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Garden BirdWatch Instructions Completing the Online Count Forms Each Online Species Count Form covers one week. Start by clicking on the calendar to select the date required. If you select a date that is in the future, or for which you have already entered observations, a warning message is displayed. Check that you have the right week and try again. You cannot enter the records for a given week until that week is finished. Now enter your counts for the various birds and other wildlife species, either using the tick box to denote that a species was present or entering a count of the maximum number of individuals seen at any one time within your garden recording area. The entry system is spread over a number of tabs, one for each of the major animal groups. Don’t forget to enter details of any food provided on the final tab. Each tab contains a list of those species most commonly encountered in gardens nationally. Other, less common, species can also be entered by using the six boxes below the named species. If, for example, you see a Grey Heron in your garden, you can record it from the bird tab by entering the words ‘Grey Heron’ into the box. As soon as you have typed ‘Gre..’ you will be offered a list of those bird species containing the letters ‘gre’ in their name. You can then select ‘Grey Heron’ and enter a count. These lists are maintained by BTO and, if you find that the species you wish to enter is not available on a given list, please let us know and we will determine whether it can be recorded or not. Please note, we do not record every species, as some are difficult to identify or are recorded by other organisations. For example, we only record one species of moth (Hummingbird Hawkmoth). Below the tabbed sections is a box into which you can enter any comments. Please note that comments are for your use only (making this a bit like an online notebook). We do not routinely view these comments unless we are checking on particular reports. Once you have completed the entry of all this information, you should click on the ENTER COUNTS FROM ALL TABS button to submit them to the database. Our software will check your records, highlighting any counts that are unusual (because of quantity, location or time of year). We do this to help you spot typing errors. For example, if you enter 11 Green Woodpeckers when you only meant to enter one, the system will report back that ‘11’ is a rather high count for this species, and will provide the opportunity for you to make a correction. If you are happy that the figure you entered is correct, even if flagged by the system, then you can disregard the message and accept the figure. You will see that all the observations you have entered are presented in a series of tables, below which are three buttons. The first button BACK TO SPECIES PAGE allows you to go back to the previous page and correct any typing errors. ABANDON COUNTS allows you to abandon data entry altogether and return to the GBW Data Home Page. The CONFIRM YOUR COUNTS option is the one you need to press to accept your counts and commit them to the database. Once you have done this you will be presented with a new page offering you the choice of entering more counts or returning to your Data Home Page. It is essential that you DO NOT use your browser’s BACK button to move between the data entry pages because this causes major problems and may corrupt your data. If you experience any problems during this process please contact us. If you wish, you can download the general Garden BirdWatch instructions as a PDF (512kb) for easy storage and printing. These provide useful advice, equally applicable to the online recording.
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