When there are numerous small white butterfly species throughout the day where 95% are not settling the few you do get good photos of how do I record these please
Secondly using Merlin identifies a bird 3 or 4 times plus and you see the species but unable to photograph but you can see identifiable colours will these evidences suffice to record accurately
Comments
Record the things that you have recorded with certainty
I think your post covers a few different but related points:
- You should aim to record things where you are confident of the ID. So in your first example if the white butterflies could have been Small or Green-veined White, then you can't really record them (you could record them to genus only, but the records aren't particularly useful). In the birds example, I wouldn't rely on Merlin, so if it is telling you a particular species is present then you see it and are happy with the ID, then record it.
- If you see 10 unidentified white butterflies then photograph and ID two Green-veined Whites, just record 2 Green-veined Whites don't guess that they might have all been that species.
- Photos give useful corroboratory evidence of sightings, however you can still record things without a photo. Whether they are accepted will then be down to the verifier, but for example if you have submitted quite a few correct bird records with photographs in the past, the verifier will be able to see that and is likely to accept records of common species as "considered correct"
The only white butterfly I'm personally happy to record if I've only observed it in flight is the male Orange-tip, anything else you've just got to accept is not of a sufficient level of certainty to record, it's very frustrating. You can of course record butterflies you get a good visual sighting of, if they only settle briefly, but don't manage to photograph so long as they are distinctive, like an Orange-tip or a Green-veined white for instance (if you get a good look at their underwing).