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How to Observe

How to Observe

How to Observe Handbook report coverAs part of Nature’s Notebook, you are invited to observe both plants and animals. Observing phenology is very similar for both, however, because animals move around and plants do not, there is one important difference in the way we ask you to observe the two groups:

For plants: Observe the same individual plants each time you visit your site. For example, you should observe the same red maple in your back yard all through the year.

For animals: Create a checklist of animal species and look for all of them each time you visit your site. For example, if your checklist has robins, wood frogs, and tent caterpillars on it, you should record whether or not you see or hear those species anywhere in your site each time you visit.

New! "How to Observe" Nature's Notebook Plant and Animal Phenology Handbook (pdf )

 

Overview training video

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Overview

Whether you choose to observe both plant and animals or only one or the other follow these detailed steps to set up your observation program on the ground (and see the Frequently Asked Questions page for more information):

Select a site training video

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Select a site

A site is the area within which you will look for your chosen animal species, and which encompasses any plants you choose to observe. When you select a site, such as your yard or a nearby natural area, consider these guidelines:

Convenience: You will be visiting your site(s) regularly, so it should be convenient and easily accessible.

Representative location: As much as is practical, the selected site(s) should be representative of the environmental conditions for your area. More...

Uniform habitat: The conditions of your selected site(s) should be relatively uniform across the site. If you would like to observe two adjacent but distinct habitats, please document them as separate sites. For example, a wetland adjacent to or surrounded by a drier grassland or forest should be documented as a separate site from the grassland or forest.

Appropriate size: A site should be no larger than 15 acres (6 hectares or 250 x 250 meters), a square with sides the length of 2 ½ football fields. A site can certainly be smaller than this, and larger areas can be divided into multiple sites. More...

Proper permission: If you do not own the property where the site is located, you must get permission from the landowner before marking any plants or reporting the site location information (such as latitude/longitude coordinates). More...

Return to Previous Page Add a Site

Select species training video

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Select plant and animal species

Choose one or more species from our list of recommended plant and animal species. For plants, we encourage you to select at least one plant calibration species. For animals, we recommend that you select several species that occur in your local area or in your state. More...

Make sure that you have correctly identified the plant and animal species at your site before reporting your observations for those species online. More...

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Select individual plants training video

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Select individual plants

At your site(s) select one or more individuals of each of your chosen plant species to observe. Choose plants that appear to be healthy, undamaged, and free of pests and disease. If you want to observe several individuals of the same species, try to select individuals that are not direct neighbors, but are still growing in a similar environment. More...

For annuals (which only survive one growing season) and biennials (which survive for two growing seasons), avoid choosing the first or the last seedling to emerge in the spring since they may not be representative of the larger population at your site. More...

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Mark your sites and plants training video

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Mark your site and individual plants

Regardless of whether you are observing only plants, only animals, or both, you will make your observations repeatedly at the same site(s) over time. You will want to somehow mark your site(s) so that you can find it again in the future. More...

Because plant monitoring requires that you observe the same individual plants repeatedly, you will also need to mark each plant so that you can find it on each visit. We recommend that you mark each individual plant with a unique label. For example, you could mark pieces of flagging tape with “red maple-1”, “red maple-2”, etc. and then tie them to each of the red maples you are observing. More...

Remember that if you do not own the property where your site is located, you must get permission from the landowner to put up any markers.

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Get organized

You will need the following items:

  • Phenophase definitions and instructions: Check the profile page for each of your selected plant and animal species to see the list of phenophases for those species and instructions on how to recognize them.
  • Datasheets, clipboard, pencil: You can download and print a datasheet for each of your plant or animals from the profile page for that species, or generate a personalized datasheet packet for your Nature’s Notebook Home page. More...
  • Binoculars (optional, helpful for observing animals as well as phenophases in tall trees)
  • Marking equipment for first trip: Flagging, markers, stakes, plastic tags, popsicle sticks
Return to Previous Page Get Datasheets

 

Record your plant observations training video

plant observations training video

Record your Plant and Animal Observations

Visit your site(s) as often as possible. At least once a week is good, but several times a week or even once a day is even better during times of the year when things are changing quickly (for example, spring and fall). More...

For plants: Visit each of your individual plants and check their phenophases. For each day that you make an observation, record the date and other appropriate information on your datasheet, and for each phenophase, record one of the following choices:

  • Yes (y) – if you saw that the phenophase is occurring
  • No (n) – if you saw that the phenophase is not occurring
  • Uncertain (?) – if you were not certain whether the phenophase was occurring, or if you did not check for the phenophase

It is very important to record this information, even if nothing has changed since your last visit! Knowing when a plant is not in a given phenophase is just as important as knowing when one is. More...

Record your animal observations training video

animal observations training video

For animals: Look and listen for any of the species on your animal checklist. You can do this by one of three methods:

  • walking (a single pass or transect through your site)
  • stationary (standing or sitting at a single point)
  • area search (multiple passes through your site)

Try to spend about the same amount of time looking for animals at each visit. We recommend three minutes as a standard, but you can spend as much or as little time as you like. You will probably not see most, or any, of the animals during each visit, which is ok. More...

For each day that you make an observation, record the amount of time you spent looking and which of the three methods you used. Record whether or not you saw each animal species on your checklist, and for each animal phenophase, record one of the following choices:

  • Yes (y) – if you saw that the phenophase is occurring
  • No (n) – if you saw that the phenophase is not occurring
  • Uncertain (?) – if you were not certain whether you saw or heard that species or that phenophase, or if you did not check for the phenophase

It is very important to record this information, even if you did not see a particular animal species! Knowing when an animal is not present, or when an animal is not in a given phenophase is just as important as knowing when it is. More...

If a phenophase, like flowering or nest building, begins and ends while you were not observing, you can make a note of it in the comments section. More...

If you are watching for a phenophase and it does not seem to be starting when you expect it would, continue to watch for it and record that it is not occurring. This could mean the phenophase is occurring later or not at all in a given year, and this could be very valuable information. More...

Once a phenophase has ended you should continue to look for it and record whether or not it occurs again. Sometimes phenophases will occur a second or third (or more) time in a season, whether because of rain, pests, or climate change. More...

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Enter your observations online training video

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Enter your observations online

As you collect data during the season, log in to Nature’s Notebook and enter the observations you have recorded.

Create your account: To create an account on Nature’s Notebook, click on the link to the Nature’s Notebook online interface in the upper right corner on all USA-NPN pages.
 
Register your site: Once you have created an account, you will be able to log in to Nature’s Notebook and access your personal Nature’s Notebook home page.  From this page, you will be able to register a site. The key functions in Nature’s Notebook are listed in the left sidebar menu.
 
Click “Add a New Site” and use the map interface to locate your site. You can locate your site using an address, which will be automatically geo-located on the map, by selecting your site on the interactive map, or by typing the latitude and longitude into the boxes below the map.
 
Register your plants: Once you have successfully registered a site, you can add plants to that site. Click “Add or Edit Plants” on the left sidebar menu within Nature’s Notebook. To register a plant at your site, first select that site in the “Site” dropdown box at the top. Then, select the plant species in the “Plant species” box.  Click on one of the suggestions that drops down and the fill in the answers to the remaining questions.
 
Once you have successfully registered a plant to your site, you should see your plant appear on your Nature’s Notebook Home page. From the Nature’s Notebook Home page, you can also quickly return to the plant profile for this species to review the phenophases you are asked to observe, print a datasheet for just this plant, or create a datasheet packet.
 
Create your animal checklist: After successfully registering a site, you can create a checklist of animals to look and listen for at that site. Click “Add or Edit Animal Checklist” on the left sidebar menu. To add animals to your checklist, first be sure that the proper site is selected from the dropdown menu at the top. Then, select animal species from the “Species Available” window on the left. You can filter the animals in this list using the “Species group” drop-down menu. Be sure to save your checklist before you switch between species groups. Click the “Add to Checklist” button in the middle to add the species to your list.
 
Once you are finished adding animals to your checklist, click the “Save checklist” button in the lower-left corner of the screen. This list should then appear on your Nature’s Notebook Home page. From the Nature’s Notebook Home page, you can also quickly return to animal profile pages to review the phenophases you are asked to observe, print a datasheet for a single animal species, or create a datasheet packet.
 
Enter your observations: Once you’re ready to submit observations online, return to your Nature’s Notebook Home page, select site for which you’d like to enter observations, and click the “Enter Observation Data” button. The plant and animal species that you have registered to this site will appear in expandable blue menus. Click on one of the species names to access the data entry interface for that species.  Each column represents a day’s worth of observations. Enter the date at the top of the column, click “Y” or “N” for any phenophase for which you heard or saw the animal species, or observed that phase in your marked plants. The default is set to “?”.  When you're finished, click “Submit observations”.  
 
You will also need to enter the information from your Cover Sheet, including the time you spent observing, the time you spent in travel to and from your site, your animal observation methods, and snow conditions at your site. Each of these elements can be accessed through the blue expandable menus on the “Enter Observations” page.
 
If you would like to change the order in which your plants and animals apear for each site go to your Nature's Notebook home page and click on the "Sort Plants and Animals" button.  On the Sort Plants and Animals page you can move your plants and animals by clicking on them and then using the First, Up, Down and Last buttons to the right.
 
For more detailed instructions and examples of this process please print out and read the "How to Observe Handbook" (add link when ready).

 

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Much of the value of phenology data is in observations from the same sites and plants over many years,
so please come back next year!

 

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