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Identification Concept (1 Viewer)

mwrogers

Member
Hi all, I have a question about field identification.

I’m a design student Syracuse University in America and I am doing a semester long project on birding!!! As part of my concept development, I am seeking the input of other birders. I have 3 questions about in field observation recording. If anyone could find the time to give feedback, I would really appreciate it.


1). How do you record sightings in the field?

2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?

3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything?


Thanks so much for you time. Next week I can post some of my designs if anyone is interested.

Mark
[email protected]
 
1. Small notebook ringed at the top.
2. You must distinguish here. A Life List is personal and the corroborator is basically yourself or also birding buddies with you at the time. The other two uses involve corroboration.
3. Kind of a strange question but I have a fertile imagination. How about a small wireless headset with a satellite uplink directly to my PC that is itself equipped with applications capable of converting my spoken words into coherent data.
 
mwrogers said:
1). How do you record sightings in the field?
If for scientific surveys, I use a microcassette recorder, with clipboard & data sheets as a back-up. If personal and weather/conditions permit, same; otherwise, a pocket-sized spiral notebook and leave the recorder in the car/wheelhouse for recording additional lengthy notes.


2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?
Just time-consuming. If I could use voice-to-text technology in the field, it would make the personal listings easier to enter into the computer at home, but not for scientific surveys in transferring info to data sheets.


3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything?
First and foremost, a powerful but small and *affordable* sound recorder so bird songs/calls could be much more easily and accurately recorded in the field. During point-count surveys and even some types of censusing, 95+% of IDing is done aurally, not visually, and there are some genuses whose individuals cannot be distinguished with any confidence except by voice (Empidonax and Myiarchus flycatchers, for example).

Secondly, more powerful, less cumbersome, fully automatic (and again, of course) more affordable digital photographic technology so that distant and problematic individuals can be documented and ID'd later. Along with this would be accompanying software to "clean up" the horrific pixellation that occurs when zooming in on specific areas of an image. Kind of like the optical illusions the CSI/FBI/CIA TV shows tell us can be done so a crystal clear and sharp image emerges out of the chaos! ;)
 
mwrogers said:
1). How do you record sightings in the field?]
3-letter code on either a pre-formed datasheet (if for a scientific survey), or 3-letter code or abbreviation on a piece of paper (if recreational). Date, time of day, locality and weather also recorded.

mwrogers said:
2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?]
No. datasheets for scientific work are set up to record all relevant data in easy to access format. The only limitation is how accurately I can record things such as weather, locality, species (number, type etc...). Recreational lists translate across directly too.

mwrogers said:
3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything? ]
A device to read my frontal lobe so that every time I thought the bird, it was recorded in a spreadsheet without the need for me to vocalise, type or write. Also, the device would automatically record time, GPS coordinates, temperature, %humidity, %cloud cover and elevation (I would also like it to record distance from observer and height above ground level, but that would probably require either a headset or integrated binoculars)

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
 
Digital?

Thanks all for you help.
I really appreciate your feedback. Many of the features raised in your postings have made their way to the design board. I’m looking at PDA technology that can take voice and turn it directly to text. There is also software to translate handwriting to text! I’m also thinking that instrumentation should be included inside the device to capture measurements of the environment with every sighting.


Would having all of this sighting and environmental information in digital form be helpful? So far no one has said they keep life lists on their computer, or frequently upload their sightings to the internet or type them into scientific data sheets.

If anyone has any thoughts on if they would like to make information digital, please let me know.
 
mwrogers said:
Thanks all for you help.
Would having all of this sighting and environmental information in digital form be helpful?
Always. I didn't go into any detail because as has already been mentioned, "listing" requirements for scientific vs. casual birding are different. For personal listings, I keep track of date, time, temp, current weather conditions, habitat, species, # of individuals of each species, whether young are present, whether nests are found, and behaviors. Too difficult to list the scientific requirements because each survey/project can be different.


So far no one has said they keep life lists on their computer, or frequently upload their sightings to the internet or type them into scientific data sheets.
I do the first two of the three you mention: (1) Keep lists (trip, yard -- don't keep a "life list" per se) in a simple table in a word processing program although I'm seriously thinking of buying AviSys. (2) And I upload all my yard data into Cornell U's eBird database once a month (although I'm seriously behind). ;)

Haven't found a way to fill in the scientific data sheets other than by handwriting the info transcribed from the microcassette recorder. If the data sheets were in a digital template, such as in Excel, it would make creating all subsequent reports a breeze.
 
mwrogers said:
1). How do you record sightings in the field?

2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?

3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything?
1. Most often with Palm (notes on calendar & drawings with Sketch@Hand). Sometimes (far away from elecricity) with a small sketch book with pencil.

2. Rewriting them with pen in journals takes time, but this is a hobby to me, ie. part of the fun. Job stuff goes from Palm via Word to paper. Never trust electricity!

3. Eyeglasses that identify everything I see & hear & make instant documents in some Excel & Access hybrid program called Excess... A second thought: Earphoned GPS-eyeglasses that instantly tell me if there's anything good to be found in five kilometres radius & directs me there.
 
mwrogers said:
1). How do you record sightings in the field?

2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?

3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything?
1) Usually don't. But I always carry a small notebook just in case I need to sketch a rarity or UFO.

2) I just tick sightings off my year list when I get home. Occassionally I get around to updating my computer records.

3) Star Wars? I want a remote DNA scanner. "I'm getting signs of avian biology, Captain. Possibly Charadrius mongolus stegmanni". "Very good, ensign. Transfer to life list".
 
mwrogers said:
1). How do you record sightings in the field?

Notebook and biros


mwrogers said:
2). Is there any difficulty in taking those field observations and putting them into a useful form (life lists, journals, scientific data etc.)?

Just time. before my darling children came along, I could spend evenings writing things out longhand into my logs. Now I just spend an evening around new year putting an Excel table together for the local report. If i can find my notes.


mwrogers said:
3). What would you make to record bird sightings if we had Star Wars technology and could make anything?

Really I want binoculars that id what I saw, that I can plug into the PC at hom,e and transfer all the details to excel or something similar.

But sod it, can I just have a Death Star... please?
 
I keep all my birding sightings in an Access data base and from this can get yard, county, state, country, year, or life lists as required. I note species / subspecies, numbers, sex, juvenile or adult, and plumages if appropriate.

As for Katy's earlier suggestion on something new and helpful, I would like a field birdsong recorder that could record and then match the song / call to an existing database of birdsongs (maybe by a comparison of sound spectographs).
 
Dave B Smith said:
As for Katy's earlier suggestion on something new and helpful, I would like a field birdsong recorder that could record and then match the song / call to an existing database of birdsongs (maybe by a comparison of sound spectographs).
Yes yes yes! Even better!
 
Mr. Potato Head Bird

Hi everyone, your responses are Outstanding!! Your creativity is so exciting and your help has been invaluable. :clap: I’ve got a question that keeps nagging me: What’s the most effective way to identify an unknown bird using a guide book? I’m trying to figure out how birders do it now, because I’m thinking about a “Mr. Potato Head” interface for use on a screen where turning pages is not yet possible.

Is it to consider:
1) Size
2) Body Shape
3) Wing Shape
4) Tail Shape
5) Beak Shape
6) Habitat
7) Color
8) Movement
9) song/call
(list complements of black52bird)


What do you think about a “Mr. Potato Head Bird” where you swap in and out all of the traits above until you get an accurate representation of the UFO you are looking at? Then the computer compiles your choices and offers a list of possible species along with a picture and sample song/call of each. Would it be possible to look at the pictures and listen to the calls in order to make quicker, more reliable identifications?


- Mark A.K.A. Young designer slowly but surely being drawn into the art of Birding.
 
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