User notes that: This seems redundant and cumbersome to me. Kent sent us a form which we used in the Atlas 1 Survey called a “site visit form” which we filled out for every location we visited every time we visited that same site(this was before e-butterfly). For this Atlas 2, we also have a copy of the same “site visit form”. Question is, should I fill out this “site visit form” AND submit my checklist to e-butterfly. That would give a hard copy of the visit and have it on e-butterflyl, also. That is double record keeping.
My Answer:
We made that form as “recommended but not required”. The reason was two-fold, some folks really wanted a paper form for the field, especially until we have a smartphone app for eButterfly (coming!). The second reason is that it allowed folks to record the general habitat type where they found each butterfly, which is just a bit of extra information.
I use the forms most of the time as it helps me keep track in the field, but definitely not required and if it is a pain and burdensome, please feel completely free to not use them. We want to collect butterfly data for the atlas AND have fun too! So the form is definitely not for everyone. The one requirement that we do have is that we really need the data entered on e-Butterfly - full checklists preferred, but also incidental observations too.