An easy way to calculate distances and areas
Galileo Hill, California.
To estimate distance traveled, visit www.RunningMap.com Enter a street address, city, or state (or its two-letter postal code) and then zoom the map in on the area you went birding (you need to create and account but it is free). Using your left mouse button plot your starting point and then plot your route, and your distance traveled will be shown when you mouse over each point along the route. Note that you can toggle between a map view, a satellite view, and a hybrid view (our personal favorite). The user-friendly tool bar provides a number of helpful features. At the leftmost edge of the toolbar you can change settings to display distance in miles or kilometers. If you made a mapping error, you can clear the entire map or just the last point plotted. You can save or print a route, and can add areas of interest. There are several other additional features, but for birders the most interesting of these is an elevation chart for your birding route!
Perhaps easier is a new application http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. This differs from runningmap.com in that it does not require a log-in and runs off GoogleMaps rather than YahooMaps. You may want to check out coverage of each in your local area--one may have better imagery than the other and the ideal application for your area may vary.
To estimate area covered, try http://www.acme.com/planimeter/. You will be presented with a Google Maps interface similar to the one you see when plotting your location in eBird and you have the option of viewing this as a street map, satellite image, or even a topo map! You will then be able to plot several points that describe the boundaries of the area you are measuring. The interface is similar to the one above--simply left-click your mouse to draw a polygon around the area you wish to measure. You can clear the map or just the last point using the buttons on the right. NOTE: The area calculation is a bit difficult to spot in some browsers--it shows up in small print at the bottom of the map image, but provides acres, hectares, square miles, and more (basically every measure of area that one could hope for).
eBirders may be interested in the two examples used in our images. The distance calculation image above maps a walk around the fields at Higbee Beach WMA in the famous migration hotspot of Cape May, New Jersey--perhaps the single best place to find fall migrant landbirds on the east coast. The area calculated is at the vagrant hotspot at Galileo Hill, northeast of California City in Kern County, California. This tiny oasis in the state's eastern deserts is a magnet for migrant birds and a superlative location for finding rarities--two Arctic Warblers were discovered here in September 2007 and the Lower 48's only Eyebrowed Thrush also hails from here! Since this is a rather small location, it is feasible to survey the irrigated area (where most of the birds are) in its entirety. A proper area search should only include areas such as this that can be surveyed thoroughly enough that most birds will be discovered. Do not enter your observations as an Area Search if you are scanning far offshore or leaving significant portions of the area uncovered.
Using these tools should help to measure your distances and areas much more accurately, whether you are searching for the next Siberian vagrant at Galileo Hill or for your first Common Redpoll of the winter in your own backyard.
