Let the proofing begin

(Dated from June 12)
     Spent a mind-numbing week doing computer work at the bunkhouse. Now that we have only five birders and have to do surveys in pairs, it unfortunately leaves one person a week as the odd person out. There's always something to do, that's certainly not the problem. The problem is that the priority is proofing data.
     The activity sounds innocent enough. For those not in the know, handling data goes through a process. You collect it during a survey, writing everything down in a notebook or datasheet. Then everything is transcribed into an electronic copy for the computer, which is "entering" it. The last step before actually analyzing it is a necessary and arduous process called "proofing." Going back and forth between the field notebook and the computer, you make sure every in the computer file, every keystroke, every observation, is legible, consistent, and makes sense. Checking back and forth is mind-numbing, it requires listening to background music and some caffiene to get through it with sanity intact.
     Standard proofing for the mammal data had been done. But now it needed to be checked again, focusing on the color codes for the recaptured mice. The task was to make sure that no two mice had the same color codes, that certain mice that had died did not mysteriously reanimate the next day, and to be sure that the mice did not spontaneously change species, sex, age, or reproductive condition. If they did (and they certainly did), I had to figure out what the faded colors on the mouse could have been and then change the code to the code that made the most sense.
     And that's what I spent my week doing. Now to El Sauz...