David Ellsworth's eBird Polygon Tool (1 Viewer)

[KatherineC]

First-time poster. About a month ago, I and some fellow birders/conservationists in Montreal discovered David Ellsworth's amazing eBird polygon tool eBird Polygon Tool, described in this now-seemingly-inactive thread (eBird Polygon Tool). About three weeks ago, queries that involved over 100 eBird locations wound up receiving an "Oops!" message from eBird after we uploaded our .kmz/.kml polygons through the polygon tool. Smaller polygons still offer retrievable data, but not the larger 215-hectare polygons we were working with before. Any advice from current users on fixes? (I see that the last update to the software was 2021-09-30, and changes seem to have been occurring on a monthly basis in the changelog prior to that point.) This is such an amazing amazing resource. If you're out there reading this David Ellsworth, a huge thank you from Technoparc Oiseaux in Montreal. Many thanks in advance!

 

[njlarsen]

I seem to remember that the original version of the tool came with a warning that only 50 locations were sampled if you drew a polygon covering a larger number. Maybe this has changed to the point where you don't see any results with the larger polygons?
Niels

 

[KatherineC]

I seem to remember that the original version of the tool came with a warning that only 50 locations were sampled if you drew a polygon covering a larger number. Maybe this has changed to the point where you don't see any results with the larger polygons?
Niels

Thanks, good to know! I'm able to use it for a polygon with 62 locations; unfortunately, the polygon I'm interested in has 167. Hopefully a regular update is still in the works. And again, cannot thank David Ellsworth enough for this tool. Really surprised polygons haven't been formally integrated into eBird, such an invaluable resource.

 

[njlarsen]

Thanks, good to know! I'm able to use it for a polygon with 62 locations; unfortunately, the polygon I'm interested in has 167. Hopefully a regular update is still in the works. And again, cannot thank David Ellsworth enough for this tool. Really surprised polygons haven't been formally integrated into eBird, such an invaluable resource.

I believe polygons have been one of many developments that have been discussed and postponed.
Could you make four polygons covering your 167 and sum the data afterwards?
Niels

 

[KatherineC]

I believe polygons have been one of many developments that have been discussed and postponed.
Could you make four polygons covering your 167 and sum the data afterwards?
Niels

Thanks! We'll try that although I imagine there will be significant species overlap and the ideal is to extract a single bar-chart for the area. As of right now in our conservation area, we have one "general site" and four smaller embedded eBird hotspots (on a 215-hectare site). When we do the total of the four hotspots on eBird, we get the same number as we did when the larger polygon function was working, which is great for now, but that doesn't include any of the personal eBird locations that observers tend to use when they're unaware of the hotspots.

 

[temmie]

...but that doesn't include any of the personal eBird locations that observers tend to use when they're unaware of the hotspots.

Some observers are perfectly aware of hotspots, but still tend to use personal ebird locations for very good reasons...

 

[KatherineC]

Some observers are perfectly aware of hotspots, but still tend to use personal ebird locations for very good reasons...

Yes, absolutely!

 

[temmie]

Yes, absolutely!

But I can see why that is, both for ebird and the polygon tool, not very handy in terms of data management!