What early teal season looks like: an interactive map

We don't have an early teal season in California, so I actually have no clue what it looks like.

But I do know how to find where all the action is: All you have to do is look at band recoveries, so I did just that, just for funsies, because I'm an OCD Dutch Virgo data nerd.

The map below is all the banded teal recovered by hunters in September of 2014 (data for 2015 isn't yet available). The color coding is really complex: Blue dots are blue-winged teal, green dots are green-wings and red dots are cinnamons. Click on the dot and you can see how old the bird was and where it was banded - you can even click through to its banding location.

One caveat: Sometimes the map will show birds being shot in weird locations, or in places where they shouldn't be shot, as in not in season. Keep in mind that all recovery information is reported by humans who might be confused about what they're reporting (the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory wants to know where you shot the bird, not where you live), imprecise (I've seen banded birds allegedly shot at busy urban intersections), or merely cagey ("I ain't putting no X on no stinkin' map!").

But imperfect as it is, it's still fun stuff. Enjoy!

 

© Holly A. Heyser 2015

Banded birds in Cali - an interactive map

In the Fall issue of California Waterfowl Magazine, we did a huge piece on banded ducks and geese that were recovered in California during the 2013-14 duck season, with lots of cool charts and maps, and a video that I posted here last month.

Well, the magazine is done, but I just can't let go of it, so I've spent a bit of my Saturday afternoon creating these interactive maps.

In the first, each dot represents one recovered bird. Just like in Google Maps, you can zoom in and out, and change from map view to satellite view, but the really cool thing is you can click on each dot to find out what species it was, when it was recovered, and when and where it was banded.

One thing to keep in mind: Band recovery data is user-reported, which means the location may be imprecise. So, take the recovery locations with a grain of salt.

The second map is where all the birds in the first map were banded.

Enjoy!

© Holly A. Heyser 2014