Tag Archive | maps

Mapping Tools for the 2020 Birding Challenge

Dec22

By Andrew Hart

In the new year there will be an eBird challenge in Calgary in which participants try to see as many species as they can within the city limits. See this post for information about the challenge. To join, send your name, ebird name, and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. 

It is usually easy to tell if the spot where you are birding or have birded is inside the city limits, particularly if your location is an existing eBird HotSpot. But if you are near the city boundary and birding at a new location, it can be difficult to tell if the spot is inside or outside the city.

There are two mapping tools available to help with this aspect of the challenge. Each tool works on both a desktop and a tablet/smartphone.

Google Maps Tool

To access this on a desktop simply click on this link. This will bring up Google Maps, as below.

Calgary map

The YYC2020 area shows up as a lighter area bounded in blue.

To facilitate easier access in the future you can choose to bookmark this location in your browser.

To access on a smartphone/tablet the process is similar, and there are probably several ways to do it.  First ensure that you have the Google Maps app installed on your smartphone.

The way I have found most convenient is to generate an email with the link embedded.  You can then click on the link in the email to get the map, as below.  As with the desktop version you can then zoom in and out.  If you are in the field you can immediately check to see if you are in the city limits or not. If you are at home and checking to see if a location you have already birded at is inside the city limits, just compare your location from the eBird location map to this boundary map.

I have created an email subfolder YYC2020 on my phone with this (so far the only) email in it so that I can rapidly find the relevant email and click on it.

You can also set this up as a favourite in your smartphone browser.  I think this is more complicated, and how to do it depends on your actual smartphone and preferred browser.  There are  too many options to describe each one here.

Google Earth Tool

This requires that Google Earth Pro is installed on whichever device(s) you are going to use. It also requires setting up the City boundary as one of “My Places” in Google Earth.

The City boundary is defined in a Google Earth add in file named “Calgary City Boundary.kml”.  This is  available on the Nature Calgary YYC2020 webpage.

To access this tool on a desktop :

  • Download the kml file from the Nature Calgary website and save it in a convenient folder on your desktop. The file link is at the bottom of this page on Nature Calgary’s site.
  • Open Google Earth Pro
  • Use file open and navigate to the location where you saved the kml file
Calgary map
  • Open the kml file and you will see the Calgary City boundary saved under “temporary places” in the menu on the left.  You will also see a view showing the city limits overlaid with a brown colour.  The precise view you will get depends on exactly which layers you have switched on in the lower part of the left hand menu.
Calgary map
  • Next, to ensure you see this the next time you open Google Earth just drag the City Boundary.kml folder up in to the “My Places” folder. 
Calgary map
  • That completes the set-up.
  • Next time you open Google Earth simply click on the “Calgary City Boundary” link under My Places.

To set it up on a smart device the procedure is somewhat similar.

  • Install Google Earth Pro on your smart device
  • Install the kml file on your smart device
  • There are a number of ways to do this
  • If you already have the file on your desktop then save the file to a cloud location that is accessible to your smart device.  Typically iCloud or Onedrive.
  • Then download the file from the cloud location to your smartphone .
  • Now open Google Earth (Pro) and open the “Projects” drop down menu from the three bar menu at top left.
  • Press “open” and then “Import kml file”
  • Browse to where your kml file is located.  The iCloud screenshot below is one example
  • Tap on the relevant file
  • Bring it in to Google Earth (by tapping)
  • You will now see the city boundary as a brown overlay
  • Calgary map
  • If you want to check your own location then tap the three white dots at top right.
  • Next tap my location at the bottom, and you will see your location.
  • Note that unlike Google Maps Google Earth does not continuously update your location.  If you move and want to check again then you have to reset your location
  • If you do not have access to the file on a desktop then access the file on the Nature Calgary website from your smart device and save it to your smart device.  Then follow the same steps described above.

If you have any questions about the challenge contact:

  • Howard Heffler: hheffler[at]shaw.ca
  • Andrew Hart: andrewhart[at]shaw.ca
  • Bob Lefebvre: wbird7[at]gmail.com
  • Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com

eBird Counties of Southern Alberta

Feb8

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

If you are a birder in the Calgary area who uses eBird, you may be confused about where the boundaries for the eBird Counties are. As you enter sightings from various locations in the region, you will see that some are assigned to Calgary County, and some to Drumheller, Banff, Lethbridge, or others. It is not clear at first what these counties represent. Even when we were doing the 2015 eBird Competition we were not sure what to make of the eBird Counties.

It turns out that the boundaries for eBird Counties in Canada follow the federal government’s Census Geographic Units. This is not a well-known political or geographic entity, and the boundaries are not marked anywhere as you travel around. (In the United States, where eBird started, the eBird Counties are the same as the political Counties, which are well-known and have well-marked boundaries.)

However, it is possible to see a map of our County boundaries by going on Google Earth. If you don’t have Google Earth you should download it. It is free, and very useful for birders. You can see satellite maps of the entire world down to a very fine level.

When you are on Google Earth, zoom into the region you want to see, and turn off all the layers except “Borders.” The fine green lines on the map are the county boundaries. (Thanks to Dan Arndt for finding out what the counties are, and how to see the boundaries.)

Southern Alberta, showing eBird County boundaries in green.

Southern Alberta, with eBird County names in yellow and boundaries in green.

Feel free to copy this map as a reference, but I do recommend downloading Google Earth, so you can zoom in to see the boundaries at a finer scale. You can also turn on other layers such as “Places ” and “Roads” so you can see where the towns and highways are.

Below are four detail maps of the north, east, south, and west edges of Calgary county.

The north end of Calgary County.

The east side of Calgary County, along the Trans-Canada Highway. Drumheller County begins immediately east of Weed Lake, and actually includes part of Dalemead Reservoir.

The south end of Calgary County.

The west side of Calgary county.

The eBird Counties do not correspond well to any particular geographic birding region. Many of you may keep track of sightings within the 80-km circle centered on the Centre Street Bridge in Calgary, which is used for the annual May Species Count (and for both the 2005 and 2015 birding competitions). Here is the relevant map for that:

The 80-km circle of the Calgary birding region (red), with eBird Counties in green.

If anyone would like to be able to draw the 80-km circle on Google Earth on their own computer, just email me at birdscalgary@gmail.com and I will give you instructions.

Tonight, Wednesday February 8, 2017, Mike Harrison will speak at the Bird Study Group of Nature Calgary on The Ins and Outs of eBird. If you are an eBird user or want to learn about it, please come out. See this page for details.