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There is some very good sightings logging on the market, so why create another one? Because we believe that there is one vital feature missing from every other piece of log software currently on the market - specific location information for each sighting. While most will allow you to specify various location levels ranging from the country through to the city, there is no specific map location associated with the sightings - information that could help to identify good birding areas to a few metres of accuracy and share that information with other birders. This software is something new in the birding world: Software that not only will log your sightings, but will also map, analyze them, and (optionally) allow you to share them with other birders through the internet. The benefits of this might not be immediately obvious, but imagine having the ability to see the exact times of the year when a particular bird might be seen. Imagine being able to set the region in which you are interested and generate a timeline for that specific region - one that can be as large or as small as you like. Imagine being able to see the specific locations within that region where the bird has been seen in the past - to identify suitable habitat. This software will allow all of this. |
Before you Begin
Before you begin using the software, it's important to understand a few terms used throughout.
An Outing is a birding outing to a specific location. An example might be a trip during which you visit the Long Point Bird Observatory, the Townsend Sewage Lagoons, and Lasalle Marina on the same day. This would be one trip, but three outings - one for each location you visit during the trip. Each bird seen at the Long Point Bird Observatory would be a sighting and would be entered in the sightings grid after adding an outing and specifying its location. In real terms, it doesn't really matter much if you log your sighting via the map (the "Sightings Explorer"). In that case, the software will take care of all that for you.
Using the Software
The software contains six main areas. Each is accessible from the tabbed menu bar on the left-hand side of the screen, or from the links on the introductory form:
The introductory form is the first form that is shown on start-up. It contains links to the various parts of the software. See the Introductory Form topic for more information.
The sightings explorer is the mapping and analysis component of the software. Choose the link above to learn about the sightings explorer.
The sightings editor is the main sightings editing component of the software. While the sightings explorer is the easiest way to add sightings, the editor is required to edit, search, and otherwise maintain your sightings.
The frequent locations editor allows you to define frequently-visited locations. These are used to categorize the seasonal checklist and printed reports, and as a convenient human-readable reference for the location for a sighting. Additionally, they are used to automatically fill in the latitude and longitude when importing sightings from other (non-location-enabled) sightings logging software.
The Seasonal Checklist Generator
The Internet Sightings Database