Mapping the Monarch Butterfly
By searching Flickr for geotagged photos we can see where people were seeing Monarch butterflies this year, and every year since 2008. We get a list of photos captured between January 1 and today's date of each year, then generate a heatmap for each year, using the same scale for each year.
The data isn't perfect, for example Flickr itself has had ups & downs over the past few years, and the number of digital cameras that we've been carrying has been changing quickly, but this should give us some idea of what's going on.
There are still things I'd like to add if time allows:
- Automatically advance the years, so we can sit back and watch as the migration changes over time.
- A way to show only a month or a week at a time of data, so we can watch the migration as it happens.
- It would be nice to actually see some of the photos.
The option to show full-year data for previous years.Done!