יומן של Great Southern BioBlitz 2020 - Coffs Harbour Region

Hello fellow iNatters!!

We are closing in on the start of the event and I'm still hoping the Coffs area can be a bit of a surprise package as a competitor in the (friendly) competition this year.

We are at a disadvantage population-wise, but have a great advantage in the diversity of environment our area provides. I have been able to add the Bellinger Shire to our official area which gives us a very nice sized playground with a range of ecosystems and places to walk and explore, hopefully not too far from your home.

There is a Facebook group for the Coffs Region BioBlitz with more information and will serve as another forum for people to communicate, ask questions, share findings during the event.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/316401742964635/

Please get any interested friends and family involved as it may be a great stepping stone for others to engage with iNaturalist (and therefore their natural environment) on a more regular basis going forward.

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the local observations and interested to see what sort of numbers we can produce over 4 days.

Feel free to comment or ask questions in the comments below as well.

I'm getting excited! Anyone else?

Nick :)

Getting close now!!

Hopefully everyone has some plans in place to get out and make some observations during the event.

If you would like some ideas on where to go, good areas for particular plants and animals, tips for photographing various organisms, help using the iNaturalist platform or anything else related to our local event, please feel free to ask in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/coffsbioblitz20

Looking forward to a great weekend and what interesting things we can find!

It's less than 5 hours until go time!

I have made a list of places that I aim to visit during the four days and have decided to make the majority of them places that I have not walked before. I'm looking forward to trying out some new places and seeing what I can find.

Can't wait to see what everyone finds!

To keep track of how our region is faring as part of the Southern Hemisphre competition, see The Great Southern BioBlitz Umbrella Project.

I will endeavour to provide some updates during the four days as well as some highlights, so if anyone comes across anything super exciting, rare, or amazing, please tag me or send me a message with the link to the observation.

Here's a Masked Owl I saw a few weeks ago as inspiration to get out at night!

Good luck everyone! Stay safe, have fun and see you all on iNat during the event!

Nick

We are 22 hours into the event and have made a great start!

Here are some of (not all of) the highlights from the first day:

@fmksandy saw this Common Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis punctulatus) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60692974

@erahman found this Bleating Tree Frog (Litoria dentata) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60697710

@shaunbamford came across this Westwood's Green Centipede (Cormocephalus westwoodi) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60686043

@jane508 saw an ootheca of the Australian Green Mantis (Orthodera ministralis) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60689951

and @adrian2370 managed to photograph a flying Bee Fly (Meomyia fasciculata) as well as a Regent Bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60680764
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60679151

The stats:

18 people have made 375 observations of 249 different species in our region. This is enough to push us into 2nd position overall, 91 observations behind the Greater Sydney region. This may change as the South American contingent make their start this evening our time.

It is not too late for others to join our cause, so feel free to recruit!

If you are using a camera (rather than a phone) to take photos, don't panic about uploading them all by Monday, we have an extra 10 days after the event finishes to upload all our photos and finish our identifications. :)

Looking forward to day 2 and the surprises I'm sure it will bring. I know a few people are heading to the beach, others to the rainforest. Good luck and sleep well!

Coming to the end of Day 3 and we are still holding our own!

Quick summary at 9 pm:

• 1500 observations
• 722 species
• 45 observers

This gets us up into 4th position overall, out of the total 145 regions that are participating!! We are also in 3rd place for the number of unique species, showing off that Coffs and Bellingen diversity!

A couple of highlights from today:

@baileyensis found this Land Snail (Brazieresta larreyi) which was the first sighting uploaded to iNat and was identified by expert Kevin Bonham: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60938372

@adrian2370 managed to photograph these two Rainbow Bee-Eaters (Merops ornatus): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60941268

@mdebrauwer saw some Light-blue Soldier Crabs (Mictyris longicarpus): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60940963

@dianadavey caught a glimpse of the beautiful Azure Kingfisher (Ceyx azureus): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60938640

If there are any other cool sightings I have missed that you feel should be highlighted, please tag me in them!!

Thanks to the identifiers for all their hard work, it is much appreciated and we would not be doing so well without you!

One day to go!! Photos first, upload later. We have 10 days to upload after the event finishes at midnight tomorrow. Well done all!

@adrian2370 @dianadavey @cesdamess @briancadam @shaunbamford @mdebrauwer @ralfmagee @jane508 @luke__e @happywombat @jen94 @ratite @alyssa_bamford @sienna12345 @dorothy104 @coffstrails @mitchellhickey @baileyensis @ericserco23 @fmksandy @erahman @clairecottage @rebecca984 @corey129 @michelle1644 @nksilvy @tanikacs @earnshawengineering @d-tjarlz @sean559 @thomasshakespeare @euan_provost @louiseavalon @derek12345 @lucy299 @kimwin @dells @michellewalks

Thanks ID'ers! @paul1046 @mmmr91 @thebeachcomber @ben_travaglini @torhek @scottwgavins @reiner @heathwallum @jadonald @twan3253 @indrabone @pewin @nyoni-pete

Well done everyone, massive effort from our Coffs/Bello contingent!

Now it's time to upload any other photos you took during the event and identify our regions sightings. Thanks again to all our participants on the ground as well as our identifiers!

A summary of the event is coming very soon! :)

If you see any noteworthy highlights/sightings, please tag me so I can mention it.

Nick