Harvest moon this weekend. Opening day or Archery season this weekend. Sounds like a good time to publish this map.
I wanted to test out Mapbox's integration with Google Charts API. I had an idea to show this map, except as points and also let the user hover the mouse over a Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) and have a line chart returned of the harvest trends for the past few years.
Here is the result.
To view the map in its native format, click here.
Simple idea here. Blue are antlered, pink are anterless. Each point represents a harvest for the 2011/2012 season.
So I found the perfect layer publicly available on PASDA. I had to make a few modifications on it but no biggie.
Then lay down some ground rules for my Random Point creation.
1. Set the point creation to be for the 2011 - 2012 hunting season.
2. Do not allow a point to be created within 75 yards of any road
3. Do not allow a point to be created in a river/lake
With these rules, I was able to keep most of the points out of large cities and reservoirs (see Philadelphia and Raystown lake for example).
A few hindsights:
1. I need to fix the legend, it is displaying too large in some web browsers.
2. Fix the Tooltip box. It is creating a scroll bar in Firefox.
Feel free to analyze the map. Central PA sure is skimpy!
I need ideas on what map to create next. This map and the grouse map have been great for testing some apps that are work related.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
09/29/12
Location: Behind Work
Temp: Morning, low 40's rising to low 60s in afternoon
Wind: Still
Weather: Perfect morning, partly cloudy and crisp. No rain at all.
First day of Archery!
This used to be like Christmas morning for me until I got a dog. Now I have to sneak out the door and leave him behind. He cried at 6AM and woke up my wife. Bad Dog! Now Christmas morning is the openers of grouse and pheasant season. We'll compare the opening day of archery now too....hm...okay Christmas morning.
Got in stand right at 6:45, which is 1/2 hour before sunrise. Right when shooting hours start. Well, I got skunked. Nothing but squirrels until 10:30AM.
I went home, cut grass, hunt out, etc. Got back to the woods around 5:15 and thought I'd get on something. I got an 8 point on my camera in this exact location and thought he may be strolling by because there are tons of acorns in this area. In fact I can't believe I didn't get cracked in the head by one, it was basically raining them.
I still saw some cool things. Had a wood thrush hanging around (I thought maybe he would have been migrating by now?), had a red-tail up above me about an hour before dark, and then had a possum slugging around right below my stand. Boy was he ugly, his back was all scratched up like something was trying to get him. Maybe an owl.
Well I called it a night. At this point I saw a big whopping 0 deer but, who cares, it was such a beautiful day I didn't mind. As I was leaving in the truck guess what I saw? Of course, the 8 point hanging with 3 other unidentified deer. He's on the opposite side of the field from where I was. I think they bed close to where I set up, but are moving there in a different direction than I had thought. I'll relocate.
Temp: Morning, low 40's rising to low 60s in afternoon
Wind: Still
Weather: Perfect morning, partly cloudy and crisp. No rain at all.
First day of Archery!
This used to be like Christmas morning for me until I got a dog. Now I have to sneak out the door and leave him behind. He cried at 6AM and woke up my wife. Bad Dog! Now Christmas morning is the openers of grouse and pheasant season. We'll compare the opening day of archery now too....hm...okay Christmas morning.
Got in stand right at 6:45, which is 1/2 hour before sunrise. Right when shooting hours start. Well, I got skunked. Nothing but squirrels until 10:30AM.
I went home, cut grass, hunt out, etc. Got back to the woods around 5:15 and thought I'd get on something. I got an 8 point on my camera in this exact location and thought he may be strolling by because there are tons of acorns in this area. In fact I can't believe I didn't get cracked in the head by one, it was basically raining them.
I still saw some cool things. Had a wood thrush hanging around (I thought maybe he would have been migrating by now?), had a red-tail up above me about an hour before dark, and then had a possum slugging around right below my stand. Boy was he ugly, his back was all scratched up like something was trying to get him. Maybe an owl.
Well I called it a night. At this point I saw a big whopping 0 deer but, who cares, it was such a beautiful day I didn't mind. As I was leaving in the truck guess what I saw? Of course, the 8 point hanging with 3 other unidentified deer. He's on the opposite side of the field from where I was. I think they bed close to where I set up, but are moving there in a different direction than I had thought. I'll relocate.
Moon - Flash
Moon - No flash
The 8 point in velvet
Monday, July 2, 2012
PA Grouse Flush Rates Map
Okay, I admit it. I'm a map nerd.
You can declare yourself a map nerd if you've done any of the following:
(1) caught yourself spending over 30 minutes pouring over one USGS historical 1916 quad map of your hometown,
(2) read Ken Jenning's Maphead
(3) get fired up when Google hasn't updated their maps to show that a certain State Route is now an Interstate and for some reason is not showing the correct boundaries to your local park
Well I'm guilty on all three counts.
This post combines two interests of mine -- interactive online maps and upland bird hunting.
Don't worry hunters, I'm not posting x/y coordinates to your secret aspen coverts and alder haunts where you chase grouse and woodcock. All the information used to create this map is contained in the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Grouse Management Plan (beware Dial-Up users, this is a 2.7 MB PDF file!).
Here is the finished product and a description below on how it was created. Mouse over counties to see statistics. Also, please feel free to comment!
Click here to view the full map.
County boundary data was downloaded as a shapefile from the US Census Bureau's Tiger Line file page. Then flush rate values from page 22 of the aforementioned management plan were entered into the shapefile.
This was done using ESRI software which I have a license for, but for those looking for a reliable freebie check out Quantum.
Next, TileMill was downloaded from Mapbox and the shapefile was input into the software. A few other shapefiles were added (such as the dark lines showing regions) and were styled using the Carto language. Once styled, the map was pushed to Mapbox hosting and can be viewed in almost any web browser on most operating systems (including Droid)!
Wanna know the best part? (- yes, I picked this phrase up from the 5 year old next door.) Guess how much this cost to style in TileMill and host? Yeah, $0!
Learning how to use the software was fairly easy and slightly addictive. There is a fee once you post a ton of data or if your map goes viral on twitter and you receive a ton of hits...but to get started you can't beat this. There is also a very active forum for questions.
Anyway, back to the birds...
See the pale areas? Flush rates are low here and it's no surprise for Allegheny and Philadelphia counties. Last time I drove to PNC park for a Bucco game I don't recall seeing any 20 acre clear-cuts near the Fort Pitt Tunnels. And, unfortunately, I live smack dab in the middle of Beaver County (lots of deer, little grouse -- maybe that's why i have burr-in-hand more than bird-in-hand). Oh well, my Brit and I don't mind driving to chase birds on Saturday mornings.
So what's the point here? Well there are a few:
1. If you're into mapping give Mapbox a try.
2. Mapping should be fun if you have a particular interest in the topic and you're working with data that is openly available (thanks PGC).
3. If you're an avid upland bird hunter...don't move to Beaver County! --although I do have a few honeyholes.
4. I commend the PA Game Commission for all the habitat work they have been doing to transfer our mature forests to early successional habitat (I bet you can tell I'm an RGS member now) and making it easy to follow on twitter.
Quit yappin and start mappin.
-Regards
You can declare yourself a map nerd if you've done any of the following:
(1) caught yourself spending over 30 minutes pouring over one USGS historical 1916 quad map of your hometown,
(2) read Ken Jenning's Maphead
(3) get fired up when Google hasn't updated their maps to show that a certain State Route is now an Interstate and for some reason is not showing the correct boundaries to your local park
Well I'm guilty on all three counts.
This post combines two interests of mine -- interactive online maps and upland bird hunting.
Don't worry hunters, I'm not posting x/y coordinates to your secret aspen coverts and alder haunts where you chase grouse and woodcock. All the information used to create this map is contained in the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Grouse Management Plan (beware Dial-Up users, this is a 2.7 MB PDF file!).
Here is the finished product and a description below on how it was created. Mouse over counties to see statistics. Also, please feel free to comment!
Click here to view the full map.
County boundary data was downloaded as a shapefile from the US Census Bureau's Tiger Line file page. Then flush rate values from page 22 of the aforementioned management plan were entered into the shapefile.
This was done using ESRI software which I have a license for, but for those looking for a reliable freebie check out Quantum.
Next, TileMill was downloaded from Mapbox and the shapefile was input into the software. A few other shapefiles were added (such as the dark lines showing regions) and were styled using the Carto language. Once styled, the map was pushed to Mapbox hosting and can be viewed in almost any web browser on most operating systems (including Droid)!
Wanna know the best part? (- yes, I picked this phrase up from the 5 year old next door.) Guess how much this cost to style in TileMill and host? Yeah, $0!
Learning how to use the software was fairly easy and slightly addictive. There is a fee once you post a ton of data or if your map goes viral on twitter and you receive a ton of hits...but to get started you can't beat this. There is also a very active forum for questions.
Anyway, back to the birds...
See the pale areas? Flush rates are low here and it's no surprise for Allegheny and Philadelphia counties. Last time I drove to PNC park for a Bucco game I don't recall seeing any 20 acre clear-cuts near the Fort Pitt Tunnels. And, unfortunately, I live smack dab in the middle of Beaver County (lots of deer, little grouse -- maybe that's why i have burr-in-hand more than bird-in-hand). Oh well, my Brit and I don't mind driving to chase birds on Saturday mornings.
So what's the point here? Well there are a few:
1. If you're into mapping give Mapbox a try.
2. Mapping should be fun if you have a particular interest in the topic and you're working with data that is openly available (thanks PGC).
3. If you're an avid upland bird hunter...don't move to Beaver County! --although I do have a few honeyholes.
4. I commend the PA Game Commission for all the habitat work they have been doing to transfer our mature forests to early successional habitat (I bet you can tell I'm an RGS member now) and making it easy to follow on twitter.
Quit yappin and start mappin.
-Regards
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