Tips on data entry (that will help the TEA's Ontario Butterfly Atlas)

While processing iNat observations from 2020/2021 for inclusion in the Ontario Butterfly Atlas, I'm finding that folks are adding all kinds of information to the "Notes" section of their iNat observations. This is great - better that the information be included somewhere than omitted completely. However, it isn't necessarily the "best" place for some pieces of information. If observers are going to go to the trouble of adding this information, they can greatly help the Ontario Butterfly Atlas by putting the information in places where our software can find it more easily.
One of the things I see most frequently is a location name (eg. "Ganaraska Forest"). iNaturalist enters a default location name based on the Lat/Long of the observation. This default name is often vague, so this additional information can be very important. However, when you put it in the Notes, it means that someone has to manually copy it into the location field in our database, which is a lot of work, and is error prone. iNat users should note that they are free to edit/replace the default location name that iNaturalist assigns to their observations. It's pretty straightforward, and you can apply the same location name to a group of observations (at the time you are entering them). I'll create a separate post with instructions on how to do this, but our suggested format for the location format is to start with a town/city/region name, and then append something more specific like a park or trail. In other words, go from a general area to something more specific.
For example:
Toronto - Edward's Garden
Algonquin PP - Old Airfield
Khartum - Doorley Creek Rd - km 2

Sometimes the location that iNat inserts is fine. You can use your judgement as to whether or not it needs to be "tweaked". There's no need to pinpoint the location down to the meter - just something that would allow someone to visualize where on the map the observation occurred. It can also be a useful check that the lat/long coordinates are correct.

Other pieces of information that folks often put in the Notes are things like:
number of individuals observed*
habitat
life stage (adult, larva, etc.)*
additional observers*

The items marked with an asterisk are of particular interest to the Atlas project (especially the life stage!!!), but when these pieces of information are all crammed into the Notes, it means that somebody has to separate them out and copy that information from the Notes into their proper fields of the Atlas database.

If observers would like to help the Ontario Butterfly Atlas, one thing that would be a huge help would be to include these pieces of information in specific Observation Fields that are dedicated to them. When they are included in their proper Observation Fields, the software we use to process the iNat data can put this information into the proper fields automatically. This saves a huge amount of time, and is far less error prone. We get somewhere in the range of 40,000 observations from iNat every year. That's a lot of notes to parse by hand.

Please note that over the years, hundreds (possibly thousands) of Observation Fields have been defined in iNat by different people. When we download the iNat data, we have to specify which fields we want to include, and we can only download and process a limited number of them. So if you put your additional information in a field other than the one we have chosen, the Atlas won't receive it - it would be better to just leave it in the Notes.

The fields we have chosen for the Atlas project are the following:
Count (the number of individuals you are reporting - you can give a total of those seen/photographed)
Insect Life Stage (you don't have to specify that it was an adult. we will assume it's an adult unless this field is set to some other value)
Additional Observers (give a list of observers other than yourself, separated by commas)
Habitat - any notes about the habitat you feel are important

Using these Observation Fields is completely optional. If you feel it is too much trouble, please continue to include the information in the Notes. Please note that these fields have to be added to your observations - they are not there by default (some projects automatically add fields to your observations, but the Ontario Butterfly Atlas doesn't do that). I am not suggesting that anyone should go back and add these Observation fields to their existing observations. You can if you want, but this is mostly for observations you are going to add in the future.

In addition, the Atlas captures the following Observation Fields:
Nectar Plant (self explanatory)
Insect Host Plant (please use this for larvae/eggs - not for nectaring adults)

However, whatever we find in those fields gets copied into the Notes field of the Atlas, so there is no need to add these fields if you prefer to just put the information in the Notes of your iNat observation. But if you are going to add these fields, then there's no need to duplicate the information in the Notes as well (some people have been doing this).

In Summary:
Instead of putting a location name in your observation Notes, you can simply EDIT the default location name that iNat assigns to your observation.

The Ontario Butterfly Atlas captures and processes the following Observation Fields, so it is preferable to include the pertinent information in these fields rather than the Notes:
Insect Life Stage (very important, but optional for adults)
Count (optional, and only really necessary if you're reporting more than one individual)
Additional Observers (only add the field if you need to report an additional observer)
Habitat
Nectar Plant
Insect Host Plant ( use for larval host plants )

Feel free to add other Observation Fields, but please be aware that the Atlas won't "see" the information you put there.

Posted on December 18, 2021 02:00 PM by rcavasin