היומן של sambiology

Posting this on behalf of my friend @kreichy ! :) I'm planning on being there next Saturday too. :)

BIOBLITIZ!!! BIOBLITZ!! BIOBLITZ!!

Hey All!! I work at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and we are planning on having goats come to the garden in the Spring of 2024! The goats are going to help us control some of the invasive species present and we are super excited!! Before the goats come however, we want to collect some data on the forested area they will be grazing. So we are hosting a BIOBLITZ!!! Come one, come all to FWBG on Saturday December 9th, 9a-12pm. We will gather at the main entrance and proceed to the designated area as a group! Hope to see you all there! Feel free to shoot us any questions you may have.

One word of caution: there are areas of dense poison ivy so please wear long sleeves, long pants and closed toed shoes!

Earn volunteer hours in VMS under Citizen science/data collection (Tarrant County)

For any comments questions or concerns you can contact : : Karen Shuback (kshuback@fwbg.org), Sebastian Alarcon (jalarcon@fwbg.org) or Iris Cervantes (Icervantes@fwbg.org)

I looooove the iNat year in review. You've got to check it out:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2023

Such incredible numbers.

Then, you can generate your own stats for this year too!!! At the end of year, I'll do a journal report on mine:
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2023/sambiology

It'll be my very first trip over seas... I'm super excited!!!

So, my brother-in-law, sister, nephew, and niece currently live in Dhahran, just outside of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. They've lived there for like 7 years or so, and I've not had the chance to ever visit...until now!!! I'm planning on visiting them on 26 Feb - 9 March.

My sister gifted me the "Field Guide to the Biodiversity of Dhahran" (https://www.deslegte.com/field-guide-to-the-biodiversity-of-dhahran-2352286/) last year, so I've been thinking about it for months! Anywho, I'm extra excited to visit the Kingdom of Saudi as well as Dubai.

On the 27th, I'll get to Dubai for a 9 hour layover. Fortunately, there's a nice park not far from the Dubai airport -- Mushrif National Park (https://www.visitdubai.com/en/places-to-visit/mushrif-national-park). I may be able to meet up with a couple other naturalists, @ahmed_almansoori , @broobas , and @khalidalastad, to explore a bit of the park. Super excited about this.

Then, I'll fly from Dubai to Dammam. My sister has a few places that we'll visit while I'm there. We'll do some desert camping at Judah Thumb (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/judah-thumb), we'll go to the beach by Half Moon Bay, and then walk around the Dhahran area quite a bit (which does have a few parks). Not sure exactly where all else we'll go -- although, probably not too too far away from Dhahran/Dammam.

Of course, I'll try to iNat EVERYTHING. I'm super excited about all of the new critters and plants that I'll see, and there aren't a ton of observations in the specific area (especially of the plants and bugs) -- maybe there will be a few new species for iNat!

Buuuuut, I do have a question to whomever has read it this far -- how long have you been on a plane, and what all did you do to stay sane?!? My flight will be 14.5 hours from DFW to Dubai, and this is what I'm most anxious about! Hopefully I can catch some sleep, but I've never really slept on a plane before (never had a trip this long though).