This tutorial demonstrates how to add a single wildlife observation (plant / animal / fungus, etc) to your FieldNotes database, using an OS Grid reference to specify where you saw it. This is the only procedure that you will need to learn to compile a database of your own wildlife observations. However, the other tutorials will help you to speed up the process of data-entry, assist you in generating reports, maps and exportable files, and generally allow you to get much more from your FieldNotes software.

This tutorial assumes that FieldNotes software has already been installed and setup on your computer (see previous tutorials for help on installation and setup).

Preliminary Steps in adding a Wildlife Observation

Adding a new wildlife Observation to your database is a straightforward process that involves completing a handful of fields in a single form (described below). The preliminary steps below show how to select the appropriate form (also known as a dialog) from within FieldNotes.

Preliminary - set the level-of-detail

A key feature of FieldNotes is that wildlife Observations (and other records) may be entered with varying levels-of-detail ('Quick', 'Standard' or 'Advanced'), depending how much information is available, what sort of records are required and your personal preferences. Introductory tutorials use the 'Quick' level-of-detail for data-entry forms:

Before starting ensure that
form-detail, on the
File | Level-of-detail
menu, is set to "Quick".

The level-of-detail affects the number of input fields displayed in a form:

• 'Quick' - contains only essential record information;
• 'Standard' - includes all relevant record information, and;
• 'Advanced' - includes a number of more detailed fields (some of which may require specialised knowledge).

The relevant Help library pages contain more detailed information about using level-of-detail.

Open the 'New Observation' form

The quickest way of opening the 'New Observation' form is to ensure that the record-type selector is set to Observations, and select the Add button on the main toolbar.

Opening the 'New Observation'
form by selecting:
Observations, then
the Add button.

However there are often several alternative ways of opening forms in FieldNotes - you may find it more convenient use the Records menu and select Add, then Observation.

Opening the 'New Observation' form
directly from the Add Record menu.

The 'New Observation' form is displayed, containing the fields used to record a new wildlife Observation. Certain field values are initialised with values based on the current session.

The 'New Observation' form

Input data fields

Field		Notes
	Species	Species name (common or latin name)
	Species entry	(auto-generated from field )
	Abundance	No. of individuals seen
	Record Sensitivity	Species Sensitivity assessment
	Date / time	When the Observation was made
	Location	Where the Observation was made
	Recorder	Who made the Observation
	Notes	Additional notes
	Help	Field-content information
	Save	Save data as new record
	Cancel	Cancel the form

Note that several fields have a pastel background - either pale red (eg. "Species", "Date / time", "Location" fields) or pale blue (eg. "Recorder" field). The remaining fields have uncoloured (white) backgrounds. Background colours indicate how important it is to provide data for a particular field -

Mandatory fields are essential for creating a valid record - for example, an Observation which has not been given any location has no value to either the recorder or recording organisations. Advisory fields provide important or useful information for subsequent processing - for example, including the Recorder's name is important to prevent duplication when collating larger datasets. In general it is good practice to provide as much information (ie. complete as many fields) as possible.

Steps in adding a Wildlife Observation

Sections 1-8 below describe the steps in completing the 'New Observation' form from scratch.

Select the Species name

Enter the species name in the field named "Species". You can use a common name (Grey Seal) or the scientific name (Halichoerus grypus) as preferred. After several letters have been entered, the auto-complete function will try to anticipate the species using the closest matching name from the Species database.

Enter the Common or Latin
name in the 'Species' field

Continue typing until the correct species name is displayed, then finish by pressing the Return key or use the adjacent Add button, either of which will add the species name to the species-data list (below the entry field).

Species name added
to the Species-data list

Note that an abundance of 1 (ie. single species observation) is automatically entered into the relevant column.

Enter number of individuals observed

The number of individuals observed (abundance) is automatically set to one when a new species is added to the list . (This value is correct in the current case, and can be left unchanged.)

Where necessary you can update the abundance by double-clicking on the appropriate column in the species-data list (to the right of the species that you have entered), entering the number of individuals observed, then either press the return key or click anywhere else on the form to enter this value.

Set the number of individuals
in the species-data list

Assign a Sensitivity to this Record

Record Sensitivity is a rough measure of the importance of your the Observation, both in terms of the species itself (ie. emphasises unusual or rare species) and the context of the record (ie. den, nest). This field becomes increasingly important when you start sharing your data with other recorders / Wildlife recording schemes, as it allows you to quickly select a suitable subset of records based on importance.

In this case the Observation has a low sensitivity, as this is not a priority species and furthermore it is unlikely that someone visiting the same spot would find a similar individual. (Infact, for the majority of Observations this field can be safely ignored.)

Setting record sensitivity.

3. Enter the date when you made the observation

For convenience, the "Date" field is automatically preset to the current date. If this is not the date when you made the observation, then correct the displayed date using either of the two following methods:

3(i). Simply delete the existing value in the "Date" field and type in the correct date (and time if required).

Updating the Observation
date directly

Any date format that is not ambiguous is acceptable, with few restrictions on separators; eg.

3(ii). Alternatively, press the adjacent Calendar button and select the correct date using the Calendar tool.

Selecting the
Observation date
using the Calendar tool

When you have chosen the appropriate day/month/year on the calendar, selecting OK will automatically transfer the value into the relevant field on the 'New Observation' form.

Enter the place where you made this observation

In order to identify the place where you made the observation uniquely, you should provide the appropriate Ordnance Survey grid reference. This may be published in a relevant report or description of the area, obtained from a hand-held GPS unit (which are now included in many mobile phones), or worked out using a large-scale map. If you are unsure of the OS grid reference but know the name of the location, there are several ways of looking it up:

• If you have a copy of the relevant OS map (large-scale, eg. ExplorerTM), the FieldNotes Hints pages describe how to lookup the OS grid reference from the map.
• If you have an internet connection, tools for looking up an OS grid reference using online resources can be found at the UK Grid Reference Finder web-site.

Specifying the location
using an OS grid reference -
spaces may be used to separate
components if preferred.

OS grid references are most usually given in six-figure format (eg. SW123123). This level of precision, which resolves to a 100m-square on the ground, is easily read from large-scale (eg. OS Explorer TM) maps. However the OS grid reference can be specified to other levels of precision - many GPS units and online mapping resources provide 8-figure (10m-square precision) or 10-figure (1m-square precision) OS grid references as standard. A 4-figure grid reference (1km-square precision) may be sufficient for mobile species.

5. Confirm that the Recorder name is correct

For convenience the "Recorder" field is automatically preset with the current FieldNotes user. However if this observation was made by someone else, their name should be entered in this field instead. To update the field contents, either:

5(i). Simply delete the existing value and type in the name of the person who made this observation:

Updating the Recorder
name directly.

5(ii). Alternatively, use the Recorder button to view a list of recorders entered into the database:

Selecting a Recorder from the list of recorder records:

Select the appropriate recorder name (by double-clicking - this will add the name to the 'Selected' list on the left-hand side of the form), then press the OK button to enter this value into the relevant field on the 'New Observation' form.

Add relevant notes about this Observation

The 'Notes' field is free-text format - you may enter as little or much additional information as you like. For example, you may wish to include notes on observed colour variations, size or behaviour. As we have specified the location using just an OS Grid reference, it is useful to include some additional information about finding the site here, for future reference.

Add relevant notes
for this Observation

The 'Notes' field will automatically scroll to provide more space for your entry if required. Alternatively double-click anywhere on the field to use a larger data-entry form.

Review the data you have entered

Take a moment to check that the data you have entered is correct, and agrees with your field notebook entry.

The 'New Observation' form - completed

Field notebook entry

8. Save this record to the database

Pressing the Save button will save the information you have entered as a new database record. Before the information is saved, however, FieldNotes will carry out a number of internal consistency checks on the values you have entered, and warn you if changes are required (eg. if the Observation date is invalid or ambiguous) or desirable (eg. if advisory fields that have not been completed). If error or warning messages are generated, you will have the opportunity to correct the values you have entered before the record is saved.

Your Observation information is now saved as a record in the database. Later tutorials will show you how to create reports and plot maps based on your wildlife Observations.

Errors and Warnings generated by the 'New Observation' form

See relevant sections above for details of valid values.

Notes

1. In some cases, a species cannot be uniquely identified from the species name that has been entered by the user. There are two main reasons for this:

• Unrecognised Species names may occur as a result of mis-spelling the intended name, or from using an alternative (in some case local) name that is not included in the FieldNotes species database.
• Unresolved Species names occur when two distinct species are commonly referred to by the same common name - for example, water boatman, cabbage white (where the common name may refer to several species); eyebright, hawkweed, bramble (where the common name is applied indiscriminately to a number of micro-species).

In both cases the relevant help topic provides guidance for establishing the correct species name. Additional help topics describe techniques for Exploring the Species database and Exploring the Taxon database, demonstrating alternative methods for uniquely identifying species.

To list the Observations that you have entered into the database ...

If you wish to view all wildlife Observations currently entered in the FieldNotes database, set the record-type selector to Observations then select the Data taskbar button:

Select the Data button
on the Taskbar (Data mode).

A list of all current 'Observation' records is displayed in the data-view window. The window may be scrolled up/down to view all records, and left/right to examine all fields for a specific record.

'Observations' records [Data view]