How do you keep your wildlife records?

[speckled wood]

I fairly consistently kept a written journal of my wildlife observations and adventures from 1976 through until 1993 when I had a series of Psion palmtops computers and kept my records there. The data held on the Psions has largely vanished but my old written journals mostly survived. I have tried to get back into the habit of keeping a written journal over the past couple of years but so far have been very erratic and inconsistent and the only complete record I therefore have is from the photographs I take.

Just wondering how other people keeps their records and how many consistently keep a nature journal or diary?

[buzfuz8149]

I am also a diary/journal person, have been since my early school days, I now keep a diary for my day to day activities and a journal for my special sightings (well special to me), I started putting my diary and journal onto the computer and saving to CD disk now I save to a rewritable DVD and back up to an external hard drive, I have also put all our photos taken on digital format in to a folder and I back that up on a regular basis, I have been trying to scan in all our film negatives onto computer, having always had a passion for photography (we have over the last two years dismantled our darkroom in which we did colour and B&W) the negatives 35mm - 120 and a small plate camera (showing my age now) fill two draws of my filing cabinet, and then hopefully not that my life is very exciting but we like to think our grandchildren or great grand children may open them one day and see what we did where we went - ah now I am waxing maudlin.

[rlchew]

I have annual bird lists for Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Wales and Scotland (plus my life list) going back to 1973 and they are now all recorded in Excel on my PC. I also keep a record of notable bird sightings from 1994 on my PC.

The rest of my records are still contained in notebooks .... I have yet to get around to electronically recording all that!

My records for my local patch at Wat Tyler Country Park have been recorded on my blog since April of this year along with some photos from the site.

All my other photos are stored on my PC and backed up to an external HDD and the best ones appear on my website.

There are a few recording software products available and of course there is always Access. I have been tempted by both but again never got round to doing anything about it. The prospect of all that retrospective input of information does not fill me with a lot of excitement!

Richard

[aeshna5]

I have dozens of diaries recording my wildlife observations over many years from daily sightings at home/work, field trips, foreign trips, etc. Pass on some of records to recorders, but haven't been good at getting records on PC, though do have some of my foreign trip lists there for professional reasons.

[Deer Stalker]

I write down where I've been & the species seen. Its also handy to be able to look back & see when that migrant bird arrived, when this species of plant came out in flower, when that species of Dragonfly emerges etc, when planning walks & stuff.
I have also started keeping a more detailed Diary here on WAB.

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by rlchew

I have annual bird lists for Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Wales and Scotland (plus my life list) going back to 1973 and they are now all recorded in Excel on my PC. I also keep a record of notable bird sightings from 1994 on my PC.

The rest of my records are still contained in notebooks .... I have yet to get around to electronically recording all that!

My records for my local patch at Wat Tyler Country Park have been recorded on my blog since April of this year along with some photos from the site.

All my other photos are stored on my PC and backed up to an external HDD and the best ones appear on my website.

There are a few recording software products available and of course there is always Access. I have been tempted by both but again never got round to doing anything about it. The prospect of all that retrospective input of information does not fill me with a lot of excitement!

Richard

I would suggest that each time you put current data on you start with adding 5 or 10 of your old records. That way you dont have to face the whole lot at once. I think you will find it astonishing how fast you will go through it that way. You might find it easier to start a new page for the old stuff and amalgamate it when complete.
jaki