Hi Drew,
Thanks for the question. My main project right now is on obtaining
interesting ecological conclusions from the eBird database. Most of us
birders probably use eBird in some way, but eBird also allows scientists
of various sorts to download the entire database of all observations
ever taken. It's quite large - even without all the photos it's around
250GB.
I'm currently actually looking at Rainbow Lorikeet populations around
Perth, and how these may be affecting other parrot and cockatoo
populations around that area. The mathematics comes in through
statistical and differential equation models, which is a way of
describing how two or more species of parrots might compete for nest
holes. Using mathematical models like that, equilibrium points can be
calculated mainly using techniques from multivariable calculus. These
can be stable or unstable points in a population, which can aid in
understanding if certain populations are at risk.
By using eBird data, parts of the mathematical model can be estimated
and/or validated. By comparing the results of the models with the data,
we can sort of see how accurate they are, and get a better understanding
of the mechanisms for parrot competition.
It is not perfect since eBird data is rather heterogeneous, but
nevertheless the data and models can indicate future directions for more
concentrated research.
My eventual goal is to develop more complex models using the entire
eBird dataset. Right now I'm just using the last five years in
Australia. That is because I am still working out the details of how to
make data processing extra fast for more complex analyses -- as you can
imagine, everyone's eBird observations gets to be quite complex to
process. However, I have developed a pretty lean solution using Python
and SQlite that is suitable for desktop hardware.
The project is still in progress, but stay tuned as the final paper will
have lots of graphs, diagrams, and pictures illustrating this a little
better!
Sincerely,
Jason
On 2019-09-14 6:49 p.m., Drew Davison wrote:
>
>
> Hi Jason,
>
>
>
> Interesting story you had there. I am just wondering if you could
> provide some information on how you are thinking of applying mathematics
> to birds and wildlife? This is quite intriguing, and I am sure many of
> us would want to find out more.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Drew Davison
>
> Perth, WA
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Birding-Aus <> on behalf of
> Jason Polak <>
> *Sent:* Saturday, September 14, 2019 11:47:17 PM
> *To:* <>
> *Subject:* [Birding-Aus] bird blog update
>
> Dear All,
>
> A while ago I asked everyone to submit their blog link if they had one.
> I took all of those links and put them on the link page on my blog:
>
> https://badbirding.jpolak.org/links/
>
> I ams still searching some of the links I've found in these blogs as
> well so those will go up soon. Thanks everyone! I've seen lots of great
> blogs on birds so far.
>
> A bit of background on our own blog: my wife and I started out birding
> in Australia and saw 295 species there (actually 296 is more like it,
> though we never figured out whether we saw Yellow-spotted Honeyeater,
> Graceful Honeyeater, or both! haha). We got that amazing opportunity
> because I did a postdoc there in math.
>
> Birding actually changed my career goals: I am now interested in
> applying mathematics to conservation and wildlife because of birds. (I'm
> not exactly there yet, but I'm working on it.)
>
> We are originally from Canada and we moved back here about a year and a
> half ago now. Canadian birding is a lot different than Australian
> birding, that's for sure! But we recently got to our 100th species in
> Canada. That along with a trip to Jamaica brought us to 447 species now.
>
> That's not very high yet, but our goal is to get to 5000 birds in our
> lifetime, and photograph them all. (So far, we have a pretty good track
> record for that. We've only missed 3 species in our cameras.)
>
> Happy birding!
> Most sincerely,
> Jason Polak
>
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