A system for encoding bird field notes

In the schema, day-annotation is an RNC pattern name, not an element name. It enumerates the kinds of things that can follow the loc children of the day-summary element:

day-annotation =
( para* & route? & weather? & missed? & film? )

That is, there can be any number of para elements containing general notes; and at most one of each of elements describing the route, the weather, species missed, and film notes. These elements can occur in any order. For the definition of para, see Section 5.15, “The narrative elements”.

The route element allows you to describe what locations were visited and when, to give a picture of the overall sequence of the day's activity. If the route is complex, it can be structured into paragraphs using para elements; see Section 5.15, “The narrative elements”.

route = element route { narrative }

The weather element is for general weather conditions.

weather = element weather { narrative }

Use missed to discuss expected birds that were not seen. For example, it's fairly unusual at any season to bird Bosque del Apache and not see at least one American Coot. This section can also be used to annotate cases where a rarity was pursued but missed.

missed = element missed { narrative }

Finally, the film element is for recording film exposed on this date, and any other photographic notes.

film = element film { narrative }