Count ducks in a flock from a photo

Counting ducks on a pond, in a paddock or in housing

Duck farmers count when moving birds between rearing stages and when completing producer or welfare records, while park managers and survey volunteers count wild or ornamental flocks. On land, ducks behave like any loose flock and can be photographed from a raised point. On water they spread across a surface that mirrors them.

Still water reflects each duck, and a reflection can pick up a dot of its own. Shooting from higher up, rather than across the water from the bank, shrinks the reflections and separates the birds, and light overcast cuts the glare. Ducks that are diving, upending to feed or half hidden in reeds may be missed. Ducklings huddled beside their mother look like one blob at a distance, so get nearer or mark one duckling as a second example. Mixed species on a park lake may need one example each, up to three.

A flock that keeps moving can be photographed two or three times a few seconds apart; keep the reviewed count from the clearest frame instead of adding the photos together, and record that single number as one tally row. Chickens and other housed poultry are covered on the chicken counter, and mixed stock on the same holding fits the livestock counter.