What do you need to know to count successfully?
It is important to be able to identify the kestrels roosting in your area. The Migrating Kestrel Project data is starting to show that Lesser Kestrel numbers are now greater that what was originally estimated, and that Amur Falcons and Redfooted Falcons are less than expected. Thus, knowing what you are counting does give us a better estimate of the population of the specific species. If you need assistance, buy yourself a good raptor field guide. The local publication 'Raptor Identification Guide for Southern Africa' by Ulrich Oberprieler and Burger Cillié (from which all diagrams used here came) is excellent for beginners but possibly difficult to get hold of. Another good guide is 'Raptors of the World A Field Guide' by Ferguson-Lees and Christie, or the Sasol 'Birds of Prey of Africa and its Islands' by Kemp and Kemp. Some pointers have been included at the end of this page, which should help with the identification of these birds. You can also use information on their behaviour to help locate their roosting sites.
For more information on identification, see the How to identify migrating kestrels section.
When and how to count kestrels
The best time to count kestrels is early in the mornings from just before light to about one hour after sunrise or in the evening from sunset to dark. Roosting sites should be located the previous evening to enjoy the spectacle and to make arrangements for the next mornings count. Do not disturb the birds and please keep quiet during the count. Also, please ask permission before entering private property.
Position yourselves approximately 100 m from the roost tree where you will have a full view of the tree and sufficient time to count kestrels before they disappear. It is often a good idea to place yourself that the tree is between you and the rising or setting sun, so you can still see silhoutted birds that leave very early or come in very late. (Make sure a flask of coffee and rusks are within easy reach.) The kestrels will start short flights around the tree and then start to leave in small groups. Depending on the number of people in the group and roosting trees, individuals could be assigned sectors or trees to count. Count up to a hundred birds at a time, and make a mark on a piece of paper for each 100 counted. These are then added later.
It often happens that the kestrels leave the roost site in a large cloud, and the following basic method could be used with success.
As the cloud leaves the roost, quickly count a group of 50 kestrels, and then estimate the number of similar sized groups that could be fitted in the bigger cloud. This method will provide a much more accurate estimate than a mere guess or a futile effort to count each kestrel. Following these huge outbursts some kestrels settle in the tree again and usually start to leave again in small countable numbers. Any kestrels still around after 08:00 should be counted as best as possible while perching in the tree.
Should there be more than one species per roost site, count the total number and based on observation try to indicate the split. The Counting Form (Word Format, Adobe Acrobat Format) makes provision for recording the species and numbers present. This form should be completed following the count when things have returned to normal.
Some additional tips on counting
From Mariana Delport of Cape Ecotours:
When counting a large flock of birds, I always ask everybody in my team to count the birds in the flock, and I take the average of everybody's counts. I ignore any counts that are way out of line from the rest of the group's. I always count large flocks by accurately counting the first 50 or 100, and then count "blocks" of an estimated equal number of birds, then add up the blocks. I definitely found that starting to count from the rear of a flock of flying birds is much easier that to start counting in front.
From Mel Tripp:
Les Underhill at the ADU who has done Langebaan for almost 20 years, tends to believe in only really knowing whether there’s none, tens, hundreds or thousands of birds. Whether there’s 30 or 40, 300 or 400 etc not that serious! But that’s waders, although we do try to get as accurate as possible, although Kestrels don’t wheel in those mixed flocks like waders!
From Rick Watson:
There is a training CD to help train people in counting birds on the wing. The program is called “Wildlife Counts” and it is produced by a company called Lucid Reverie in Juneau, Alaska.
From Nellie Tsipoura via Zephne Bernitz:
We use a sofware package called 'Wildlife Counts' to train our volunteer counters. It is available from a company called "Lucid Reverie LLC", (907) 586-3440 (US), website www.wildlifecounts.com. This program runs on-screen simulations that allow people to improve their estimating skills.
Practical training
Now that you have read the theory, why don't you try the practical training on this web site? If you have any other tips that you can share, please let me know, because counting these large flocks of fast flying falcons, most often in poor light, is not easy!