Wildlife Recorder no longer being supported: consider moving to iGoTerra (1 Viewer)

[Mike Hunter]

Jack Levene has been synonymous with brilliant birding (and wildlife) software for decades. I used Wildlife Recorder in the 1990s until my PC finally gave up on me. It really was the only place to go as a keen world birder to help you control your lists in the face of ever-changing taxonomy even way back then. For this reason I'm saddened to learn that WR will no longer be supported after 2025.

Knowing I had to bring my records up to date I opted for iGoTerra (iGT), and in many ways the two platforms (WR and iGT) share many common features, though WR is off-line and iGT is web-based (with an app that allows you to work entirely off-line as required). I had a massive 'back catalogue' of sightings to process on iGT and the flexible approach to data input (you can add as much or as little detail to suit you) enabled me to quickly process thousands of observations.

iGT also has a purpose-built data import tool for WR data, making your move to iGT quick and hassle-free. The only limitation is that export files from WR may be on a country-by-country basis, not one big data dump. Technical support from iGT is also available if needed.

iGT has two membership levels: 'Standard' (£33) and 'Premium' (£69) a year. You get a lot for your money at 'Standard' level whilst 'Premium' suits the keen world or country lister, because of some great tools that help you keep on top of your lists.

I'd regard iGT as the globally leading on-line birds, wildlife and observation listing platform. It's slick, intuitive to use, presentational inviting, with plenty of great tools. The various listing and ranking tables are great features and let you get more from your data.

For a no obligation free trial go to:

https://igoterra.com/signup

I can also provide a code which will also give you access to the platform for up to two weeks so you can make sure it works for you, and ultimately two months free on a paid subscription (i.e., 14 months for the price of 12).

Happy to answer any questions.

Mike

 

[awiner]

For folks looking for offline software, consider Scythebill - it can rapidly import from WR as well (even as one big dump). Tons of features, and reporting, just nothing stored online.

Scythebill

(It's also free - not just as a trial, but forever.)

 

[billyguffie]

I'm somewhat surprised that there appears to be no attempt to sell on Wildlife Recorder as a going concern - I have no idea how many subscribers it has, but at £17.50 a pop for annual renewal, it surely would provide a reasonable income stream for a suitable IT geek/birder. Anybody out there ?

 

[Mike Hunter]

Jack Levene has been synonymous with brilliant birding (and wildlife) software for decades. I used Wildlife Recorder in the 1990s until my PC finally gave up on me. It really was the only place to go as a keen world birder to help you control your lists in the face of ever-changing taxonomy even way back then. For this reason I'm saddened to learn that WR will no longer be supported after 2025.

Knowing I had to bring my records up to date I opted for iGoTerra (iGT), and in many ways the two platforms (WR and iGT) share many common features, though WR is off-line and iGT is web-based (with an app that allows you to work entirely off-line as required). I had a massive 'back catalogue' of sightings to process on iGT and the flexible approach to data input (you can add as much or as little detail to suit you) enabled me to quickly process thousands of observations.

iGT also has a purpose-built data import tool for WR data, making your move to iGT quick and hassle-free. The only limitation is that export files from WR may be on a country-by-country basis, not one big data dump. Technical support from iGT is also available if needed.

iGT has two membership levels: 'Standard' (£33) and 'Premium' (£69) a year. You get a lot for your money at 'Standard' level whilst 'Premium' suits the keen world or country lister, because of some great tools that help you keep on top of your lists.

I'd regard iGT as the globally leading on-line birds, wildlife and observation listing platform. It's slick, intuitive to use, presentational inviting, with plenty of great tools. The various listing and ranking tables are great features and let you get more from your data.

For a no obligation free trial go to:

https://igoterra.com/signup

I can also provide a code which will also give you access to the platform for up to two weeks so you can make sure it works for you, and ultimately two months free on a paid subscription (i.e., 14 months for the price of 12).

Happy to answer any questions.

Mike

This note from iGoTerra sets out the benefits and advantages of the iGT platform...

iGoTerra

The wildlife network to learn, experience and share

igoterra.com

Mike

 

[Mike Hunter]

For folks looking for offline software, consider Scythebill - it can rapidly import from WR as well (even as one big dump). Tons of features, and reporting, just nothing stored online.

Scythebill

(It's also free - not just as a trial, but forever.)

The problem is the export files from WR are country by country only. So whilst both Scythebill and iGoTerra could easily import as much data as anyone had from WR from every possibly country and territory, and do so quickly and efficiently in one upload, the constraint is at the WR end (no criticism implied, just stating a fact).

Mike

 

[awiner]

The problem is the export files from WR are country by country only. So whilst both Scythebill and iGoTerra could easily import as much data as anyone had from WR from every possibly country and territory, and do so quickly and efficiently in one upload, the constraint is at the WR end (no criticism implied, just stating a fact).

Ah, thanks for clarifying!

 

[Steve Gantlett]

I'm currently sticking with Wildlife Recorder while it lasts but wondering about switching to Igoterra. Like ACDSee for cataloguing my photos (which I now find is good) the silly name is off-putting. What does Igoterra mean? I think Scythebill and Bird Journal and some others are just birds, so what other wildlife recording software options are there to consider as a replacement for (the sensibly named) Wildlife Recorder?

 

[njlarsen]

I'm currently sticking with Wildlife Recorder while it lasts but wondering about switching to Igoterra. Like ACDSee for cataloguing my photos (which I now find is good) the silly name is off-putting. What does Igoterra mean? I think Scythebill and Bird Journal and some others are just birds, so what other wildlife recording software options are there to consider as a replacement for (the sensibly named) Wildlife Recorder?

Scythebill does allow you track other types of wildlife:

Free Bird Listing

Scythebill software - free bird listing software for Windows, MacOS, and Linux

www.scythebill.com

 

[Peter.home]

Ebird for birds, and Inaturalist for everything else works well for me.

Ebird is good for personalised trip planning, targets, etc, and the reports are good, and quite flexible.

Inaturalist has the added bonus of auto identification and other users verifying and assisting you with sightings.
Reporting and querying the data on here is really good as well .

Both are fairly easy to use in the field, Inaturalist works best by inputting photos, so ideally you need to get a workflow of JPGs with location data into your phone or pc for uploading.

I moved all my data from wildlife recorder onto these a few years ago. Doable in batches, but quite time consuming from memory. I think I moved the data via scythebill, or if not, I should have done!

 

[Mark Harper]

I am currently making the move from Wildlife Recorder to iGoTerra. My experience so far is that there are a lot of features that I really like, but the one area that is disappointing is the time it takes to create and populate non-standard lists (Special Lists as iGoTerra call them). What would have taken less than a minute in Wildlife Recorder is taking hours in iGoTerra and whereas Wildlife Recorder would have automatically updated those lists with additional sightings, iGoTerra requires further sightings to be associated every time. Keeping a patch list, borough list and vice county list, none of which are standard lists, means that each time I enter a checklist for my patch, I have to associate it with my patch special list, I then have to browse my observations, select them all and associate them with my borough list and then do the same for my county list.

 

[awiner]

I am currently making the move from Wildlife Recorder to iGoTerra. My experience so far is that there are a lot of features that I really like, but the one area that is disappointing is the time it takes to create and populate non-standard lists (Special Lists as iGoTerra call them). What would have taken less than a minute in Wildlife Recorder is taking hours in iGoTerra and whereas Wildlife Recorder would have automatically updated those lists with additional sightings, iGoTerra requires further sightings to be associated every time. Keeping a patch list, borough list and vice county list, none of which are standard lists, means that each time I enter a checklist for my patch, I have to associate it with my patch special list, I then have to browse my observations, select them all and associate them with my borough list and then do the same for my county list.

FWIW, this is trivial and automatic in Scythebill.

(There might be a way to do this trivially in iGoTerra too, I just don't know the software at all.)

 

[Wandering Albatross]

I'm currently sticking with Wildlife Recorder while it lasts but wondering about switching to Igoterra. Like ACDSee for cataloguing my photos (which I now find is good) the silly name is off-putting. What does Igoterra mean? I think Scythebill and Bird Journal and some others are just birds, so what other wildlife recording software options are there to consider as a replacement for (the sensibly named) Wildlife Recorder?

The name iGoTerra does not have a meaning more specific or scientific than a gazillion other modern application names. Btw, Wildlife Recorder is indeed a good and descriptive name.

 

[Mike Hunter]

I am currently making the move from Wildlife Recorder to iGoTerra. My experience so far is that there are a lot of features that I really like, but the one area that is disappointing is the time it takes to create and populate non-standard lists (Special Lists as iGoTerra call them). What would have taken less than a minute in Wildlife Recorder is taking hours in iGoTerra and whereas Wildlife Recorder would have automatically updated those lists with additional sightings, iGoTerra requires further sightings to be associated every time. Keeping a patch list, borough list and vice county list, none of which are standard lists, means that each time I enter a checklist for my patch, I have to associate it with my patch special list, I then have to browse my observations, select them all and associate them with my borough list and then do the same for my county list.

Hi Mark

Hope you're well and enjoyed the Ross's Gull not far from you

Once you've created your 'Special list' (s) have you used the 'toolbox' in 'View and edit my observations' to assign observations en masse to a 'Special list'?

Use the filters to reveal your broader list of observations, click the box to the left of each observation you want assigned to a special list, then use the 'Toolbox' to 'Connect to a special list'. Click on the red 'Help' icon in the main menu bar for more information.

I keep a few 'special lists' and it took me no time at all to establish them using the 'Toolbox'.

You can also link an observation directly to already created 'Special lists' in the 'Add observations by species' page.

If something really is taking you a long time (and you think it should be slicker) it's always worth an email to iGoTerra to see if there are any shortcuts. iGT is very birder/customer focussed in my view with what seems to be significant technical capability, and if members need something improving or even building then they will invariably come up with a solution.

I'm travelling soon so apologies in advance for any delays in my response to any replies to this post.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Mike Hunter]

I'm currently sticking with Wildlife Recorder while it lasts but wondering about switching to Igoterra. Like ACDSee for cataloguing my photos (which I now find is good) the silly name is off-putting. What does Igoterra mean? I think Scythebill and Bird Journal and some others are just birds, so what other wildlife recording software options are there to consider as a replacement for (the sensibly named) Wildlife Recorder?

Don't be put off by a name Steve, go with what works best for you, even if that is iGoWhy...

iGoTerra

The wildlife network to learn, experience and share

igoterra.com

 

[awiner]

Question for Wildlife Recorder folks out there who might have a manual.

I've been told that the "total count" field in the exports has negative numbers to refer to things like "Common". Does anyone have documentation for the values and corresponding meanings? I'd like to preserve this meaning in sighting notes (and not save negative numbers!).

 

[davids]

I couldn't find anything in the manual but I did a dummy export and the codes appear to be
-1 Scarce
-2 Common
-3 Very Common
0 Present.

The spreadsheet also has a separate column to indicate when a total count is circa. When it is the value is c.

Hope this helps

David

 

[awiner]

I couldn't find anything in the manual but I did a dummy export and the codes appear to be
-1 Scarce
-2 Common
-3 Very Common
0 Present.

The spreadsheet also has a separate column to indicate when a total count is circa. When it is the value is c.

Hope this helps

David

Thank you!

 

[Mark Harper]

Hi Mark

Hope you're well and enjoyed the Ross's Gull not far from you

Once you've created your 'Special list' (s) have you used the 'toolbox' in 'View and edit my observations' to assign observations en masse to a 'Special list'?

Use the filters to reveal your broader list of observations, click the box to the left of each observation you want assigned to a special list, then use the 'Toolbox' to 'Connect to a special list'. Click on the red 'Help' icon in the main menu bar for more information.

I keep a few 'special lists' and it took me no time at all to establish them using the 'Toolbox'.

You can also link an observation directly to already created 'Special lists' in the 'Add observations by species' page.

If something really is taking you a long time (and you think it should be slicker) it's always worth an email to iGoTerra to see if there are any shortcuts. iGT is very birder/customer focussed in my view with what seems to be significant technical capability, and if members need something improving or even building then they will invariably come up with a solution.

I'm travelling soon so apologies in advance for any delays in my response to any replies to this post.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Hi Mike

That is the method I used and if I was only interested in an overall list that would be fine, but when I want year lists for each then I need to select each observation. For example to create a South Tyneside list, I can filter down to Tyne and Wear, but some of these observations are outside of South Tyneside so require removing, so I have c70,000 observations to go through and untick those outside of South Tyneside. For a Durham list, I had to add everything from Durham, all the relevant sightings from Tyne and Wear and then had to find locations, such as Greatham Creek, for which the smallest area they are assigned to is North East England.

I have now completed Whitburn, South Tyneside and County Durham special lists, but keeping them up to date is harder than it should be, as I need to remember each time I enter a checklist to add them to the special lists, rather than this being automatic.

I have made the suggestion to the iGoTerra team that there should be a way in which locations can be added to a special list and then any sightings from those locations are automatically added to the special list. Hoping that this is something that they can do.

Mark

 

[Mike Hunter]

Hi Mike

That is the method I used and if I was only interested in an overall list that would be fine, but when I want year lists for each then I need to select each observation. For example to create a South Tyneside list, I can filter down to Tyne and Wear, but some of these observations are outside of South Tyneside so require removing, so I have c70,000 observations to go through and untick those outside of South Tyneside. For a Durham list, I had to add everything from Durham, all the relevant sightings from Tyne and Wear and then had to find locations, such as Greatham Creek, for which the smallest area they are assigned to is North East England.

I have now completed Whitburn, South Tyneside and County Durham special lists, but keeping them up to date is harder than it should be, as I need to remember each time I enter a checklist to add them to the special lists, rather than this being automatic.

I have made the suggestion to the iGoTerra team that there should be a way in which locations can be added to a special list and then any sightings from those locations are automatically added to the special list. Hoping that this is something that they can do.

Mark

Hi Mark - Understand - as you've emailed iGT then let's see what they can do. Mike

 

[Bill in OH]

A happy Scythebill user here: I converted from Wildlife Recorder recently. It took a little fiddling about and I did lose a few details (which didn't bother me for my purposes), but the result has been excellent. Since I converted, Scythebill version 17 apparently has added some further support for Wildlife Recorder imports.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with recent versions of other listing software. Just want to say that moving from WR to Scythebill was eminently doable and well-supported.