Bill Heck's run-down of the available software pretty much jibes with my
experience. I have used Bird Base and Avisys extensively and prefer the
latter. I am currently checking out the Woodstar Field Diary, which is a
free-form data base that offers the promise of much greater flexibility than
AviSys. You can download a crippled test version of Woodstar from
http://www.tody-soft.com/
Another thing you might consider, particularly if you are just starting out
and don't have a great many records to process, is simply collecting your
records in a spreadsheet. Most spreadsheets these days can handle 64,000
rows and the next version of MS Office is supposed to be able to handle
1,000,000. Keeping your records in a flat file format is dreadfully
wasteful of memory, but we all have memory to burn these days. The
spreadsheet metaphor is easy to learn (MUCH easier than relational database
managers) and allow you to slice and dice the data just about anyway you
want. And you don't even have to enrich Microsoft if you don't want to.
The OpenOffice project offers a free office suite, including a very good
spreadsheet, under the open software license at
http://www.openoffice.org/
The main thing, though, is to start keeping records, even if you just write
them down in one of those speckledy composition books we used to use in
school.
Cheers,
Bob
On 12/4/06, Stephen Cunliffe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I would like to add a specific request to Phillip's. I have never used
> software for listing in my very short career as a birder, but am
> interested
> in doing so. Coming to an end of my first year, and it would be
> interesting
> to tally things up. Any recommendations? I have a Mac, but I think I can
> run Windows programs on it
> Many thanks,
> Stephen
>
> On 12/4/06, Phillip North <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > As a relatively new birder and an avid reader of this site, I would
> like
> > some ideas/help on bird list documentation.
> >
> > I currently am keeping a lifelist and a yr list with bare bones
> > documentation of name date and place. I have not been in the habit of
> > doing a list each time I go out. What techniques/software/lists do you
> > more experienced birders keep and can you point me to some good
> resources.
> > My interet was sparked by the kestrel thread as I see Kestrels almost
> > everytime I go to Pickerington Ponds in SE Columbus. However, I have
> not
> > been keeping any longitudinal data and would like to start doing so.
> >
> > Thanks Phillip
> >
> > ______________________________________________________________________
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>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
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> Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
>
> You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
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--
Robert D Powell
Wilmington, OH, USA
[log in to unmask]
Nulla dies sine linea
______________________________________________________________________
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