Bird Journal has revolutionised my wildlife record keeping. This software is simplicity itself to use, but offers a vast array of features to keep even the most meticulous note-taker happy.

I must admit my notes in the past were always a little bit of a chore to write up. I’d come in from an afternoon in the field and the last thing on my mind is writing up my notes and recording what I’ve seen. What I needed was something to make this recording process as simple as possible. I’ve flirted with free software and spreadsheets, along with a good old fashioned notebook, but finally I decided to part with some money and buy some software (why spend all this money on equipment to watch birds then try and scrimp and save when it comes to keeping records of what I’ve seen). Bird Journal offers a free demo database download, as well as a trial version limited to a few sightings; and so I was able to try before I bought.

What impressed me most was the thoughtfulness that has gone into designing a product that’s easy and effortless to use. Simply click a button to add a new entry and fill in as much or as little detail about the trip as you like – location, date, time, weather and notes are all there for you to fill in easily. You can also customize the properties to add in your own fields if you want to record other information.

When it comes to adding details of the species recorded on the trip you have two options: either start typing the name of the species in the “Species” box and Bird Journal will auto-suggest species for you to select from, or alternatively just use the checklist option, which can be filtered by location, to give a really speedy way of selecting from the species you’ve seen at a particular site. With each species you can easily add other details such as counts, gender and other properties (again fully customizable).

Each location/site you want to record at can be set up beforehand, within a hierarchy too, so viewing records in a particular county is effortless. In fact, once you’ve added your records, the wealth of information you can get out of bird journal is amazing. First and last dates per species, for counties or sites are a doddle to see, and it’s easy to pull out graphs of sightings data. The software even offers the facilities to graph intra- and inter- year population data, I can’t wait to add more records and see what comes out.

What’s more you can also add your photo’s directly to each sighting or location, and then display them directly in the software by species, location or date. This means I’ll no longer be hunting around when I want to review a certain moth or bird, I just select that species from the gallery and I can review all the photo’s I’ve ever taken of that species….

…and, yes, I did just mention Moths, because that’s the beauty of the Complete Edition of the software  - you can add your own checklists. This really unleashes the full capability of the software and allows you to record anything you see, not just birds.

There are a few areas where the software could be improved, such as the ability to import checklists from spreadsheets, or store sound and video, but Christine at Bluebird Technology assures me these are all features that will be arriving soon. Christine, and the users of the Bird Journal forums, offer excellent support for the software and are generating new checklists for use with the Complete version of the software regularly – to save you the hassle.

I would really recommend you take a look at their website (www.bluebirdtechnology.com) and download the free trial or free demo software, and explore the full potential of what Bird Journal can offer – whether you’re a casual birder or a wildlife journeyman you won’t be disappointed.