and probably there is some sophisticated model for estimating total volume of birds from a moon watch sample but even if the number I came up with was anywhere close to the magnitude of total number of birds then I can't help but be impressed. Moonwatch experts, please give us the scoop! Jeff -----Original Message----- From: bounce-4254153-9874...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-4254153-9874...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Chase Schiefer Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 10:39 PM To: nfc-l@cornell.edu Subject: [nfc-l] 5 minute moonwatch A five minute session of moonwatching yielded an average of a bird a minute. The surrounding clouds were bright enough as to be able to follow birds till they reached darkness. Quite beautiful! -- Sent from my mobile device "Adventure is for the adventurous. My face is set. I go to make my destiny. May many another youth be by me inspired to leave the snug safety of his rut, and follow fortune to other lands." Everett Ruess Chase Schiefer Bachmans' Ivory Hazlet, New Jersey -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html --
