A couple of Scythebill problems (1 Viewer)

[delia todd]

Ah yes, that makes sense. I don't use really use eBird, and I would never use a phone for recording anything, I much prefer a full sized keyboard and my large screen is great for my aging eyes!

I can see advantages to having an app on a phone, but I'm an old cheapskate and don't have a phone contract (PAYG) so logging onto the 'net out in the open is rather expensive!

 

[nigeladlam]

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

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 ScythebillView attachment 1542936

 

[nigeladlam]

View attachment 1543014

Hi. I've just downloaded Scythebill. Is there any way to get the software to count your lists automatically? Thanks.

 

[Mike Crawley]

Hi. I've just downloaded Scythebill. Is there any way to get the software to count your lists automatically? Thanks.

Hiya,

as I said on the 12th November
"l 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"

would recommend consulting directly, as shown up thread

 

[YuShan]

Hi. I've just downloaded Scythebill. Is there any way to get the software to count your lists automatically? Thanks.

Not sure what you want exactly, but you can create reports that use filters for time, location etc and save that report and have Scythebill remember them and show them in Scythebill itself. It will then show the name of the report and the count for that specific list in Scythebill in the menu screen.

So for example I always have it showing my world list count and a number of my latest trip report counts. In the same way you can display the numbers for your local patch or your country list (which then update automatically when you enter new sightings).

So for example, you want to keep a list for your garden:

• First create the location "My Garden" (Browse my location --> New )
• Back to the main menu: press "Show Reports"
• In the filters, select "My location is in" "My Garden"
• Press "remember" button at the bottom
• Save report "My Garden".

Now "My Garden" + up to date count shows up in the menu screen.

 

[YuShan]

@awiner one big wish that I still have for a future Scythebill release is to be able to view the location of a sighting on a Google map, without having to go to the locations menu. If you could add a button near the sighting itself, that when pressed, opens a browser window with the Google map + location pin (or in a dedicated Scythebill window, but browser window is probably easier to implement)

Something like this:

 

[awiner]

Not sure what you want exactly, but you can create reports that use filters for time, location etc and save that report and have Scythebill remember them and show them in Scythebill itself. It will then show the name of the report and the count for that specific list in Scythebill in the menu screen.

So for example I always have it showing my world list count and a number of my latest trip report counts. In the same way you can display the numbers for your local patch or your country list (which then update automatically when you enter new sightings).

So for example, you want to keep a list for your garden:

• First create the location "My Garden" (Browse my location --> New )
• Back to the main menu: press "Show Reports"
• In the filters, select "My location is in" "My Garden"
• Press "remember" button at the bottom
• Save report "My Garden".

Now "My Garden" + up to date count shows up in the menu screen.

Yep, "Remember" in "Show reports" sounds like what you want for automatically counting lists.

 

[awiner]

@awiner one big wish that I still have for a future Scythebill release is to be able to view the location of a sighting on a Google map, without having to go to the locations menu. If you could add a button near the sighting itself, that when pressed, opens a browser window with the Google map + location pin (or in a dedicated Scythebill window, but browser window is probably easier to implement)

Something like this:

View attachment 1551000

Yeah, this makes sense. It could just be a clickable icon that pops up for any location that has a lat/long - I've already got an icon that I use on Browse by location to show which locations have lat/long (and that one could be made clickable as well, so you don't need to click "Edit").

 

[nigeladlam]

Not sure what you want exactly, but you can create reports that use filters for time, location etc and save that report and have Scythebill remember them and show them in Scythebill itself. It will then show the name of the report and the count for that specific list in Scythebill in the menu screen.

So for example I always have it showing my world list count and a number of my latest trip report counts. In the same way you can display the numbers for your local patch or your country list (which then update automatically when you enter new sightings).

So for example, you want to keep a list for your garden:

• First create the location "My Garden" (Browse my location --> New )
• Back to the main menu: press "Show Reports"
• In the filters, select "My location is in" "My Garden"
• Press "remember" button at the bottom
• Save report "My Garden".

Now "My Garden" + up to date count shows up in the menu screen.

Hi YuShan. Thanks for your reply. I just want to create simple lists for each country and a world list. Adam Winer says I should create the world list under Scythebill's Species heading. But that doesn't seem to keep count automatically. It seems that I have to physically count, in which case I might as well download a spreadsheet of birds of the world and tick off each bird seen. What am I doing wrong, please?

 

[Scridifer]

Hi YuShan. Thanks for your reply. I just want to create simple lists for each country and a world list. Adam Winer says I should create the world list under Scythebill's Species heading. But that doesn't seem to keep count automatically. It seems that I have to physically count, in which case I might as well download a spreadsheet of birds of the world and tick off each bird seen. What am I doing wrong, please?

You are definitely doing something wrong Nigel, I have lists for every country I have visited plus, garden, patch and life list and all update automatically. Once you have defined the location for a particular list use the 'Remember' button, give the list a title and you should be good to go.

Chris

 

[njlarsen]

Hi YuShan. Thanks for your reply. I just want to create simple lists for each country and a world list. Adam Winer says I should create the world list under Scythebill's Species heading. But that doesn't seem to keep count automatically. It seems that I have to physically count, in which case I might as well download a spreadsheet of birds of the world and tick off each bird seen. What am I doing wrong, please?

I am not sure what you mean by that; why not use Enter Sightings? you can initially have a location that just is the country and if adding for a longer period of time, use the ebird trick and use 1/1/1900 as the year. Once you have your initial list you might get interested in trying more detailed locations and times, which unlock other ways to look at your data.

 

[YuShan]

Hi YuShan. Thanks for your reply. I just want to create simple lists for each country and a world list. Adam Winer says I should create the world list under Scythebill's Species heading. But that doesn't seem to keep count automatically. It seems that I have to physically count, in which case I might as well download a spreadsheet of birds of the world and tick off each bird seen. What am I doing wrong, please?

Just do exactly as I wrote in my previous post, and it will keep the count automatically. Try it!

 

[awiner]

Just do exactly as I wrote in my previous post, and it will keep the count automatically. Try it!

I am not sure what you mean by that; why not use Enter Sightings? you can initially have a location that just is the country and if adding for a longer period of time, use the ebird trick and use 1/1/1900 as the year. Once you have your initial list you might get interested in trying more detailed locations and times, which unlock other ways to look at your data.

Exactly, if you enter a sighting for a country it's automatically part of your world list.

You also don't even have to enter 1/1/1900 for the year - Scythebill's fine if you have no date.

You can enter sightings in pretty much any way you want:

• "Enter sightings" if you want to enter a list of species for a given location and date
• "Browse by species" if you want to look through the world list: add a sighting here and it starts with no location or date, but you can set a country name for the location, and enter multiple sightings for multiple countries if you want
• "Browse by location": if you want to go country-by-country, select the country, and you'll get a checklist of species. Select each species you've seen in in the country and click "Add sighting", and that's it.

No matter which way you enter sightings, they're automatically tallied for country and world lists. (Well, obviously if you don't enter a country it won't be tallied for the country list...).

 

[Andy Adcock]

Hi Guys, Adam,
can you please, once again for this idiot, tell me how to create a file for tranfer of my programme and contents, to another machine?

Happy new year, Andy

 

[awiner]

Hi Guys, Adam,
can you please, once again for this idiot, tell me how to create a file for tranfer of my programme and contents, to another machine?

Find your .bsxm file (aka Scythebill Sightings file). You can use "Open containing folder" from Scythebill's File menu if you've forgotten where you put it.

Copy that .bsxm file over - it's got everything you need. Once you've installed Scythebill on the new machine, open the .bsxm file.

Only thing left to do after that is check the Preferences; some things like Countability preferences are kept per-machine, not with that file.

 

[Richard G]

Related to the Mammal Watching list, is there any way of adding mammals to it to record? I've just come back from Australia, and spent a few days on K'gari where there are pure-breed Dingos - when I go to record Dingo in the sightings I only get the option of recording "Domestic Dog"

 

[awiner]

Related to the Mammal Watching list, is there any way of adding mammals to it to record? I've just come back from Australia, and spent a few days on K'gari where there are pure-breed Dingos - when I go to record Dingo in the sightings I only get the option of recording "Domestic Dog"

You could use Manage taxonomies... to export the taxonomy as a .csv file, add a line for Dingo, and then re-import it from the .csv file. Obviously, you'd have to go through this each time you update to the next Mammal Watching taxonomy.

I think the real issue is that the mammal taxonomy has no subspecies in it, and as best I can see the most common treatments are as a subspecies (though whether that's as a subspecies of Domestic Dog or Wolf seems to vary!). I've pondered adding subspecies into the mammal taxonomy (by, well, "hybridizing" the Mammal Watching taxonomy with the iNaturalist taxonomy).

 

[CarstenFog]

Hi Adam
It would be fantastic if you could add subspecies to the mammal taxonomy
That is something I've really missed for some time. When you've, for example, have seen several of the Hartebeeste subspecies, it would be nice to be able to record them.
I have had my subspecies in a database so usually, when an updated mammal list was released, I loaded it into Scythebill, exported it to .csv format, imported it to a table in my database, ran a query to add records containing subspecies of the mammals I've seen, exported the expanded list to .csv format and ran 'Manage taxonomy' to import the new updated list, now containing subspecies, all with the risk of something going wrong.
As of now, I have stopped all that and record the subspecies in the 'Notes' field, but being able to record the subspecies 'properly', would make it a lot easier to filter your lists.

 

[awiner]

Hi Adam
It would be fantastic if you could add subspecies to the mammal taxonomy

As of today, the mammal taxonomy has subspecies.

Also, nearly all species (and all subspecies) have links to iNaturalist accounts, and there's quite a number of extra alternate names.

 

[CarstenFog]

As of today, the mammal taxonomy has subspecies.

Also, nearly all species (and all subspecies) have links to iNaturalist accounts, and there's quite a number of extra alternate names.

Hi Adam

Thank you so much. This will be very much appreciated.