Instructions for Entering Data into the Calling Frog Survey Database
A User ID and password is required to login to the Calling Frog Survey. If you do not already have these, call the Habitat Project at 847-965-1150.
Login
Go to www.habitatproject.org.
Click on Calling Frog Survey.
Click on Survey.
Click on Log In from the menu at the
top.
Enter your Monitor ID and password.
If this is your first time, enter the
password your county coordinator gave you. Then enter a new password (write it
down somewhere where you won’t lose it) in the two blanks and hit the Submit
button.
Click on Routes & Locations from the
menu at the top.
Click on “Add New Route” from the main screen, to enter your route information. You only need enter this information ONCE for each route. So if you monitored the same route last year, you can skip this step. If you need to enter Route information, simply give the route a name, identify the monitor, describe its location, and select the correct county. Then click the Add button at the bottom. It is very important to give your route a name that is descriptive of its location, so that others can find the general area you monitored.
At any time, you may change information about your route by clicking on the route name in the list on the left side of the screen and clicking the Edit button. After making changes, click Update.
After you’ve entered your Route information, you need to enter information for each monitoring location (listening point). The appropriate screen should pop up after you’ve entered your Route information. If not, click on the Route name in the left-hand list, and click on the button at the bottom for adding a new location. Again, you only need enter this information ONCE. So, if you already did this step last year, you can skip it.
You’ll need to give each location a unique name – one that is different from all the others in the database. So a simple 1, 2, or 3 may not work because someone else has used it. Try something logical to you, so you’ll recognize the locations by their names when you go back to the database later on. Also put them in the order in which you walked them – so use numerals or letters that get you the right order.
Note: Enter the GPS coordinates as positive numbers. Our longitude is negative, but we include the oW label to designate this.
Be sure to include a description of how to get to and identify the location (so someone, using these directions, could find where you listened from).
And again, you may change information about your locations by clicking on the location name in the list on the left side of the screen and clicking the Edit button. After making changes, click Update.
If everything is OK, click the Add New Location button and do it all again until all of your locations are in.
Observations
When you are ready to enter your observations, click on Add Observations from the menu at the top.
From the list at the left, scroll down until you find your county, then click on the Route for which you are going to enter data. The route name and your name as the monitor should appear at the top of the screen.
Click in the circle to the left of the time period in which your observations were taken.
Enter the date you took the observations, and check the box if it rained or was below freezing in the 48 hours before you went out (if you know).
Add any comments here that would apply to all of the locations.
Click the Continue button.
(You will do the following for all of your locations)
Enter the time you began to listen at this location.
From the Sky pull-down, select the sky code. If you took additional cloud cover data (only some counties), select the proper % from that pull-down.
Enter the temperature.
From the Wind pull-down, select your wind code.
If you made any comments about this location, enter them in this comment box.
For each frog/toad species, select the observed call index. If you recorded a 4 (seen, but not heard), leave the call index at 0 but check the Seen box.
When you have entered all of the species you heard, click on the Add & Next button.
You will see the window for the next location on that route. The weather information should be the same as what you entered for the last location, so you only need to change that information that changed from the previous location.
Start entering the information just like you did for the first location.
Repeat this for all locations.
At any time, you may click on an observation date in the left-hand list to change information from that monitoring date. Click on Edit Location at the bottom of the screen, and be sure to click Update after you have made your changes.
You’re Finished! Thanks for entering your data electronically. It saves enormous amounts of time for Habitat Project staff, county coordinators, and data entry volunteers.