In the RECORDS section of the Nature of Dorset you can:
- See the latest sightings in lists, maps, charts and photos
- Find out where and when species have been seen
- Find out what has been seen at a site near you
- Find out the best time of year to see selected species
- Create your own lists, charts and maps and export data
RECORDS SECTION
"What can you see? Where can you see it? When can you see it? What does it look like? A database of nature reports that may help you answer questions like this ..."
To aid users of mobile devices as well as those with a mouse or laptop finger pad this site uses a simple image-based menu system. Virtually every picture you see (images and photos) are links to more information arranged in a sort of top-down structure. See an image, click or tap on it to open a new page.
There are three basic report formats to choose from that use all of the records in the database as a starting point; you, as the user, can then apply filters so that only records of your choosing are displayed. The three provided formats are:
Full Database Report: this shows the data at the base or detail level with one line per recorded observation. This will probably be the most useful option and your final selection of records can be downloaded to your computer in various forms using the small icons at the bottom of the page.
Summary Database Report: this shows the data in a summary form with one line per species per site with the total number of records for that combination also shown.
Tabulated Database Report: this shows the number of records per species per month in a tabular form. Warning: it takes at lot of work to generate the data for this report and it may take several minutes to produce!
Full Database Report |
Summary Database Report |
Tabulated Database Report |
A note about filters:
The boxes at the top of the report are the 'filters'; click the down arrow and choose your selection from the options available. Once you have made your selection click 'Apply' and await the reults! The filters you have chosen remain after the data is displayed and you can change them, or apply additional ones, until you have content you require. To start again use the 'reset' option.
You can use one filter or a combination of several. For example you can select just 'butterflies' from the species group list and all records for butterflies will be displayed. You can take this further by selecting a month, say June, and you will get a list of all butterflies seen in June. You can take this further by adding a site, Alners Gorse perhaps, and see all butterflies seen at Alners Gorse in June. If you want you can even specify for an individual who saw those butterflies at Alners Gorse in June! The more filters you use the more specific your report becomes but the more specific you are the less the number of records you are likely to find.
Do not use Species Group, Species Sub-Group and Species together! Not only is this necessary as you can only work at one level not all three if you choose a species group of birds and a species of large white you will not get any results ...
