A couple of Scythebill problems (1 Viewer)

[delia todd]

I've just started using Scythebill to record sightings.

Some of my entries for one site when I hit done, I get a message to say that there's not enough information for ebird. But I've no idea what can be missing. The geolocation is there, it put a spot on the map which is in the right place. I filled in as much info about the birds as I was able to... No of species, Full list, No seen, etc

I did exactly the same for another site and that didn't get the message, so I presume went through to ebird. However, the issue I have with that one is that I was clicking around and selected for the Type of Site: Park. Then I was unable to enter the start/finish time and the number of hours there. It also said Birdwatching wasn't the main object of the visit (can't remember what else now). But that was all false as none of the other items listed were relevant... it wasn't a town etc

But now I can't find a way to edit that site to remove "Park" from the description.

Last one for now: I wanted a Mammal Taxonomy list so followed there advice and got the Global one downloaded to my computer (it did tell me that not all the columns could be included?). But when I went to load it into Scythebill I got an error message saying it couldn't be loaded as there was no ID row?

I've no idea what this means so don't know where to go with it. I've attached a screen shot of the spreadsheet, but I'd re-saved it as a .csv sheet for Scythebill

 

[Mike Crawley]

I haven’t started using scythebill, yet, so can’t help
But my friends who do us it tell me that the chap who administrates it is very approachable and very helpful

 

[delia todd]

Thanks Mike

 

[delia todd]

I haven’t started using scythebill, yet, so can’t help
But my friends who do us it tell me that the chap who administrates it is very approachable and very helpful

Ummm... how do I do that?

I went into "Report an issue" and it wanted me to log into log into a site called "Bitsomething or other". I had to create an account there but when I went to the next screen I was told I couldn't log in. I can't remember the full message.

 

[Mike Crawley]

 

[Mike Crawley]

Sorry Delia,

I made contact by facebook messenger don’t know if that will help

 

[delia todd]

Thanks Mike.

After a couple of false starts I found my way to Scythebill on Facebook and have sent a message to them.

Cheers lad.

 

[Scridifer]

He is a member on here Delia, Adam Winer, user name awiner I think. As Mike says always very helpful. I'm a huge fan of Scythebill, also use it for my butterflies, herps etc.

Chris

 

[delia todd]

He is a member on here Delia, Adam Winer, user name awiner I think. As Mike says always very helpful. I'm a huge fan of Scythebill, also use it for my butterflies, herps etc.

Chris

Aaaah! I thought he was a member, but couldn't recall the name.

Thanks Chris. Hopefully he'll see my thread then, it's difficult to put all that in a FB message LOL.

@awiner are you out there LOL

 

[Scridifer]

Aaaah! I thought he was a member, but couldn't recall the name.

Thanks Chris. Hopefully he'll see my thread then, it's difficult to put all that in a FB message LOL.

@awiner are you out there LOL

He's 'on the other side of the pond' Delia so quite possibly getting his beauty sleep at the moment, I am sure he will be in touch.

Chris

 

[delia todd]

LOL yes... guess they're just beginning to wake up over there now.

 

[awiner]

Don't know that I'd call it "beauty sleep", but thanks for your optimism!

OK, so the Mammal Taxonomy first: don't go to the Mammal Watching site, go to the Scythebill site, specifically here:

Download Scythebill

The current version of Scythebill is 16.3.0 and you can download versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux, as well as a cross-platform version that'll work everywhere else. You can also download...

www.scythebill.com

Second, how to change the type of a site: go to Browse by location, find the location, then click Edit... at the bottom of the screen. Change Location type: back to "<no type>".

Finally, "not enough information for eBird" - where exactly are you seeing this error message? That specific error message doesn't appear anywhere in Scythebill so I'm not sure what you're referring to.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Adam... thanks so much for responding.

Don't know that I'd call it "beauty sleep", but thanks for your optimism!

OK, so the Mammal Taxonomy first: don't go to the Mammal Watching site, go to the Scythebill site, specifically here:

Download Scythebill

The current version of Scythebill is 16.3.0 and you can download versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux, as well as a cross-platform version that'll work everywhere else. You can also download...

www.scythebill.com

That is the link I used, which takes me to the Mammal Watching Site and I found a link on there for Global Mammals of the World. I downloaded that spreadsheet which I image-grabbed to show in my first post. But I followed the instructions on your site and converted it to .csv format before trying to upload it.

Then I got the error message re no ID row

Second, how to change the type of a site: go to Browse by location, find the location, then click Edit... at the bottom of the screen. Change Location type: back to "<no type>".

Done!!! Thanks. I tried editing before, but now not sure if I was in exactly the right place, as I could only see how to edit the species.

Finally, "not enough information for eBird" - where exactly are you seeing this error message? That specific error message doesn't appear anywhere in Scythebill so I'm not sure what you're referring to.

I'll try entering today's sightings into that location and send attach a screen grab. It's appeared each time I've entered a list, apart from the first one.

Won't be long.

 

[delia todd]

Finally, "not enough information for eBird" - where exactly are you seeing this error message? That specific error message doesn't appear anywhere in Scythebill so I'm not sure what you're referring to.

Here is the screen with the error message Adam.



This is just about the same message I remember seeing.

I may not have taken the same care with calling up the subspecies names (thought I'd go back and edit them if necessary). But the previous sightings entries I certainly did have the subspecies specified correctly.

 

[awiner]

Here is the screen with the error message Adam.

View attachment 1543266

This is just about the same message I remember seeing.

I may not have taken the same care with calling up the subspecies names (thought I'd go back and edit them if necessary). But the previous sightings entries I certainly did have the subspecies specified correctly.

Ah, I see the issue. The short version: Scythebill is asking that the sightings be allocated to one of the counties (or, I guess, shires?) of Scotland, rather than just to somewhere in Scotland. If you move the "My Mause Feeders" location into a county (Perthshire and Kinross?), then it'll be happy to export to eBird. But Scythebill is actually wrong here.

The long version: generally eBird doesn't allow sightings that are merely allocated to a country, and Scotland is considered a "country" by Scythebill - not out of any particular adherence to the Scottish independence cause, but out of one Yank's attempt to follow how the United Kingdom defines itself as 3 countries + the country/province/region/jurisdiction/etc.q of Northern Ireland. But Scythebill is wrong here in how it's applying the eBird rule, because Scotland is considered a "state" by eBird rules. I'll fix this, but it might be awhile before the next release and the fix is available.

To move a location, go to "Browse by location", find "My Mause Feeders", and drag-and-drop it into the correct county.

 

[awiner]

Hi Adam... thanks so much for responding.

That is the link I used, which takes me to the Mammal Watching Site and I found a link on there for Global Mammals of the World. I downloaded that spreadsheet which I image-grabbed to show in my first post. But I followed the instructions on your site and converted it to .csv format before trying to upload it.

No, don't click the link for Mammal Watching, click "Click to download". You'll get a .btxm file that can be used directly.

Then I got the error message re no ID row

Done!!! Thanks. I tried editing before, but now not sure if I was in exactly the right place, as I could only see how to edit the species.

I'll try entering today's sightings into that location and send attach a screen grab. It's appeared each time I've entered a list, apart from the first one.

Won't be long.

 

[delia todd]

No, don't click the link for Mammal Watching, click "Click to download". You'll get a .btxm file that can be used directly.

View attachment 1543279

Aaaaah!!! My apologies. Got it and appear to have received it safely.

 

[delia todd]

Ah, I see the issue. The short version: Scythebill is asking that the sightings be allocated to one of the counties (or, I guess, shires?) of Scotland, rather than just to somewhere in Scotland. If you move the "My Mause Feeders" location into a county (Perthshire and Kinross?), then it'll be happy to export to eBird. But Scythebill is actually wrong here.

Strangely, this is the one site that has been put in Perthshire and Kinross. The other three sites (where I don't get that error message) are just in Scotland?

The long version: generally eBird doesn't allow sightings that are merely allocated to a country, and Scotland is considered a "country" by Scythebill - not out of any particular adherence to the Scottish independence cause, but out of one Yank's attempt to follow how the United Kingdom defines itself as 3 countries + the country/province/region/jurisdiction/etc.q of Northern Ireland. But Scythebill is wrong here in how it's applying the eBird rule, because Scotland is considered a "state" by eBird rules. I'll fix this, but it might be awhile before the next release and the fix is available.

To move a location, go to "Browse by location", find "My Mause Feeders", and drag-and-drop it into the correct county.

Am I the only one in Scotland using your site? Perhaps the only one in Perthshire maybe?

 

[delia todd]

Thanks so much for your help. Think I'm OK now fingers crossed LOL

 

[awiner]

Strangely, this is the one site that has been put in Perthshire and Kinross. The other three sites (where I don't get that error message) are just in Scotland?


Am I the only one in Scotland using your site? Perhaps the only one in Perthshire maybe?

I've definitely got other Scotland users, but maybe they haven't tried to upload Scythebill data to eBird? I think most eBird users do it the other direction - enter data on eBird, then export it into Scythebill; after all, eBird has a phone app. But both directions are supposed to work, and I will debug this and fix it in the next version.