Mapping the butterfly eruption

OK, I got rather a lot of information thanks to the previous post and thought we'd cash in on it as fast as possible - the butterflies are moving again over Ilboru right now, not in large numbers yet, but it's still cool. I think I've created a google map that anyone can edit with their location and observations. It's not a polished item, but I've put what I've discovered in for far and it's already interesting. (If anyone tech-savvy can make it neater I'd love to have icons that reflected the direction and volume of movement, rather than just pins...) If we get lots of observations on this it will definitely make a note for some lepidoptera publication and we'll have pushed back the frontiers of science, which would be great!


View Butterfly eruption 2012 in a larger map

So, instructions....


I think all you have to do is click on the link below the embedded map (or HERE) above to open it in google maps. You'll need to log in to google I'm afraid (if you're not there already), but once you've done that it should just be a matter of clicking first on the red EDIT button on the left hand side of the map, then clicking on a location to add your information. If there are no butterflies where you are, chose a red cross (click first on the pin icon on the top left of the screen, then click where you want to put it in and then click on the pin to edit the data - click on the icon of the pin and chose My Icons to get a set of icons I've drawn and currently in use), if there are some butterflies use the green arrows, if none use the red cross, use a paler colour if there weren't many butterflies. Once clicked in place, click to edit the information and let me know direction of movement and numbers. Ideally I'd love everyone to be out in the hot part of today some time and count the number of butterflies that cross an imaginary 20m line in a 1 minute period. This would be nicely comparable data everywhere. If it's anything like yesterday you'll get hundreds in this period! If you can't give me a detailed count, or they're not moving in your area today, let me know roughly how many (10s, 100s, 1000s or millions you think there were when you did see them). Oh, forgot to say, when you've adden your point, press the "Done" button on the left (where the Edit one was originally) so submit the records. If it's all too technical just add your observations in the comments below, or send me a message and I'll do it for you!

Thanks very much! We'll learn together (and I'll learn to use google maps...)! And please do share this like with any of your facebook friends or elsewhere - the more the merrier! You can click on the facebook like icon below, if anyone twitters even better!