A little extra Scouting

[Bob Reitmeyer]

Flying out of Atlantic City airport gives me a great opportunity do a little extra scouting of Absecon Bay where I do most of my duck hunting. All winter I watch the planes on approach while hunting, but in the summer I get the reverse vantage point. Nothing beats boots on the ground, but the birds eye view can be impressive. The first picture is one of about 30 I took from my cell phone on approach last summer. The second is after take off last week. View attachment IMG_2747.JPGView attachment Absecon Bay.jpg

 

[Braden Maddox]

This is something I have always wanted to do at our farm during winter. I would love to have the same view that birds do and see if any improvements could be made.

 

[Bob Reitmeyer]

This is something I have always wanted to do at our farm during winter. I would love to have the same view that birds do and see if any improvements could be made.

I got lucky last year because i was on the window and when the plane turned I was able to look down on the marsh and get some good pictures. Have you ever considered using a drone yourself or contracting with a service? I was present for a demonstration through USDA in New Jersey where the the drone operator recorded various types of imagery on about 50 acres of blueberry field in about 15-20 minutes.

 

[Jeff Reardon]

This is something I have always wanted to do at our farm during winter. I would love to have the same view that birds do and see if any improvements could be made.

Have you looked at what it would cost you to charter a short flight with someone who owns a small plane? Maine may be an outlier, as we have a lot of private pilots who fly regularly to the coastal islands, fly as spotters for commercial fishermen, or fly float planes in the northern interior, but around here I could get a short flight in a single engine plane for under $100, and an hour long flight for $150 or so. It's not cheap, but it's less than most of us spend on the annual paint budget for decoys . . . .

 

[Carl]

Scouting by jet plane is one bonus when I fly out of Mobile and go to Houston or Tampa. I can get a really good look at the spots I hunt in MS Sound and the Mobile Delta.
But one of the best flights used to be the puddle jumper flight from Pensacola to Tampa. It was (might still be) a 2 row, 19 seat high wing turbo prop, low and slow. The flight followed the coast all the way around, you could see all the barrier island, bays and sea grass beds from Pensacola all the way to Tampa. Amazing views of Apalachicola, Suwanee, the Florida Big Bend, Cedar Key, etc....

 

[Braden Maddox]

I have definitely considered the drone route. I work with several people who use those to scout agricultural fields so it shouldn't be an issue to find someone to help out with that project.

 

[Scott Farris]

I know I'm not the only one who uses Google Earth Pro to scout. Pick a winter shot to reduce foliage, rotate and change to angled view to get the "bird's eye" view. Hours and hours of enjoyment! Scott View attachment nonhuntingres.jpg

 

[Bob Reitmeyer]

I know I'm not the only one who uses Google Earth Pro to scout. Pick a winter shot to reduce foliage, rotate and change to angled view to get the "bird's eye" view. Hours and hours of enjoyment! Scott

I have no problem admitting I do some internet scouting. I used to use Bing maps quite a bit just because they had more winter fly overs in my area. Those maps seem to be gone now. Even google seems to use more computer generated images than real aerials. I have arcgis at work and that is helpful. Its all a good start, but still needs field verification IMO.

 

[Carl]

Google stitches various years of imagery unless you use the historical imagery tool.
I find that the most useful since you can catch different seasons and tides from various years.

The world imagery in ArcGIS is very frustrating you never know what year you?re gonna get!