Basically we have adopted the standard BTO-way of coding colour-marked birdsnotation as developed by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) , but to make data entry easier for you, we have chosen to use a simplified way, which can be automatically changed to the BTO-standard E.g.:

Information about the colour-rings and neckbands we have used, and about how to report the engraved coding on these you can find for:

Data entry should be carried out in three steps

Step 1 - Report when and where you have seen one or more marked geese

You are logged in as observer and therefore the observer is already known. We have added a special option to indicate if you were joined by co-observers. There you can select from a list of registered co-observers (see under fellow observers). These co-observers then do not have to report the same sightings themselves, but still can view the individual life-histories of these birds. Every observer has only access to the life-histories of birds he/she has at least seen once him/herself.

Calender

The date (dd-mm-yyyy) can only be entered by clicking on the relevant day of the calendar. For 2 June 2003, e.g. 02-06-2003 will be entered automatically in the database.

To enter the goose species you can only select from a predefined list of species. After clicking on the name of the right species a picture of that species will appear. On this website you can now only enter observations of Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Continental Barnacle Geese, Bean Geese and Greylag Geese. Other goose marking schemes are encouraged to join us. While entering the data the observer cannot choose between subspecies, but in the report we will indicate the right subspecies (drawn from our ringing database). So, if one has chosen to enter e.g. a Bean Goose, in the final report you may see that it really was a Taiga Bean Goose. Likewise a Brent Goose may be reported back to you as Dark-bellied Brent Goose, or Light-bellied Brent Goose.

You can also indicate the size of the flock in which you observed your marked birds.

Map

The spot where you observed your goose you can precisely indicate on a map (we use google-maps for this). You can activate the map function by clicking on the button ‘map’ . Then google-maps allows you to select any site whereever in the whole world:

  1. on this map you can zoom in or out (with the toll top left on the google-mao) for better orientation, and you can also use either a satellite image or an ordinary street map or even a hybrid of these options as background (see top right on the google-map). If you click on the right spot a marker will appear and the map will automatically be re-centered on that location. If you are sure that that location is where you have seen your bird, you click on the button and the lat-long information of that site will be shown in decimal degrees and stored in our database, after you have clicked on the button <Confirm>. Alternatively
  2. you can type the lat-long coordinates of the site (if you happen to know these) and then click on <move to>, and the marker will go to that locality. Then, you can fine-tune the position using what you see on the google-map. Finally you will again have to <confirm> this position, and it will be stored. As you can see you can enter degrees, minutes and seconds, or if you prefer, only decimal degrees (in the latter case, do not enter anything (or a zero) under minutes and seconds. Use a decimal point and not a comma.
  3. There is special field to enter the name for that site as you would name it yourself, e.g. Westerlanderkoog, Wieringen, Cleye Eye, Norfolk etc. This can help us to find the right location in case the locality has not been hit right on the map.
  4. Dutch observers can also use the national Dutch Amersfoort-grid to go to the right spot on the map.

In the past we have used less accurate site codes and in our database we have stored both the lat-long information from this site-list. The fields displaying latitude and longitude (in degrees, minutes and seconds, though we use internally decimal degrees) can ONLY be changed by clicking on the map. It is not possible to enter digits here directly. We have chosen this option to avoid undue typing errors, leading to misplaced information about the true localities.From Dutch observers, and other people making observations within The Netherlands we also ask to indicate whether the geese they observed were encountered within so-called 'ganzenopvanggebieden', Dutch for specially designated areas for geese. Here you can choose between yes, no or '?'.

Step 2 - Observations of individual birds

In the next screen you can now enter the ringcombinations, or neckband codes of the birds you observed on the day and locality you have defined under step 1. In case you observed more than one species on the same site, you will first have to complete step 3 for the first species, and then go back to step 1 for each subsequent species.

In the first column you enter the individual code (see for each separate species how you will have to indicate the codes you have seen). Then form a predefined list you slect the type of marking (black neckband, yellow neckband, lime (light-green) neckband, engraved coloured legrings, metal ring, etc.). Eventual relationships between birds that you may have observed, you can only enter under step 3. Under step 2 you can also enter the abdominal score to indicate the condition of the bird on a scale from 1-5. This is also known as the so-called Rubens-index 1= skinny, and 5 = very fat). Finally there is a special field for any extra remarks you may wish to enter. E.g. whether the colour of the ring is fading, whether the rings are worn, etc.

You can either use lower or upper case, as all letters will be automically converted into upper case

A mouse click on any of the fields allows you to re-enter that field and update the information in it when necessary

For all birds about which you have additional information about its status (paired, single, with or without offspring, you will have to mark the field ‘relationship observed?’ If you do not have such additonal information you can leave that field unmarked, which allows you to skip step 3.

If you feel that all data under step 2 has been entered correctly you can click on the button 'save' , and all data will be stored.

Further on you will find two examples for further clarification.

Then the third screen will appear and step 3 starts.

 Step 3 - Relationships between individual birds, and individual status

Here it is impossible to enter new birds. Only of the just entered individuals you can indicate who is paired to whom, which bird you think is the male or the female and whether these birds have offspring or not. Here you can only add information if you have indicated so in column ‘relationship observed?’ under step 2. If two marked birds are paired to one another, you click on one of them from the dropdown menu in the first field (adult), then in the next column you indicate its sex (if you know), then indicate its partner in the third column ‘partner’ . In this column you have also the option to choose 'unringed partner', or 'marked partner, but unidentified' etc.

Next follows a column where you can indicate the sex of the partner. Indicating the sex can help us update our ringing database in case sex has not been determined during ringing, or when mistakes have been made by ringers in determining the sex. In the third column you can also indicate when a bird is solitary by choosing ' no partner' ‘no partner’ .

When this pair is accompanied by marked offspring you can enter this in column ‘young’ (for each marked offspring you will have to enter a new record and repeat the parents. In case there is no or only one marked offspring one line (record) is sufficient. You do not have to enter an extra record for each partner of a pair. One record per pair is sufficient.

The column 'number of offspring' (or family size) allows you to enter the total number of accompanying goslings, both marked and unmarked (0 or more). This requires some observational skill, but is feasible in geese and swans.

Finally there is a separate field to make extra remarks about relationships.

Example 1:  Greater White-fronted Geese
Imagine one has observed in a flock 6 different marked geese, of which 4 with lime-coloured neckbands formed a family group ( D74 en D72 being the young geese with their parents D71 and D73)  and 2 geese with a black neckband (MJA and EAR) one of which (EAR) was observed by you as being paired to an unringed male, and without offspring, whereas for the other (MJA) you were unable to determine whether it had any relationship with another goose.

Then you enter as follows:

Then you click on button <save>

Subsequently you can enter the relationships, except for MJA, because you could not determine any relationship for this bird.

The screen to enter the relationships will then look as follows:

Example 2: Brent Geese
Imagine you have observed 8 different marked Dark-bellied Brent Geese, including a family: five young (LXBV [left lime X, right lightblue V],LXBD,YV P [single yellow ring with double digit engraving VP], plus a young with only a metal ring and an unringed young) and the parents (LKBD and YV 4). Besides those birds you saw 2 colour-ringed Brent (GYY6 [left green Y; right yellow 6] and GCYD), one of which (GYY6) was paired to an unringed bird and accompanied by 3 unringed young,  whereas for the other (GCYD) you could not see whether he/she was paired or not. Then you enter as follows:

Entering the relationships will look as follows:

What did you enter ?

Under My Geese you can select your previously entered observations by selecting a specific date, species or even ring-code.Then click on the button ‘Look up’

An exclamation mark in the first column indicates that this observation has not yet been checked. No exclamation mark indicates that this observation has been verified as one of an existing bird.

By using %- you can select all your observations from a particular month and year (say, for March 1994 you enter %-03-1994 ; for all observations you made in 2003 %-%-2003,etc.).

All observation will be stored in a central Oracle-database. Within a month you will receive a message by e-mail with specific further questions when your observation does not match with our database with ringed and alive birds to find out what bird you may have seen.

When your observation matches an existing bird, you can under Report immediately find out where it has been ringed, and at what other localities it has been observed. Here, you will also find all other observations of that particular bird printed on a map. Once a year every observer will receive a full account of all other observations of 'his/her own' birds.