Querying By Species

23 November 2006

One of the interesting features of BUBO Listing is that the list database can be queried for a given species. For example, it is possible for a registered BUBO Listing user to who is claiming Long-tailed Skua on their year list so far, and when and where each person has claimed the species (if they have entered those details).

To find out information pertaining to a given species, first click on 'View All Lists' on the left-hand side of the page (N.B. you need to be logged in first - see instructions on 'Getting Started' if you need help with this).

You then need to specify which type of lists you are interested in (see the instructions on 'Creating a List' for further details). Select the region of interest (and, if you choose county, select which county). Select the time period (life or year, and if you choose year, further select which year). Select which list authority you wish to apply, and whether or not you wish to restrict the list to self-found records only.

Then, select 'Blockers' (not 'Rankings') and click on 'Show List'. You will then get a list of all the species recorded under lists with the selected parameters, along with the number of such lists that they appear on. The species are initially sorted in order of the number of lists with that species, with the species on the fewest lists first (hence 'Blockers'). For example, at the time of writing these instructions, there were ten species under British BOU Life Lists that had only been recorded by a single lister each. Note, however, that you can resort the list into alphabetical species order if you have an interest in a particular species, by clicking on the top of the species column.

Having found your species of interest, you can then click on that species name and you will see all the listers with that species on their list (of the currently selected parameters), along with the date, location and any comments pertaining to the record (if the lister has included them). Obviously, the more BUBO listers that have entered date/location information, the more interesting these queries become. Note, however, that if a lister has decided to flag a species as 'sensitive' (see 'Creating a List' instructions for further details), you will not be able to see the date or location information pertaining to that record.