ENTER DATA BC FROGWATCH LONG-TERM MONITORING PROGRAM DATA FOR SUBMISSION TO THE

PROVINCIAL DATABASE

To submit observations at this site, you have to first open the entry form and then you will be guided

through a series of windows until you have completed entering all the necessary information.

Information and data fields that are mandatory are shown in red text.

1. Click the button "Open Observation Entry Form" or double click on the bar “Form for submitting

incidental wildlife and BC Frogwatch Observations”. You will be presented with two options as

shown below.

Select the appropriate option and fill in the required data. Help files are available within the

forms to guide you through the data entry process. Click the blue question mark [?] and

other hyperlinks to access both help files and field descriptions.

2. The next screen will confirm your personal profile. We cannot accept data anonymously. To enter

long-term monitoring data, you have to create a profile for you or your group. This will enable

you to login repeatedly to submit and edit data.

3. Once you click on the “Continue” button, you will be presented with two options. Option 1 is for

entering incidental observations that you might make when you are out hiking or otherwise

spending time outdoors in B.C. Instructions for entering these data can be found here.

To enter data for the BC Frogwatch long-term monitoring program you need to select Option 2.

For more information on this program, you can refer to the BC Frogwatch website

(http://www.bcfrogwatch.ca). If you are interested in starting a long-term monitoring program,

please contact the BC Frogwatch coordinator (bcfrogwatch@victoria1.gov.bc.ca or 250 387 9755)

who will help you select the best monitoring method for your site and species. Once you have

decided on the appropriate methods, and have completed the first field visit you can transfer the

data that you collected on your paper forms to the digital database at this website. The data you

enter will be transferred to the provincial databases once it has been checked and verified.

The first time you enter data, you will need to specify the geographical location of your site, give

it a name and specify your survey method. So, we will start with instructions for creating a new

site first. If you have already created you site, you can click on „Use an Existing Site‟ and skip to

instruction 6

4. Once you have selected the option to „Create a New Site‟, you will be presented with a screen to

select your location. Important: This screen can be confusing and so we suggest you read

both the help file and the zooming instructions before you attempt to select your location.

Once you have selected your location, give your site a name that you can remember.

5. Next select the Survey Method that you used at your site from the drop-down menu. You can

have a choice of 4 methods: Call surveys, visual surveys, trap surveys and cover-board surveys.

You can only use one method per site name. So, for example if you were to use both call surveys

and visual surveys at your site, you have to create two sites for data entry naming them „Frog

Pond Call‟ and „Frog Pond Visual‟. Describe the details of your method by clicking on the

“Describe method details” button.

Once you have clicked on the “Describe method details” button, the screen below will open. This

screen can be confusing - Click the blue question mark [?] and other hyperlinks to access

both help files and field descriptions. It will look different depending on the Survey Method you

choose. Since I have chosen visual surveys from the drop-down list, the other survey method

details are greyed out and I cannot enter data in those sections.

Once you have entered the details and „Save and Close‟ you will be directed to the next screen for

further data entry as shown below. Although, once you select the Survey Method the button to “Save

and Close. I‟ll Describe methods later” will be enabled we recommend you complete describing the

methods before you exit from this screen. However, this screen will be available for 7 days after your

first entry after which it will be locked for further data entry.

6. Once you have registered you long-term monitoring site, it will appear in the drop-down menu of

sites as shown below. For each field visit, you have to enter two more sets of data: 1) Site

description for an observation date; and 2) list of the animals you observed.

7) Enter the data from your paper forms into the site description window. Make sure you click on the

“Check Date Uniqueness” button. This is to ensure that data are not duplicated or entered on the

wrong date.

7. Continue transferring all the date from the paper forms to the website. At the end of the window

you will have the opportunity to upload a maximum of two photographs of your site. Note the

photo size limitations before you attempt to upload the photographs. Once you have completed

data entry you can save and close this window.

Note that you have seven days to come back and edit the data if you are unable to enter all the

date during one session. Be warned that after seven days this form will be locked for data entry

for that date. If there are errors or omissions, you can contact the BC Frogwatch coordinator

(bcfrogwatch@victoria1.gov.bc.ca or 250 387 9755).

8. The next step in the data entry is to enter the weather conditions and the animals you observed on

your site visit. You can do this by clicking on the “Submit animal observations for a new

observation date”

9. This will open a window as shown below. Again enter the date of your observation day and click

on the “Date uniqueness” button. You will not be able to “Save and Close” until you do this.

Note that you can change details about your survey method for a particular observation date in

this data entry window. It is very important that you do not change the survey methods from visit

to visit. The data cannot be compared over time if the methods are constantly changing and that

will defeat the purpose of long-term monitoring. However, there may be circumstances beyond

your control that might change your survey methods. For example, one of your cover boards may

be stolen or a tree could have fallen across your visual transect path making it impassable. It is

this information that you enter here.

Next you will be asked to enter information on the weather conditions during your observation

period. The “Blue text” is hyperlinked to description and help files and you will need to consult

these the first few times that you enter data. The weather conditions have a strong impact on what

animals you observe and so, this data is essential for later analysis when we assess patterns of

animal abundance over time. Although these data are not mandatory to “Save and close” the web

form, they are essential for the overall monitoring program goals.

10. The last section in this window is the very wide „Animal Observation‟ section. The first

column is “Species Code” – it is best to ignore this column because it will fill in automatically

once you enter the common name of the animal that you observed. As you type in the common

name, a drop-down menu of possible common names will appear. Scroll down and select the one

the fits the best. If you prefer, you could do the same with the scientific or Latin name. Type

slowly – depending on the speed of your internet connection the drop-down list may take a few

seconds to appear.

Another confusing thing about the drop down lists is that the search engine searches for the

combination of letters anywhere within or at the start of the word in the database. So, in the

example below even though I am typing in “Litho...” for the start of “Lithobates”, other names

with “litho” are shown in the drop down list in alphabetical order.

Once you have selected the correct common or scientific name the other name/species code

column will fill in automatically.

11. Once you have entered the species name, you can describe the behaviour, sex of the animal

that you observed in the following columns. You can see the description of each of these columns

and the categories by clicking on the “Blue text” which is hyper-linked to the description file.

This will help you fill out these columns correctly. Note: You do not have to fill in all these

columns. The form is made to accept many kinds of data and therefore may be confusing at

the start. Just enter the data from your paper form.

12. The other mandatory piece of information is the number of animals that you saw. If you are

able to distinguish the sex and the life stage enter the details under the appropriate columns. If you

cannot distinguish sex or life-stage enter the number observed under the “Unknown age and

Unknown Sex” column and provide details in the notes column. Remember in amphibians it is

only the adult males that call. If you are unable to count the number of individuals, estimate the

number as best as you can and in the “Notes” column explain how you estimated the numbers.

13. The final step in the data entry is to upload pictures if you wish. As with the site descriptions

there is a limit to the size of the file you can upload and you can only upload one photograph per

line of data.

14. Once you have completed this, you can “Save and Close” and logout or proceed with other

functions on the website. Remember, you can come back and edit the data entry in the methods

description window, site description window or the animal observation window for 7 days after

you first enter data. After that time, you can view your observations but will not be able to edit the

data.