Pages

Saturday, September 6, 2014

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

Monday, September 1, 2014

Why failure is good - a column for Shotgun Life

Whenever I work with new shooters or hunters who want to get into duck hunting, I always work really hard to lower their expectations. Shooting clays is hard enough; shooting ducks that move faster and can change course instantly can be almost impossible for the newbie.

It turns out that embracing failure is really good for your brain, and my latest column for Shotgun Life explains why.

And here's a fun postscript you won't see in the column: Minutes after I sent that tale of epic failure to my editor, I got an email from someone submitting a hunting photo for the magazine I edit, California Waterfowl. The caption - with names changed, of course - said this:

Bobby Jones, age 14 attended the 2014 Youth Hunt at the Quack Quack Duck Club and took
a full limit of seven ducks while only firing nine rounds.  This was Bobby's first duck hunt.

OMG.

Sigh.

© Holly A. Heyser 2014