If you want to use the finer-scale BBS data, here’s a tweak to the R code I presented. In this case, you won’t want the SpeciesTotal, country number (perhaps, otherwise add it it to the ID variables) or StopTotal (again, I assume). BBS$countrynum <- NULL BBS$SpeciesTotal <- NULL BBS$StopTotal <- NULL Then, you’re going to […]

There’s a great data set of worldwide bird ranges that you have to request. They have breeding, wintering, and resident ranges of every species for which they have data in shape files. Once you get it, though, you can work with it using GIS. As usual, I like to script things. I downloaded all the […]

Let’s start with simple listing (i.e. all of your rasters are in one folder). Start the script with the basics. import os import arcpy from arcpy import env env.workspace = “wherever your stuff is” Make sure you’re in the right place and Arc is “seeing” your files by just running arcpy.ListRasters() after you set the […]

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, my Audubon Wingscapes feeder cam doesn’t really focus closely. It claims the range is 18-23″, but to get a crisp photo, you really need to be at the far edge of that range. Alas, the mounting arm I bought specifically for this camera is pretty short. I decided to mount […]

Happy Earth Day! Go birding 🙂 I’m moving my feeder cam to the ground, in part because of logistics but in part inspired by the prevalence of possible feeder bird rarity records this time of year that forage on the ground. For example… hermit warbler Baird’s sparrow

We walked down to spring trail pond in the arboretum this evening, and there was a garter snake slithering through the underbrush at the wood edge!

It’s a beautiful day in the high 70’s (!!!) in northern Minnesota today! I’ve been in Duluth for the weekend and it’s the first sign of spring here. These are the warmest temps of the year so far. I parked across Hwy 23 from a trail head and took a long walk on Spruce Trail. […]

In WordPress, the row of icons I like is often called the service bar, though it has other names too. Oftentimes, they’re built in as “font awesome” icons, which are great. Since the icons are so friendly, I like the idea of clicking them as buttons themselves. I also need the flexibility to specify whatever […]

Here it continues: one of the hardest parts about picking a theme is that, as I mentioned in a prior post, the “live preview” is often not helpful. You need to have your site setup just the right way, and even so, there still may be settings to change before you get a sense of […]

Ancient murrelet has been found historically in the state during the first week of April!