Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program

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Submit Data

HOW TO ENTER YOUR DATA INTO POLLARDBASE

Once you have conducted a survey and have a completed data sheet in hand, the next step is to sit down at your computer and enter the data into PollardBase, the online data portal. (If your route doesn't appear in PollardBase, please contact the CarBMP Director.)

1. Go to PollardBase.org/Carolinas

2. Click Log in at the top right and enter your user name and password

3. Once logged in, note menu items at top of page and click Routes in the menu bar at the top of the page

4. Scroll to your route, and click on + Report Survey. This takes you to the page subtitled Create Survey, and the Route box should be automatically populated with the route you selected on the previous page

5. On the Create Survey page, first answer the question, Was the survey completed?

6. Next, note there are several tabs (People, Date and Time, Conditions, Observations, Notes, Images/Files, Incidentals). And note there is a Save Survey button at the bottom. First fill out the requested information on all of the tabs, then save the survey. See below for instructions for each tab.

7. Starting with the People tab, fill in the name of the person who conducted the survey (in most cases, this will be you). If you were alone, you only need to fill in your name as the Observer/Spotter, then move to the next tab. If anyone else accompanied you, fill in the appropriate spaces, then move to the next tab. Unless this is your first time, you can usually just type the first couple of letters, and the system will auto-fill the rest of your name. Use the Tab button or your mouse to move to the next field.

8. Date and Time: Using military time (e.g., 1pm = 13:00) enter the date, starting time, and ending time for the survey. If you paused the survey for any reason (rain, photography, chasing down butterflies to confirm ID, chat with a passerby, etc.), enter the total duration of your pause time in minutes. This is only important if the total pause time exceeds ~3-4 minutes.

9. Conditions: enter the weather conditions your recorded on your field sheet.

10. Observations: this is where you will enter your butterfly sightings. Start by clicking in the Taxon box. This will pop up a list of possible species. Start typing your species name (e.g. mon will take you to Monarch), and the pop up menu will highlight options or simply populate the cell. If the wrong species populates, you can scroll to the correct species with mouse or up/down arrow or try re-typing. Also note that you can use keyboard shortcuts like the Tab key to move between fields, thus minimizing mouse work.

11. Notes: you can leave this blank or add relevant field notes like Forest along section A was recently clearcut or Section B meadow recently mowed, or anything else of interest.

12. Images/Files: If you took relevant photos along the route, feel free to add them here. Otherwise, you can ignore this tab.

13. Once finished, click Save Survey at the bottom! This will take you to a summary screen. Please do a quick review to make sure there were no typos during data entry. Note, too, you can view all surveys by clicking on the Surveys tab in the top menu bar.

14. If you spot a mistake and you need to edit your survey, follow these instructions: Click on My account at the top right of the page. Click on Authored Surveys Find the survey you entered that needs editing, and click on Edit Survey under the Edit Link column on the right. Makes your edits, and save survey again. Easy-peasy!

TUTORIALS AVAILABLE AT PollardBase Help

PollardBase Administrators and the Illinois program developed and shared these tutorials.
1. PDF with screenshots walks you step by step through entering a survey.

2. This YouTube video walks you through the process of entering survey data. There are only a few of minor differences between the Illinois monitoring program's protocols and ours, including (in chronological order as mentioned in the video)
(1) The CarBMP allows more than one other participant, as long as only one person functions as the observer.
(2) Moderately Windy is NOT too windy to run a survey for the CarBMP. It is absolutely fine to run surveys under Moderately Windy conditions.
(3) The CarBMP does require end weather conditions to be entered
(4) The CarBMP does promote tracking Incidental sightings and entering those on the Incidentals tab.

Thanks for your dedication to butterfly conservation!


North Carolina Butterflies | North American Butterflies


Created on ... March 8, 2023 | jeffpippen9@gmail.com