Be sure to print off these instructions before using the Frogwatch Sighting Form!
Your Information - your name and address (including postal code please),
phone number (we promise not to call at dinnertime!), and email address if you have one.
This helps us keep in touch with our Frogwatchers, and we can check with you if we need more
details about your sighting. The information will be used only for and by the Frogwatch program.
Habitat - don't worry about the elevation, slope, ecosection and so forth.
If you do know them, that would be very helpful, but all we really need from you in this
section is a little description of the habitat where you made your observation. Tell us
if it was a large pond or small stream, for example, or in an opening, a meadow, or a forested area.
If this is a site you monitor repeatedly, you might want to keep track of what is happening
in the area - for instance, if a new road is put in, or a new subdivision is being built. The
field (the area you type in) will expand to fit a long description. You may also find one of the
categories on the pop-up list for BEU (Broad Ecosystem Units) will fit your site.
Location - here we need the clearest possible description of the location. A
street address is very clear, for example, if you heard a frog in your backyard. The best
locator for us is a set of UTM or lat/long coordinates that you read off a map, or a GPS unit
such as hikers often use. (If you read the coordinates from the map, please remember to give
the map or marine chart number so that we can double-check.)
More information on map reading and UTMs
NEW! - direct mapping of locations by clicking a map!
Species - here's where you tell us what you saw or heard (the most important
part of course!). We've added a check box for "no observation" if you are monitoring a pond
and don't see or hear any amphibians on one of your regular stops - this information is just
as important as an actual observation (if, for instance, you were going to a pond where
you normally hear treefrogs, and didn't hear them. This could mean either that they hadn't
started calling yet, or, perhaps, that there were no longer treefrogs present). Just fill in
the date and check the "no observation" box if this is the case.
When you have observations or monitoring stops to record, enter the date of each
observation or stop (you can enter up to seven observations on each form - whether they
are seven different species on one day, or seven sightings over different days. All observations
must be at the same location, however - if you have a second location you must fill out a second
form). Then enter the species code
if you know it, or click the "L" button beside the species code field for a pop-up menu of
the codes with species names. If you have a "null observation" to report, fill in the species code
of the amphibian you expected to find at the site, or leave the field blank. Our computer will fill
it in with "amphibian" if it is left blank. You'll notice we've added turtles to our species
list. Yes, we do know they aren't amphibians, but we'd really appreciate it if our
Frogwatchers could let us know where they see turtles!
Next click the pull-down menu to say whether you saw or heard the animal. If you
heard it, go to the next column, "# Heard," and click the "L" button for a pop-up menu
of calling intensities.
If you saw the amphibian, skip the "# Heard"
column and go on to "Number Seen," where you enter the number of adult (metamorphosed) animals,
tadpoles or egg masses seen. (Be careful of identifying tadpoles or egg masses, they can be tricky!
But if you see an identifiable adult laying eggs, you could count both the adult and the egg mass).
There's a little more - don't forget to scroll across the screen (the sighting form is
wider than most displays. We are sorry for any inconvenience but it wouldn't fit no matter
what we did to it!). Fill in the fields for temperature, wind intensity (another pop-up menu for
the Beaufort wind scale), and weather. Then there is a Note field where you can enter what time you
were observing, and anything else you may have noticed about the animal - for example, if you saw a
deformed individual, or saw it do something especially interesting.
Take a moment to read over your form and make sure you've entered everything correctly.
Thanks! This goes into a computerised database, and computers get confused by spelling errors that
a human would recognise.
Now click Submit, and your observations are on their way to join our database! Thank
you for participating in Frogwatch!
If you don't have all the information you need, or don't want to proceed with sending
the data, just close the form without submitting it, and you will return to the
Frogwatch site.
We also have a printable Frogwatch form to take into the field with you or to send in by
mail if you prefer (though it really helps us if you can submit your observations online).
The fields in the printed form are very similar to those in the online version, so just print
off a copy of the instructions above to take with you. Print
a field observation form (PDF format)
