861.

That's how many times we looked at one of the ten elk we put radiocollars on, and said "There she is."

And I don't even want to tell you how many hours it took for me to enter those 861 coordinates into my newly created database. Too, too many.

'Course, a large part of the problem was I kept getting distracted. I'd get done with a season, or a year, and all of a sudden I'd want to plot the new data out and see what it looks like.

Never mind that there was really no point in doing any of that until all the data was in. Else, I'd just have to do all the steps over again.

Which I did.

'Cause I couldn't wait.

So, all the data is in the system now. Time to get serious about what it all means. Which will take, like, forever. Mainly because I still have to learn how to make the software do what I want it to.

Anyone ever work with the "Help" functions with ArcGIS?

The people who wrote these things are really blinking idiots! I mean, it doesn't even read as if it were in English, yet it is. Yet it all makes no sense.

One of the folks in our outfit got her Master's degree in this software.

Not in the science behind digital analysis of data, mind you. Nor in writing the software.

No, she got a Master's degree in using this software package.

And I'm sure she earned it.

Anyway, just for fun, and because I couldn't wait to look at it in a more systematic manner, here's our 861 elk observations, all lumped together (colored by seasonal months).