About, data notes and ethics

This guide is a planning tool built from a fixed research data set. It never claims to know what is happening in the field today.

Ethics and safety

Never approach sensitive sites

Nests, nesting islands, roosts, leks and breeding colonies are off limits. Use long lenses, blinds provided by the managing agency, and established viewing points. Leave the moment a bird changes its behaviour because of you.

Whooping cranes are rare and protected

Do not pursue, follow or approach them, and do not share precise locations. Report sightings using the contacts preserved in the whooping crane record: USFWS Lostwood, USFWS Long Lake, or ND Game and Fish.

Chase Lake NWR

Emphasis on distant observation and current-access verification. Do not approach the nesting colony. See the Chase Lake record for the supplied access notes.

Hunting seasons overlap fall migration

Many of these areas allow hunting in fall. Wear high-visibility clothing, know the shooting hours, check current regulations with ND Game and Fish, and give hunters space.

Approximate coordinates are planning references

13 of 41 places carry an approximate pin. Treat those as a general area, never as a trailhead, parking area or property boundary.

Access changes

Public-land status, road conditions, permits and seasonal closures change. Confirm with the managing agency before travelling, and respect closures, posted signs and private-property boundaries.

Data notes

30 bird records with spring and fall month arrays, timing text, corridors, staging areas and photography tips.
41 public-land records with coordinates, coordinate quality, regions, land types, peak months, access notes, fees and cautions.
60 historical photo posts, of which 13 have no identified species and 52 have no mapped place. Those gaps are kept visible as unlinked evidence rather than guessed at or dropped.
Everything in the interface is drawn from those three files. Nothing is invented, padded or replaced with sample content, and every source link is preserved exactly.
Months run from January (1) to December (12). Winter windows that cross the year boundary — Rough-legged Hawk, Bald Eagle — are labelled “Winter visitor”.

What is live, what is planning guidance

Live when you have a connection: recent eBird observations — statewide reports, reports for one bird, notable reports, large concentrations and birding hotspots — and National Weather Service forecasts. Sunrise, sunset and golden-hour times are calculated on your device from each location’s own coordinates, so they still work without a signal.

Planning guidance from the fixed research set: seasonal migration windows for 30 birds, 41 public-land records with their access notes, and 60 historical photo posts. These describe what has happened before, not what is happening today.

External resources, opened in their own sites: BirdCast nocturnal migration maps and the Audubon Migration Explorer. Nothing is copied or scraped from them.

Last successful refresh

Recent eBird observations
Refreshing…
National Weather Service forecast (Bismarck)
Refreshing…
Recent sightings data from eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Forecasts from the National Weather Service (weather.gov).

What these labels mean

These four labels are used the same way everywhere in the guide.

Live observation: A birder reported this to eBird recently. The report date and its age are always shown. It is not a guarantee the bird is still there, and not an access guarantee.
Historical evidence: A past public photo post from the research set, linked to the original. It shows this bird was photographed here before — not that it is here now.
Seasonal expectation: The bird has historically been in North Dakota during this window. It describes timing only, never a sighting.
Unverified access note: Access, roads, fees and closures as recorded in the source data. Confirm with the managing agency before you travel.

Limitations

Migration timing changes with weather, ice-out, water levels, and food conditions. Verify current access and recent observations before traveling.
Seasonal labels such as “Likely this month” and “Peak window” describe historical timing. They are never confirmations that a bird is present today.
The photo evidence log is a historical research set, not a live sightings feed. Photos are never copied here — each entry links to the original public post, and some older posts may no longer open if their author removed them.
A bird with no linked place, or a place with no linked evidence, reflects a gap in the data set — not an absence of birds.
Live eBird reports come from birders and are not reviewed before they appear here. Forecasts and sun times are calculations, not promises about the weather or the birds.

Offline and installation

You can install this guide to your home screen. The app shell and all three data files are cached, so bird profiles, place details and your saved items stay readable without a signal.
Map tiles are not stored offline. When the basemap cannot load you will see a clear message, and coordinates, access notes and saved details still work.
Directions and source posts need a connection because they open other services.
Favourites, recent views, your planning month and field mode are stored on this device only. There is no account and nothing is uploaded.

Classroom use

Filter links are shareable. Send students a specific plan such as a month plus a bird, and their browser Back button returns them to the previous view.
Field mode enlarges type, raises contrast and strips decoration for bright outdoor light. Every map action also exists as a keyboard-reachable list.
Ask students to verify access and current conditions with the managing agency as part of every assignment — that verification step is part of the craft.
Use the evidence log to teach source evaluation: caption dates versus post dates, free-text locations versus mapped places, and what a public post can and cannot prove.