Google Earth

B

Bill Gass

Active member
I've been combing over Google Earth and have notices that different types of vegetation show up as varying shades of green. Based on this premise I'm looking for new areas to hunt and I've located about 8 new spots within five miles of my normal area which deserve scouting. Luckily the photos for my area are high res (around Fredericton/Oromocto area) Is anyone else tapping into this? I have read about waterfowlers using online weather radar to identify flocks of migration birds. I looked but wasn't about to distinguish anything but I can see where weather radar could be useful for scoping out storm system that may drive birds south.

Bill G.
 
i've used it some for the same purpose.. now if only i had a boat!

tell me about the "online weather radar" that guys are looking at... that's a new one to me

Jeff
 
Various parts of the US have Doppler RADAR systems that the NWS or NOAA provide public access to. However, they are difficult to use for bird tracking unless you have a good real time connection and know if there are weather systems in the area or not. Large migrations of birds have been documented in several places in the States and Alaska by the scope dopes. It was discovered when they saw a small dense weather system on the screen that came and went on each rotation of the RADAR (birds "density" in the flock changes rapidly compared to the water of a storm system) and the weather system did not appear to behave like a normal storm. And then they checked and there was no storm in the area, but folks on the ground reported lots of birds.

As to using Google earth for scouting it is a good system. However, they are pulling from several sources and each source will have a different resolution presenting issues with determing vegetation types. If you can ground truth your screen shots then you can make some comparissions. To get screen shots from Google Earth you just have to email yourself the image. It will capture the area inside the border and attach it to an email. Don't send the email just save the attachement. Instant aerial photo.

NASA's World Wind lets you choose between several types of images so you can use LandSAT near Infrared which provides better vegetation determination. However, LandSAT only has 10 meter resolution so you have to look at large areas. World Wind also has USGS black and white aerials of lots of urban and rural areas. In some places you can count the shingles on the roofs of houses. These images are really old though.

http://mapper.acme.com/?lat=61.481639&long=-149.27649&scale=14&theme=Image&width=3&height=2&dot=Yes

Here is a link to ACME Mapper, which is based on the USGS aerials. The image is one of the closest places to Anchorage, AK to hunt. ACME is a little harder to use than the other stuff.
 
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My hunting location last fall shows up rather well on Google Earth. We sit in the tall grass on a small berm then there is 25 yards of water and then 50 tards of tall grass growing in the water. The grass shows up as a light green colored point, lighter than say nearby areas that are wooded or waist high bushes. So based on this idea I've been looking for other areas that have the same type on grass (color). We'll see this year when I get out scouting if the other areas with the same color yield the same vegetation.

Bill G.
 
For those in parts of the USA that google earth doesn't have new imagery for and you have high speed internet you might want to try try this place. Not the easiest place to figure out but once you do it has some of the newest imagery out there.
You want to go to 'get data', then I find it easiest to use quick county on the bottom left. The ortho imagery is what you want. You can download a whole state at one time but it will take you a while to do that, they are big files. You might need a java download to use the site and you may also need to download a viewer for the images (like the MrSID viewer here, at least I think that is what I have).
Make sure you give your real email address to the USDA site because it takes a while for your "order" to get ready and they will send you a link for the download.

Tim
 
I just hope my instructions make sense.
Notice I even said 'imagery' not 'photos' or 'pictures', I'm learning. The time it takes to get an order is getting longer, more people must be using it.

Tim
 
When google earth doesn't have the high-res images I use live local. It allows you to mark and print the aerials. The black and white aerials are old ~8-10 yrs from what I can tell. -j
 
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