Registration

Before entering observations to www.geese.org you are required to register as a user to create a personal account. Creating an account is for free and personal data are only used within geese.org and are never transferred to 3rd parties. You will be asked to provide a unique personal code consisting of maximally five letters/digits and fill in personal details, including a password, and a valid e-mail address. This will e.g. enable project co-ordinators to get in touch with you when there is uncertainty about the entered sightings or provide you with a new password when you lost it. When logging in to geese.org for the first time, you are requested to confirm registration, and immediately after that you can start submitting sightings. Updates can be made under <User>, except for the unique personal code which cannot be changed. Please remember to update your account in case of any changes in your address, notably your e-mail address.

I lost my login details?

When you have lost your username or password, you can send a request to the website’s managerial team (geese.org@gmail.com). When you have only forgotten your password, you can enter your personal code and click on <forgot password>  and your password will be mailed automatically to the e-mail address in your personal account. Please do not register as a new user, because observations you have made under earlier accounts are not automatically accessible under a new user code.

When entering observations, I cannot directly enter the date and coordinates of my sighting on a the map?

To avoid typing errors you can only enter the date and coordinates using a pop-up calendar or a pop-up google-map. If these pop-up windows for date and maps do not appear, you have probably disabled your browser to allow pop-up screens. Please check your user-settings, and enable pop-ups for the website geese.org.

I observed marked birds with several persons and we all like to add the sighted birds to our personal accounts?

When out in the field with other registered geese.org users, only one observer has to enter the observations, and add his fellow-observers as a co-observer (prior to entry of the sightings, via <User> and <Fellow Observers> ). Because of the large number of observers, a special entry sheet has been developed where you can create and manage a personal list of co-observers. Up to four co-observers can be entered for each single sighting. All co-observers will have access to the ringing data and life-histories of these birds when logging in under their own account. Their names will be shown in the life-history reports as well. Remember that each co-observer has to be registered as observer, and thus should have a personal code.

The species and or type of ring I have seen does not occur in the entry sheet?

Geese.org includes most of the colour-marking schemes for swans and geese in Europe, but not all. Please check the menu <How to report> for species and marking schemes that have joined geese.org so far. Eventually, an alert will pop-up when you enter a species and/or code for which data are not known in geese.org. This is just a message to point at unknown ring types. It does not prevent you to enter the sighting since it might be an existing ring type or code that is not yet available in geese.org (e.g. when the scheme does not participate in geese.org) or where ringing details have not been uploaded yet. In case of foreign projects, we recommend to check cr-birding.org for details.

There are no ringing data available of the birds I have observed?

All ringing details from projects that participate in geese.org are available in the database. However, it may happen that they are lacking in the heading of the life-histories. This is especially the case when birds have been ringed recently, and ringing data still have to be uploaded in the database. Also when you have reported a non-existing code, ringing details will not appear, but if you are confident about your observation, please do not delete such a record, but look later on if ringing details have been uploaded. In case of obvious mis-readings, you may be contacted by the project co-ordinator to check out details of your observation.

For ringing projects that do not participate in geese.org, ringing details are also not available, but other observations of the same bird may still appear in the life-histories. The managerial team of geese.org will try its best to pass on such information to the relevant ringer, and ask him/her to inform the observer directly.

I made a mistake when entering my sightings?

Via <Observations> and <My geese> you can list all sightings you have reported to geese.org. Eventually filter for date (note you can use %-03-2014 to get all observations in March 2014, etc.), species and code to get the observation you would like to edit. Use “edit” to retrieve a special edit sheet where you can correct the details of a sighting. Please note that you have to save corrections separately for details on date and site and details on the rings/neckbands you have observed.

I would like to download all my observations to analyse my data?

Downloading data from the website is not directly possible. We stimulate any analysis of geese.org data. In case of scientific studies and publications, or if you would like to use observations from other observers, or from a specific area, please send a request to the species’ co-ordinator, listed under <About geese.org> and <Projects>.

Do the rings or neckbands not harm the birds?

For all studies where colour-rings and neckbands are used, it is important that the marked birds behave in a natural way, similar to their unmarked conspecifics. Several scientific studies have examined whether rings or neckbands had an impact on the birds’ behaviour, body condition or survival. None have found a long-term negative impact on survival or body condition yet (see e.g. Clausen & Madsen 2014, J. Ornithol 155: 951-958). Often ringed birds return from the breeding grounds with offspring. Birds reported to have accumulated ice on their neckbands under freezing conditions also did not have a different survival rate from birds that had no ice on their neckbands (e.g. Madsen et al. 2001, Wildlife Biology 7: 49-43). When a bird has erected its neck feathers, neckbands often look tightly fitted, but this is never the case. During ringing much care is taken to attach rings or neckbands in a way that do not trouble the birds.

My question is not answered here?

Please send an e-mail to geese.org@gmail.com  with your remarks or questions about www.geese.org