Friday: 30 March 2007
Through Jen’s Invasive Species Blog, a number of other blogs, and a few emails, I’ve learned of the First Annual Blogger BioBlitz, and you can find out more about it at Jeremy Bruno’s Voltage Gate (there are two updates alinked in the text). Jeremy’s blogging brainchild was inspired by National Wildlife Week. It’s also kicked off by Earth Day, April 22, and there couldn’t be a better way to recognize both:
And be sure to notify Jeremy at thevoltagegate at gmail.com, and click over to register at the Blogger BioBlitz googlegroup that has been set up for the project. All official communication takes place there.
Jen’s also made some fine logos for the BioBlitz and you can get them from the first link above:
I think this is a fine idea, although I haven’t quite made up my strategery yet. The idea is to take any or all days, any given location or locations, and simply note the organisms of any or all groups - plants, animals, fungi - that you see. Notify Jeremy at the second link above, and he’ll accept your observations for updates to a master list configured by location.
There are probably a lot of ways to find your latitude and longitude, if you don’t know it, but one is to go to Heavens Above locater page. I’ve long ago used a GPS to determine the coordinates of various locations here, and that’s another way. This step probably isn’t necessary, as there are plans afoot to accept county/state/country data and convert in-house, but it’s always nice to know your own.
Decide on your area of observation. I can’t decide! A different area every day? The same area on each of several or all days? A mixture of both? I think I should do a different area every day - the span of a week is probably not long enough to see huge differences, and as I really should include plants, a broader area of observation would fit neatly into other plans.
Decide on what organisms you want to identify. Birds? Get out your field guides. Insects? I plan to make heavy use of Bugguide. Photographs? I think so! (And by the way, rumors are that the Cuddeback arrives today!)
Maybe I should start practicing with this 5 cm broad fellow, but I’m either rusty or nothing quite like him appears in my little moth and butterfly guide. Probably some nasty Geometer thing - a looper or spanworm:
It survived considerable blowup, and although a mere glance might earn it only the evaluation of “drab”, a closer look reveals fur, fringe, and amazing spotting patterns on the wings and body:
The main thing though is to have fun with this. Don’t be so ambitious as to become discouraged early on. Take it for a test run. Enjoy. Me, I think this will be a test run in itself for an ongoing project I’ve been planning all winter.
In honor of National Wildlife Week, April 21 - 29, I am inviting bloggers from all walks to participate in the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz, where bloggers from across the world will choose a wild or not-so-wild area and find how many of each different species - plant, animal, fungi and anything in between - live in a certain area within a certain time.
And be sure to notify Jeremy at thevoltagegate at gmail.com, and click over to register at the Blogger BioBlitz googlegroup that has been set up for the project. All official communication takes place there.
Jen’s also made some fine logos for the BioBlitz and you can get them from the first link above:
I think this is a fine idea, although I haven’t quite made up my strategery yet. The idea is to take any or all days, any given location or locations, and simply note the organisms of any or all groups - plants, animals, fungi - that you see. Notify Jeremy at the second link above, and he’ll accept your observations for updates to a master list configured by location.
There are probably a lot of ways to find your latitude and longitude, if you don’t know it, but one is to go to Heavens Above locater page. I’ve long ago used a GPS to determine the coordinates of various locations here, and that’s another way. This step probably isn’t necessary, as there are plans afoot to accept county/state/country data and convert in-house, but it’s always nice to know your own.
Decide on your area of observation. I can’t decide! A different area every day? The same area on each of several or all days? A mixture of both? I think I should do a different area every day - the span of a week is probably not long enough to see huge differences, and as I really should include plants, a broader area of observation would fit neatly into other plans.
Decide on what organisms you want to identify. Birds? Get out your field guides. Insects? I plan to make heavy use of Bugguide. Photographs? I think so! (And by the way, rumors are that the Cuddeback arrives today!)
Maybe I should start practicing with this 5 cm broad fellow, but I’m either rusty or nothing quite like him appears in my little moth and butterfly guide. Probably some nasty Geometer thing - a looper or spanworm:
It survived considerable blowup, and although a mere glance might earn it only the evaluation of “drab”, a closer look reveals fur, fringe, and amazing spotting patterns on the wings and body:
The main thing though is to have fun with this. Don’t be so ambitious as to become discouraged early on. Take it for a test run. Enjoy. Me, I think this will be a test run in itself for an ongoing project I’ve been planning all winter.
