יומן של sambiology

Hey Portland and Oregon/Washington iNatters (most of whom I've never met),

I'll be jumping up to Portland for the International Urban Wildlife Conference (http://urban-wildlife.org/) on 1 - 6 June, and I'll bring a little mothing set-up with a couple black lights. I'll be staying at the University Place Hotel (310 SW Lincoln Street, Portland, OR 97201), and Marquam Nature Park is like half a mile away (definitely walking distance).

Curious to anyone familiar -- is this park relatively safe -- like at night?

I'd been here once before in 2015 (https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/sambiology/2015/5/19), but I can't really recall the area as far as safety goes...

If there's another place that could be better for moths (and personal safety!), I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Thanks! :)

DFW results: 7th globally in observations, 9th in species, and 10th in observers! This is incredible!

In Texas, DFW is 1st in both observations and observers and 2nd in species. Amazing.

We documented 2626 species in 36384 observations by 1012 observers. Also, huge props to the folks that dedicated time to ID’ing other folks’ observations. 62% of the observations were identified or verified by others. This is great, and super helpful. If you’re still up for it, there are about 12k observations that are still awaiting ID’s or verifications: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2019-dallas-fort-worth

Across the board, we did better than last year and the year before!
2018: 35048 observations of 2441 species by 826 observers
2017: 24077 observations of 2309 species by 542 observers

Most importantly, these numbers are being used. Each observation gives information on where something is found in space and time, and when combined with all of other other observations, we have a pretty good idea of what’s out there! Overtime, this information is becoming more and more useful – we can compare this data to future data. Each time you make an observation, recognize this!

Also, this information is being used by public land managers and policy makers. They’re seeing the biodiversity in the area, but just as importantly, they’re seeing the constituency of naturalists that seek out areas of biodiversity. This is meaningful!

Great job to all! Don’t let the observations stop – it’s still spring and wildlife wants to be documented! ;) Many thanks to all the participants of this year’s City Nature Challenge. It was a great one!

7th globally in observations, 9th in species, and 10th in observers! This is incredible!

In Texas, DFW is 1st in both observations and observers and 2nd in species. Amazing.

We documented 2626 species in 36384 observations by 1012 observers. Also, huge props to the folks that dedicated time to ID’ing other folks’ observations. 62% of the observations were identified or verified by others. This is great, and super helpful. If you’re still up for it, there are about 12k observations that are still awaiting ID’s or verifications: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2019-dallas-fort-worth

Across the board, we did better than last year and the year before!
2018: 35048 observations of 2441 species by 826 observers
2017: 24077 observations of 2309 species by 542 observers

Most importantly, these numbers are being used. Each observation gives information on where something is found in space and time, and when combined with all of other other observations, we have a pretty good idea of what’s out there! Overtime, this information is becoming more and more useful – we can compare this data to future data. Each time you make an observation, recognize this!

Also, this information is being used by public land managers and policy makers. They’re seeing the biodiversity in the area, but just as importantly, they’re seeing the constituency of naturalists that seek out areas of biodiversity. This is meaningful!

Great job to all! Don’t let the observations stop – it’s still spring and wildlife wants to be documented! ;) Many thanks to all the participants of this year’s City Nature Challenge. It was a great one!

So, super short notice on this, but this Friday (24 May 2019), we're going to do a somewhat more rigorous flora and fauna survey of an area on the east side of Grapevine Lake - around 140 acres. It's basically across from Rockledge Park... We want to get some foundational knowledge of what's out there before any developments or management decisions are made.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/32%C2%B058'56.1%22N+97%C2%B003'37.9%22W/@32.982237,-97.0627247,923m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d32.9822366!4d-97.0605365

It's a weekday, and we're planning on doing the survey all day and into the evening. We'll break it into a few different parts: a morning survey (like 9 to noon), an afternoon (like 1 – 4), and then we will do some mothing out there too (like 8 – 11ish).

Please let me know soonish if you're interested. It's going to focus a little more on making observations rather than the social parts of a bioblitz, so just FYI on that too. :)

Thor Larson and Joe Mruzek at UTA are doing a really cool study on bullfrog tadpoles and diatom diets especially in the urban area...

So, they are looking for some locations for bullfrog tadpoles within DFW! Do you know of any? Ideally, look for some of the tadpoles in the pond or at least some of the adult frogs in the margins of the pond. The bigger the population, the better the sampling! :)

Any help is greatly appreciated!