1

Re: Dotterel as Otter

When doing some checking recently, a volunteer showed me a very worrying error: some Otter entries now show up as Dotterel, with the Latin name being Lutra lutra. The checklist used is Recorder 3.3

These are naturally confidential records, so I'm reluctant to post them, however I've uploaded a screenshot of an entry.


I've never seen this before, any ideas?

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Re: Dotterel as Otter

We noticed this a couple of days ago too. I can confirm that we have seen Otters appearing with a common name of Dotterel in versions of R6. I think it was version 6.7 with the dictionary patch Steve release, but I can't be sure. However, the version of the dictionary we have does not exhibit this problem. Steve supplied us with an updated version of the dictionary to fix a problem with Bitterns mentioned in another post, so I can only assume this is an issue that has been fixed.

I'll post a heads-up to this thread in the species dictionary forum in case the folk from the NHM can shed any light.

Charles

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

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Re: Dotterel as Otter

Rob,

I've just checked the Species Dictionary and there are no problems in the data that we hold, so this looks like an issue relating to implementation of the nameserver within Recorder.

JNCC will probably be able to shed more light on this, but I suspect that the error has already been rectified as part of the work that Charles mentions. If so then the bug will presumably be fixed by loading the relevant Recorder update. Steve Wilkinson should be able to advise on this though.

Cheers,
John

4

Re: Dotterel as Otter

Further to the earlier message, checking last week's data-entry has thrown up a few more anomalies. Essentially, I encourage use of the Rec.3 checklist & then more specialised lists the species is not present, however this approach is now under review after some odd examples.

Volunteers are generally non-specialists, so they will type in the common name, press return, choose from list & go from there. So we now get

• Cormorant-shows up as “Double-crested Cormorant” -Phalacrocorax carbo. This is most likely to be Great Cormorant, however what’s really odd is that “Double-crested Cormorant” doesn’t exist on the Rec.3.3 list, although that is what is displayed as the checklist in the report. Double-crested Cormorant -Phalacrocorax auritus is on the BIRDS NHM/BOU checklist, which has not been chosen.
• Curlew- shows up as “Stone-Curlew”- Numenius arquata. This is a different family. Stone-Curlew is Burhinus oedicnemus.
• Red Grouse- shows up as “Willow Ptarmigan”- Lagopus lagopus. This is not the preferred name.

The way I'm finding these errors is running a site speciifc report which has 3 columns: Taxon_Common_Name, Taxon_Latin_Name and Taxon_name, then visually comparing differences. My worry is that if these errors are more systematic, then they will be harder to identify like this.

We are using Version 6.7.2.77 of 16 March 2006. It was installed directly onto the server without being upgraded from a previous version. Is there a dictionary update around that will cover these anomalies? Has anyone else found other quirks outwith the Charles’ Bittern  or nameserver errors?

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Re: Dotterel as Otter

I just wanted to confirm that these problems should be fixed as part of the consolidation of the species dictionary that will be released in version 6.8.

Please see "Announcements> Consolidation of Recorder 6" for more details.

Regards

Sarah
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC