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Chaney Swiney

@chaneyswiney.com
288 followers 198 following 331 posts

cartographer, geographer, & field-checker for Benchmark Maps & Raven Maps photographer & naturalist on my own www.chaneyswiney.com

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Reposted by Chaney Swiney
Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 16/06/2026
Where you'll see a rare bird. Thanks to @ryanfm.bsky.social's newsletter for teaching me about the Cabanis's ground-sparrow that lives behind the walmart
An 8 panel comic. The first three panels are labeled "Where you think you'll see a rare bird." Panel 1 is labeled "Lush forest" and shows a beautiful rich forest with tall conifers, a waterfall, and mountains. Panel 2 is labeled "Perfect sunlit branch" and shows a branch rising above the trees, shaped like a great bird perch. Panel 3 is labeled "Area near an informational plaque about a rare bird" and shows a forest with a sign in front displaying an image of a Spruce Grouse and informational text. The next set of images are labeled "Where you'll actually see a rare bird". They include "Tree behind a Walmart", with Cabanis's ground-sparrow singing in a tree, "Skating rink parking lot" with a Lewis's woodpecker climbing a palm, "Spooky cemetery" with a Vermillion Flycatcher standing on a gravestone in a foggy spooky cemetery, "Sewage treatment plant" with a tufted duck gliding through the water, "Flying over your car" with a golden eagle sailing above a red car that's driving down the highway, and "Text from Uncle Ron" with a text exchange in which Ron says "Weird bird landed in my yard" and sends a picture of a whooping crane, to which you reply "Wow! Is it still there???" and he says "no".
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 03/06/2026
Took a lot of work, but we made it. 82-0.com
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BMcG @bootsmcgoot.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
the collective noun for homophones is a heard
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 19/03/2026
Landscape Features xkcd.com/3221/
Comic. [Small panel overlaying large panel.] PERSON 1: What’s up with this weird landscape? PERSON 2 with ponytail: Oh, it was caused by… [Large panel is map of the United States with with red overlays denoting landscape phenomena. Mega-floods in the northwest, a plate tectonics speedrun on the west coast, volcanoes next to the west coast, water and time in the southwest, geology in the west, a supervolcano within the west, glaciers in the north, farming in the middle, rivers in the mideast, geology in between rivers and farming, ??? toward the northeast, farming on the east coast, continents colliding next to the east coast, ongoing disputes between limestone and water in the south of Florida, volcanoes in Hawaii, geology in Alaska with volcanoes and glaciers below.]
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 10/03/2026
I could not beat it, but I'm good with getting close.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/12/2025
One of the stranger peak names I’ve ever come across. Bus McGall??? What’s going on here, California?
Bus McGall?
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/11/2025
Let's keep the national park anniversaries rolling since we've got maps to show off! On this day in 1919, Zion became Utah's first national park. The landscape map from Raven's new Parklands series really shows off the dazzling mix of bare rock and forested highlands that set Zion apart.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 18/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 18 - Out of This World I made you a quiz. Seven geographic names from around the US, each representing one of our planetary neighbors. Can you match the planet to the numbered location on the map?
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 17/11/2025
Wanna watch me talk about the 2nd edition of Benchmark's Yellowstone & Grand Teton atlas? Of course you do! It's 19 minutes of non-stop action. youtu.be/QuPoBFEzy4Y?...
youtu.be
Returning to Wonderland: the 2nd Edition of the Yellowstone & Grand Teton Nationa... - Chaney Swiney
YouTube video by NACIS
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 13/11/2025
Come back for Day 23 when the theme is "Process" because I've got a screen recording of building this one. Sped up, of course. Ten minutes of mapping condensed into 60 seconds of non-stop action.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 13/11/2025
It doesn't happen often, but that's twice now in the three years since we've been in NC. We missed it the first time around, though, cuz that was the night our daughter was born. Couldn't get any views out the hospital window!
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 13/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 13: 10 Minute Map I will always default to shaded relief and mountains, so this one was an easy idea: make a beautiful, unlabeled map using Eduard. I wasted almost a quarter of my 10 minutes trying to pick some mountains. Glacier Peak worked out in the end.
The topography of Glacier Peak and its surroundings

Shaded relief created using Eduard

Chaney Swiney
#30DayMapChallenge, 2025
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025
On this day in 1971, Arches became a national park, so of course that means it's time to celebrate with a map! This is the landscape version of the park from Raven's new Parklands series. Like the Canyonlands map I shared before, this color is all derived from some heavily processed aerial imagery.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 12: Map from 2125 What if we just intentionally misread it as "Map from 21º, 25º" and then make all four variants?
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025
Aurora in Asheville! Missed it 18 months ago, but not this time.
A pink glow diffuses across the sky at the bottom of the frame, fading to a dark blue with pinpricks of starlight at the top. Tree branches reach into the image from all directions.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 11 - Minimal Map Made this series a while ago, simple views of lakes around Central Oregon. Tough to pick a favorite, but I sure do love Sparks Lake. I like the understated bathymetric shading and the faint contour lines on land. And the lake stats. Love some lake stats.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 10 - Air One of my favorite pages to build for Benchmark's Alaska Atlas was this page all about transportation in the state. A big focus of the map and guide was regular air service to the more remote communities, showing all the airports and estimates of flight durations.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 9 - Analog I've never done much in the way of hand-drawn maps, but there was a time when I was trying to insert them into my notebooks where I was recording different adventures. Here's two from a winter camping trip at Lassen Volcanic National Park.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025
Playing catch up on the #30DayMapChallenge with some pre-existing maps to fit the themes... 8 - Urban I work on a lot of smaller scale maps with less urban focus. Here's two looks at some newer Raven maps: Minnesota and Japan. We went with red for built-up areas in Japan but chose gray for MN.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 07/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 7: Accessibility I like the idea of remote spots: the points furthest from a road in a given area. A few years ago, I figured out what I think that point is in TN ahead of a trip on the AT through the Smokies. Trip got cancelled, but the spot's still out there...
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 06/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 6: Dimensions Why not make a new Peakscape and lean into the dimension of depth? This is the first that isn't built only using a DEM. There's elevation data in there for the middleground and the La Sal Mtns, but Delicate Arch is pulled from one of my photos. What a landscape!
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 05/11/2025
For the two red rock versions, the colors on the landscape are derived from some extremely processed aerial imagery. For the greener and cooler mountain landscapes, it's a more straightforward use of land cover data. Had to tailor the approach to each park on its own to get the look right.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 05/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 5: Earth Repurposing some maps *and* doing some shameless self-promotion here. These are crops from the shaded relief for the new Parklands prints from Raven. Cover the bottom left corner if you want to try guessing the park just from the terrain! See the full lineup here.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025
I did something like this for the trees on the Hill while I was at UT! Now I gotta see if I can find that file somewhere...
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025
I just misread this as "Cold Gross Peak" and now I really wish that was its name.
Gold Cross Peak
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025
Looking through checklists from a friend's trip report on eBird and this is my new favorite bird name: ebird.org/species/bfgb...
ebird.org
Bare-faced Go-away-bird - eBird
Unusual gray turaco with a bushy crest and a mostly white head and breast. Found in moist savanna, woodland, shrubby cultivation, and gardens. Usually in small groups. Loud and vocal. The calls are a single hollow “khweow” and a maniacal series of cackles and whines given by multiple birds in chorus. Similar in shape to White-bellied Go-away-bird and Eastern Plantain-eater, but easily separated by the white collar and lack of white in the wings and tail.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 4: My Data The latest update to my county map, my long term project tracking every county I've ever been in. Only two new ones of late, down on the NC coast around Wilmington. Closing in on 40% overall, and if I could get to Asotin County, WA I'd have three states filled in.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 03/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 3: Polygons I am a sucker for good place names, and I will use them to bend a category to my will. Here are four selected summits around the US with polygonal names.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 02/11/2025
#30DayMapChallenge Day 2: Lines GPS tracks from 6 years of annual backpacking trips. Well… really 5 years. That 2024 line from the Smokies was just a big day trip, all we could squeeze in before Hurricane Helene. We thought we were picking the driest time of year, but it ended up being the wettest!
Graphic showing simple line maps of six backpacking trips with orange dots showing campsites.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 01/11/2025
It’s November, so it’s time for the #30DayMapChallenge! 1: Points Took a low res DEM, turned it into points, colored them with a Raven-style hypso ramp, and made Crater Lake blue. Kinda looks like a Lite Brite.
Mostly green map of Crater Lake National Park. The lake is blue, the other colors correspond to elevations with dark green for lowest and oranges and whites for highest.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 29/10/2025
Everything balances out. If there's a Big Rock Candy Mountain, then there's gotta be a...
Screenshot of a map with the label "Savory Mountain" in the middle.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 28/10/2025
Rain and wind are here to steal the colors from the mountains, but I've got receipts of what was there before.
Fall color in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mt Pisgah stands in the background, its color well past peak. In the foreground, a forested ridge shows off the reds, oranges, and yellows of autumn.Orange and yellow trees blanket the mountainsides.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 23/10/2025
Look at those colors. Autumn is moving downslope in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it's going quick.
forested mountainside, ablaze in autumn hues of red, yellow, orange, and brown. A few green trees still dot the canopy.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 22/10/2025
Awesome! Would love to see a pic of it on display whenever you find a spot for it.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 22/10/2025
Another new Raven map was released yesterday alongside all those pretty park maps: the Caribbean Sea. Classic elevation tints and some wonderful shaded relief. That bathymetry is just so pretty... #caribbean #map #bathymetry #shadedrelief www.ravenmaps.com/caribbean-se...
Map of the Caribbean Sea. On land, green shows low areas while oranges and whites show higher elevations. In the water, light blue signifies the shallows while darker blues illustrate the deepest trenches.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025
Hey hey, that’s right! Thanks for the kind words!
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025
There's a brand new series of prints available from Raven Maps & Images: Parklands. These were a blast to work on! We've got sixteen parks in two styles each. I'll fawn over the details of individual parks later. #nationalparks www.ravenmaps.com/parklands.html
map of Canyonlands National Park, colored with hues inspired by the natural landscapemap of Grand Teton National Park, colored with hypsometric tints to reflect elevations (green for low, yellow and orange for mid, white for high)
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025
This was the coolest thing I saw at @nacis.bsky.social last week (and that's saying something), and NG made it free to access so you'd better go check it out! www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/gr...
nationalgeographic.com
The world's tallest mountain? It might not be what you think
Here are the underappreciated giants challenging Everest for the title.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025
So I guess that's where he lives?
Screenshot of a map, centered on a feature labeled "Grant Hill"
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025
Never done that quantity, but I’ve had good experiences with Blurb
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 20/10/2025
That’s amazing! Looked like a vintage topo map to me at first, with the color palette and the way the impression can double as shaded relief. All the straight lines look kind of like labels, too!
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 01/10/2025
The highest peak in the east, looking nice with a little fall color mixing in among the spruce and fir. #mtmitchell #northcarolina #blackmountains
The summit of Mt Mitchell in North Carolina, seen from Mt Craig. Clouds float in a blue sky, grazing the high elevation conifer forests with yellows and oranges mixed in as the deciduous trees begin to lose their leaves.
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Reposted by Chaney Swiney
Alex Spahn 🌋🌪️☄️ @spahn711.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Absolutely stunning display as episode 34 of the Kilauea eruption came to life with dual lava fountains looking like wings of a Phoenix! Live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 17/09/2025
Too many pickles? Want to save them for later? You need a...
the map says Pickle Bank
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/09/2025
Are you a horse? Need a place to just kick back and rest for a while? Try a...
Screenshot of a map with the label "Horse Hammock" in black
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 10/09/2025
I love finding articles like this. Every local news site should be posting stories about how to pronounce place names. www.castlegarnews.com/community/pl...
castlegarnews.com
PLACE NAMES: Misspellings and mispronunciations
Is it Procter or Proctor? Woodbury or Woodberry? And how do you say Ymir? Or Fauquier? Or
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Patrick Vallely @pjvphotography.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
A pika sits on a mossy rock.Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 28/08/2025
Playing with Peakscapes again. This one will always one of my favorites because it was the one where I dialed in the sunset look. The colors of a day ending in the Southern Appalachians can be pretty spectacular. www.ravenmaps.com/mm5/merchant...
"Peakscape" showing the Black Mountains in North Carolina. Summits are labeled with names and elevations. Colors run in a gradient of darker to lighter purple on the landscape under a sky of pink and orange.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Extraordinary terrain shading in this pre Civil War map of Colorado River. from www.raremaps.com/gallery/deta... #cartography 🗺️
Map notable for its innovative depictions of the topography and the geology of the Colorado River, the result of development of a new method for representing topography that imparts the appearance of depth to the topography and nearly mimics a satellite image.
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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 20/08/2025
Watched this premiere on YouTube last night after following these guys and their 2024 big year. Can't recommend it highly enough. It's a great watch. They know birds (now), and they know how to make a good film.
youtu.be
LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching
YouTube video by owen reiser
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