Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 22:35:05 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: Re: Recommendations for CD-ROM on Birds Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Elliot is right - using spreadsheets to keep records means splitting data among multiple sheets to keep them from becoming unwieldy. I have only been keeping my data this way for a year; entering data on hard copy from previous years is slow. I would say that a few thousand records per sheet is practical. Bill Ellis Eldersburg Carroll County At 08:10 PM 11/19/02 -0500, you wrote: >on 11/19/02 7:28 PM, Bill Ellis at billellis@ELLISLIST.COM wrote: > >> I keep my birding records in an Excel spreadsheet. I can sort by date, by >> species, or by location (site, county, state, or country, and biogeographic >> province in MD), because that is how I designed it. It is not hard to >> extract a year list, then add to my life list, but it is not automatic. To >> sort on bird species, I have devised a numeric code for the ABA List of >> North American Birds. My coded list is available on request (spreadsheet >> form or formatted text file). I keep records of species, forms (male, >> female, juvenile, color phases, etc.), whether seen or heard or both, count >> (sometimes), and miscellaneous notes. I also track hours birding, so I can >> calculate species/hour, and track whether my field skills are improving. >> (They are pretty rusty, currently.) I recommend this method of lifelisting >> for anyone who is already comfortable with spreadsheets - you have complete >> control of what you track and how to arrange it. > >How many records do you have in your spreadsheet? I have over 40,000 records >in my personal birding database. I always thought that so many records would >be unwieldy in a spreadsheet. > >I also use a numeric code for species so I can sort them in taxonomic order. >In fact, I have two codes for each species, one for AOU Checklist order and >the other based on Clements Checklist. > >Elliot Kirschbaum >Baltimore, MD USA >mailto:ekirschb@bcpl.net > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================