Bird vs. Fish

Fixing the Old Stella R Script

I’m doing this with (at least) one hand tied behind my back: I don’t know Stella, beyond a cursory understanding of what some things do and how to run models. So, I’m reliant on someone else’s translation script to make sure we get all the parts in the right place. It’s like they have provided […]

Nocturnal Surveying for the WI BBA

Tonight, I found a great horned owl that flew in from over a treeline from some northwesterly direction, perched atop a tree near where I was parked, and then flew off to hunt. It was descending as it flew off, so that’s why I guessed it had heard something and was going after prey. Since […]

Goals? I Think? Maybe Just Ideas…

It seems to me to make the most sense to update the current Stellar Python script to… Python 3 latest version of Stella (.stmx) Yet, I’m wondering if this is more trouble than it’s worth, given the annoying facets of navigating Python at all, much less converting someone else’s script. I have a bit of […]

Finding Nocturnal Species for the WI BBA

I did finally get on the board with some nocturnal birding, in the form of displaying American woodcocks at dusk! Meanwhile, some of my friends relocated the American three-toed woodpecker(s) today at the spot down the road from where I was looking (i.e. the traditional spot). The original finder had them back there a few […]

Python Tips & Tricks

If you need to find the index of an item in a list that matches e.g. a part of a string you’re searching for… indices = [i for i, s in enumerate(lines) if ‘gs4row’ in s] This will return a list of indices, telling you where in the list “lines” the string “gs4row” occurs.

Debugging OPS (Other People’s Scripts)

I copied this over from last week’s post, because this is the part I’m still working on. There are pros and cons to not having marathon debugging sessions. Sometimes you lose your place and need to take more time to get back to it. On the other hand, sometimes you get a fresh perspective by […]

Aurora Borealis Sub-storm Near the Equinox

A coronal hole high speed stream a few days ago put us on alert for some activity. I was lucky enough to catch my 1st sub-storm while driving on North Shore Drive! As I was driving, the sky practically exploded in front of me so I immediately pulled over and cut off my headlights. Not […]

Toumey-Williams Rd in Pine Island

Today, I went here for strikeout #2 for American three-toed woodpeckers.

Boreal Transition Zone: Birding in Cook, MN

I went on an unsuccessful chase of American three-toed woodpecker this weekend, but saw many great birds along the way.

How to Debug OPS (Other Peoples’ Scripts): Part 2

My first example was basically just running the script until it crashed, conveniently having the problematic values assigned to the variables at the end of the run. From there, I could run lines individually outside of the functions that were crashing, and see where it hung up. This time, I’ll actually use the debugger. Amazingly, […]