SyrphBoard is an online platform for recording Hoverflies. It is an additional new way for people to enter and view hoverfly records for Great Britain. It was developed to provide another route for recorders to provide their observations to the Hoverfly Recording Scheme.
While not replacing other methods of recording, SyrphBoard aims to enhance existing recording by enabling users to collect additional information if they wish, such as nil returns, weather and time of day. This can help HRS better understand phenology and the impacts of extreme weather events etc. It is especially hoped that this system will allow contributors to record nil returns as well as successful searches. This type of data is largely missing from opportunistic datasets and is very difficult to handle. It is, however, potentially very important, and it is hoped that the Facebook group will have days when we try to get a better feel for hoverfly activity throughout the day.
The site also has a number of other benefits:
- online submission means records are available to the HRS quicker
- secure login via Facebook
- map based entry and checking of grid references
- ability to save frequently visited sites
- rapid species selection based on tailored lists and visual data entry
- links to Facebook posts confirming identification
- automatic population of Vice County
- export of records to Microsoft Excel
- feedback to users in the form of lists (and coming soon via dashboards and maps)
The site was developed as a pro bono, community project by Maploom’s Ioannis Sofos (CTO) and Andy Murdock, who is an active hoverfly recorder. We are currently scoping Release 2.
Release notes:
9th March 2022: Launch – Release 1
For further information please contact us:
Roger Morris Hoverfly Recording Scheme
Andy Murdock and Ioannis Sofos Maploom (see below)