Adding a Sighting

We are going to keep things simple here and only explain what needs to be explained in order to simply add a sighting.

We will add a Sighting using the Keyboard mode and then another using the Checklist mode (checklist style).

To enter sightings like a Pro! Watch this YouTube video!

Keyboard Mode

Scenario: You live in Colorado and saw 4 Blue Jays at your feeder that you want to record.

  1.  Click on the Add button on the toolbar. This will open the Sightings Entry Setup window.
  2. Select the options you see above, by the numbers.
    NOTE: notice  the How-to Video button on this window. You can watch that video to learn how to enter Sightings like a PRO!
  3. Click the Continue button. This will bring up the Sightings Entry – Keyboard window.
    Your layout and order of Fields may differ from what is shown below. You can change that by clicking the Show/Hide… button.
  4. Enter values as you see above, by the numbers. And click on the Add Sighting button to enter this Sighting.

Congratulations, you just entered your first sighting of 4 Blue Jays in Colorado on the specified date, for Sample Observer!

NOTE: All windows in Birder’s Diary are optimized for Keyboard navigation. This means that pressing TAB on your keyboard takes you from the current field that has keyboard focus (e.g. typing on your keyboard affects that field) to the next logical field in order. E.g. pressing TAB when the Name field as focus, moves your keyboard focus to the Date field. Alternatively, pressing Shift+TAB on your keyboard moves your focus back to the previous logical field.

NOTE: Holding your mouse over any field/control on any window in Birder’s Diary for 1 second will cause a ToolTip popup to display. The intent of this message is to give the user more info that just a label as to what this field does or is used for.

Now, click the Close button and let’s do the same thing in Checklist mode.

Checklist Mode

Scenario: You went birding to a favorite location in Colorado and saw 2 Yellow Warblers and 1 Mallard. You want to record the Sightings in Birder’s Diary.

  1.  Click on the Add button on the toolbar. This will open the Sightings Entry Setup window.
  2. Select the options you see above by the numbers. And click the Continue button.
  3. This will open the Checklist Entry window.
  4. Select the date, observer and location as show below.
  5. Scroll down the list until you see the row for Mallard. The list is in Taxonomic Order.
    1. Click the Seen checkbox and enter a comment in the comment field. Note the count field presets to 1 for Min/Max once you click the Seen checkbox.
    2. You have recorded a sighting for 1 Mallard.
  6. Now let’s record the Sighting for 2 Yellow Warblers using a Search method on this screen.
    1. Type “Yellow Warbler” into the Search box. Pressing ENTER on the keyboard will select the current entry in the dropdown.
    2. Click the “Binocular” button to the right to mark Yellow Warbler as seen in the Checklist.
      Note that the counts are preset to 1 automatically.
    3. Click on the first (left-most) column with a ‘1’ in it (this is the Min Count) field. Replace it with a ‘2’, and TAB to the next column. Notice that it is already updated to match the Min Count you just set.
    4. TAB to the next column (Comments) and type a comment.
    5. You have recorded a Sighting for 2 Yellow Warblers.
  7. We have recorded all that we saw, so let’s save this checklist entry data to the database. Click the Add Sightings button on the lower right.

Congratulations, you just entered your 2 sightings; 1 of a Mallard and 1 of 2 Yellow Warblers,  in Colorado on the specified date, for Sample Observer!

Please continue to the next topic in this guide.