Bird vs. Fish

How This Problematic NetCDF File Was Fixed

I can’t be thankful enough for my godsend Twitter friend/NetCDF guru Michael Sumner for coming in clutch to rectify this problematic file! As I take my baby steps in learning how to deal with NetCDF files (~3 weeks after being thrown into the “deep end” and trying to tread water), I realized that one of […]

Next NetCDF Issue I Discovered Today

Another problem I ran into: apparently Nov-Dec. 1999 monthly averages for HADCM3 B1 precipitation, where I flipped the axes in NCO, are blank. problem <- brick(“hadcm3.b1.pr.NAm.grid_monthly.nc_out.nc”) plot(problem$X1999.11.15) plot(problem$X1999.12.16) The above returns the correct axes, but blank plots. The problem is present before I flipped the axes, so I have to go back to the original […]

My 1st Breeding Bird Survey Route!

It feels appropriate that I made my 1st contribution to the BBS today, as a form of conservation patriotism! It’s one of the longest-running and most extensive citizen science efforts in the world, and I was happy to kick off my Independence Day contributing to this data set. The timing also comes on the heels […]

What Does it Mean to be a Birder?

What is a birder, anyway? Several birders have made stabs at what it is to be defined as a birder, in part spurred by questions of how to count how many of us are out there. First, the Birdwatcher’s Companion (2004) seek’s to differentiate “birding” from “bird-watching,” as terminology has notably changed over the past 20 […]

July Blooms

round-leaved orchid slender lady’s-tresses club-spur orchid (bog) spotted coralroot (Ridges) cross-leaved milkwort field milkwort whorled milkwort winged loosestrife false-loosestrife rough-seeded clammy-weed common dodder false pimpernel large-flowered yellow false foxglove eastern figwort Canada horse-balm marsh hedge-nettle American water-horehound northern water-horehound flat-leaved bladderwort brook lobelia Jimsonweed Apple-of-Peru Virginia ground-cherry round-headed bush-clover prairie bush-clover Illinois tick-trefoil partridge pea […]

How I’ve Been Processing Climate Data

From a THREDDS server, I’m using the NetcdfSubset portal to obtain a spatial subset of my climate data set of interest. Since the files I need are too big to download from their HTTP server, they instead give me an OPeNDAP URI with the spatial subset info. I then pass that to nccopy from the […]

And Now for a Windows Hack in a Pinch…

For reasons I won’t describe here, I had to quickly install nco on Windows, and figure out how to use the command line to loop over files in a given directory. So, I navigated to the folder where I have nco on the command line, and ran this to loop over the files in my […]

Spatially Manipulating NetCDF Files

I ended up getting a bunch of climate NetCDF files from a colleague for each combination of climate model, climate change scenario and variable. So, what I have is a list of 3-D files consisting of observations/predictions of a given weather variable over latitude, longitude and time (you can picture them as cubes, if you […]

Hummingbird Feeder Up on the Deck

I put my hummingbird feeder back up today, which I suspect is the only feeder my neighbor below me won’t complain about. (Even so, it’s well-hidden from the outside by the pole in front of it.) My neighbors to the west of me have 2 and have a resident pair of hummingbirds. I’m hoping they’ll […]

MN Ornithologists’ Union Young Birders’ Committee

I’m pleased to have been asked to serve on the MOU Young Birders’ Committee! We’re generously defining “young” as 18-40, but not without precedent (Erikson 1963). Our overarching goal is to improve participation of those of us in this age group in conservation-related organizations, which in our specific case is MOU. Conveniently, my friend who […]