5.4. The day-summary element: information about the field day

5.4. The `day-summary` element: information about the field day

The first child of a day-notes element must be a day-summary element. This element describes all the general information about one day in the field (other than records of birds seen):

birdnotes.rnc

day-summary = element day-summary
{   attribute default-loc { xsd:Name },  
    loc+,                
    day-annotation       
}

One default-loc attribute is required. This attribute specifies the default location code that should be used for bird records that don't specify their own location code. The code value must be defined in one of this element's loc children.

The reason day-loc is not always the same as the default-loc is that they often apply to different areas. The day-loc must include all areas birded that day, so that the indices and tables of contents enumerating daily notes can accurately describe the total area worked. The purpose of the default-loc, on the other hand, is to supply a default locality for the majority of records.

For example, suppose the observer saw 80 species of birds at Bosque del Apache Refuge (code “BdA”), but there were a few records from the town of Socorro (code “Soc”) included. In that case, we would define a third location code “day” as “Socorro-Bosque del Apache”, and encode the day-notes element with an attribute day-loc='day', and the day-summary element would have an attribute default-loc='BdA', which make it unnecessary to supply an explicit location code for all 80 of the Bosque records.

Note

This is an example of a validity condition that can't easily be specified in the schema: all references to location codes must be defined in a loc element for that day, but an RNC schema can't really stipulate that. Writing a separate software tool to validate this might be a worthwhile effort. See Section 3, “Design considerations” for a discussion of the validation tradeoffs.

The content starts with one or more loc elements that define all the location codes used on that day, followed by an optional assortment of other elements that are defined by the day-annotation pattern. See Section 5.5, “ The loc element: Defining location codes ”.

Following the block of loc elements, you can include an assortment of other child elements in any order that further describe the day in the field. See Section 5.7, “The day-annotation elements”.

Here's an example of a day-summary element that illustrates most of the features:

    <day-summary default-loc='MT'>
      <loc code='day' name='Portales-Melrose Trap-Tatum'/>
      <loc code='MT' name='Melrose Trap'/>
      <loc code='ph' name='Clovis-Tatum route: nameless pothole'>
        <gps waypoint='335344n 1032010w'/>
      </loc>
      <route>
        Stayed in Portales.  Birded Melrose Trap 1110-1150, left
        due to windy conditions.  Returned 1515-1630, incipient
        rain.  Tried to find the Tatum sewage ponds to chase the
        rumored Yellow-crowned Night Heron, couldn't find them by
        the time it got too dark.
      </route>
      <film>
        Started a new roll of VC 400, not finished: 2004-09-03
        1900 (no shots) : 2004-09-05 1030.
      </film>
      <para>
        Drove into Melrose Trap to find five truckloads of dove
        hunters staring dourly at me.  I can't imagine why I
        didn't blend right in, being a good old boy from
        southeast NM from way back.  Maybe it was the giant
        camera rig, the binoculars, or the shorts and sandals.
        They were blasting away with shotguns right next to the
        trucks, probably to see if they could make me jump (they
        didn't).
      </para>
    </day-summary>

A system for encoding bird field notes