(9.30 am to 5.30 pm on Saturday 21st May, 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday 22nd May - Price: Adults £5, children free)
We are exhibiting at The BirdWatchers Spring Fair 2011 this weekend. If you are in the area come say hi, we'lll give you a sneak preview of Bird Journal Mobile and would love to hear what you think of the prototype.
We'll have a demo station setup for Bird Journal, if you have any questions about the software feel free to get our attention.
To find us, we are located in the same area as last year:
Make sure you bring your binos, there is plenty to see especially at the new reservoir: Middleton Lakes.
Look forward to seeing you there,
Christine & Justin
In the recent update of Bird Journal version 2.2 we have added a new feature: taxonomic ordering. To apply taxonomic ordering - go to the ‘Options – Personalisation’ screen and set the ordering to taxonomic, see below:
The taxonomic ordering affects the display of birds and other wildlife within the journal. Below shows the difference between taxonomic and alphabetical order, this is taken from the species page of Bird Journal. The data will vary depending on the species recorded in the database.
Note: When multiple taxonomies are used for recording sightings, Bird Journal will consider the primary taxonomy first when displaying the list of species. For example, when the primary taxonomy is set to United Kingdom (BOU) and sightings have being recorded using the BOU and The Clements list, Bird Journal will display species from the BOU first and then try to cluster similar species together from The Clements list.
We are pleased to announce the official release of Bird Journal version 2.2. The point release includes fixes to problems people were having with version 2.1.
What’s changed in Bird Journal version 2.2:
New feature:
- Taxonomic ordering. The default order is set to taxonomic; if you prefer to switch back to alphabetic go to the options menu - personalisation – ordering.
Bugs fixed:
- The primary taxonomy was ignored, and Clements used instead, for the Continent edition.
- Using the TAB key on species entry causes count not to be recorded.
- The Edit Locations button was incorrectly still shown on the Edit Locations screen, when the windows text size is lower than normal.
- Applying a location filter to a checklist filter, could make the number of species increase.
- The species entry box had small inaccuracies in ordering.
- Sometimes the options file would not be correctly saved.
- Crash during import, where both a sighting and entry property in the database have the same name.
- Crash during import, where some unusual characters are present in the file.
- Crash during import, with large numbers of locations with differing case.
- Problem during import, where the subspecies parts of scientific names were ignored, when in their own column.
- Rare problem, where a screen may be shown invisibly, giving the impression that the software has stopped working.
Bird Journal version 2 users are entitled to a free upgrade and an email will be sent to you with the upgrade details. If you have not received this email feel free to get in touch.
For the second year running we are exhibiting at the spring fair in Tamworth on Saturday 21st May and Sunday 22nd May 9:30am to 5.30pm (10am to 4pm Sunday).
Christine and Justin will be present on both days to answer any questions you may have in regards to Bird Journal, free demos of the software will also be available.
Purchases of Bird Journal at the fair come with a free DVD boxed copy, normally worth £8. We’ll also include a free gift with every purchase (while stocks last).
We are located inside the Middleton Hall, and we look forward to seeing you on the 21st or 22nd May at the birdwatchers spring fair in Tamworth.
For full details about the fair go to: www.birdwatchers-springfair.co.uk
Synonym lists can be used to change bird species names to names that are more familiar. For this example let’s take the species Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) and the subspecies Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus hudsonius) from the Birds of the United Kingdom (BOU) Checklist. Start by creating a new entry and add both species into the sightings list like the example below. Note: To enter subspecies go to the Options next to the species textbox field and make sure to select the show ‘Species and Subspecies’.
As you may know, the species Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus hudsonius) is known elsewhere as Northern Harrier (American). However, with the BOU selected as the Primary Taxonomy, the species will be displayed in the entry page like the example below:
Now if you wanted to change the display name of Hen Harrier (hudsonius) to Northern Harrier (American) we can use the synonym list feature to change the display name. The following tutorial shows how to create new synonym names: http://www.bluebirdtechnology.com/BirdJournalTutorials.aspx?ref=10
Once the synonym list is in place, it will be silently running in the background and will automatically change Hen Harrier (hudsonius) to Northern Harrier (American) throughout the journal. The entry page will now display the species names like the example below.
For your convenience I have attached the synonym list file created using Bird Journal, feel free to import the list into Bird Journal (note: the file is a closed format and cannot be viewed by opening it directly, it must be viewed within Bird Journal).
Prefered Species Names.bjs (336.00 bytes)
We hope you find this tutorial useful and kindly let us know if you have any questions.
We would
like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for
your support over the last year. We will continue to develop innovative
bird and wildlife recording software products over 2011.
Enjoy the birds throughout the holiday season!
Best wishes,
Justin & Christine
Bluebird Technology