Gall Week 2021!

Dear gall enthusiasts -
Since there is spider week, Cal Coast week, and taco day, we need to have Gall Week! I thought it would be fun to try and document many galls during one week of fall. I think the first week of October could be good, when there should still be plenty of gall in the Bay Area. Are you in?
I will create an iNat project, and I would also like to do some outreach, to tell more people how awesome galls are.
If anyone is interested, we could plan some outings together. I thought it could be nice exploring new places less covered on iNat, target specific gall species, or look for less observed host plants.
Please let me know what you think, if you like (or dislike) the idea, if you’ve got any ideas for locations, gall species, or host species of interest, or if you’ve got suggestions for the t-shirt design :)
Happy fall!
Merav
@gyrrlfalcon @catchang @garth @leslie_flint @graysquirrel @sea-kangaroo @eddiebug @chyroptera @nancyasquith @truthseqr @joyceg @erikamitchell @anudibranchmom @ariel-shamir @megachile @claire2 @naturesarchive @robberfly @tiwane @damontighe @debkccb @jhintermeister @kbakkegard @kejwa @edwardrooks @metsa @moonlittrails @owicki @robberfly @virusmanbob @woolybear @clarkia11

please feel free to tag more people and spread the word!
Update: the project can be found here - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2021-9e58d299-60ec-4b10-af61-11ec0ab46974

Posted on September 14, 2021 01:48 AM by merav merav

Comments

"I Wish They All Could be California Galls" Week

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

Sounds like lots of fun. May we go beyond the Bay Area?

Posted by katherine_northup over 2 years ago

Sounds great!

Posted by naturesarchive over 2 years ago

Great idea! I re-posted this in the Galls of California project with a link.

Posted by nancyasquith over 2 years ago

yes - let's make it big! even though we've got the best galls right here in the Bay Area, let's see what people can find in other places

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Yes to all! And OMG need a shirt with @gyrrlfalcon 's "I Wish They All Could Be California Galls" half circle on top with "Gall Week 2021" half circle below then spined turban/red cone/volcano/etc all the colorful galls inside the circle of words! :D

Posted by chyroptera over 2 years ago

Galls wearing little red cone hats, like good witches!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

(Adding @metsa again as the link didn't go through on Merav's original post)

Posted by chyroptera over 2 years ago

Is it only in California? Or are you declaring National Gall Week?

Posted by erikamitchell over 2 years ago

Adding @robinellison who just got the new Russo.

Posted by catchang over 2 years ago

@erikamitchell - national! please join us and invite your friends! I'll create the project page later today and send you the link.

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Thank you @catchang ! Sounds great! I'm adding @browntrekker.

Posted by robinellison over 2 years ago

@merav: I'm in. Can I advertise through the KCCB newsletter?

Posted by debkccb over 2 years ago

"I Wish They All Could be California Galls" Week"

(:^D BWAHH HAHAHA
I would like to participate. If local (south Bay Area) outings are planned, I'd like to participate if it's practical.

Posted by teellbee over 2 years ago

@chyroptera Here is a list of print-on-demand companies.
https://www.shopify.com/blog/print-on-demand-companies
If someone submits a design and sends the link, we can buy our own shirts of the same design. Might even be able to put the image on other products.

Posted by debkccb over 2 years ago

Glad it's going to be national--I'll be in Arizona that week.

Posted by milliebasden over 2 years ago

Sounds like a great idea!

Posted by kdff over 2 years ago

So glad to read all the responses! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one excited about galls :)
Here's the project page I just created - let me know if I should make any changes, join in, and spread the word!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2021

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

@debkccb - please do help us advertise! I'll also share on bioblitz.club later today.
@chyroptera - thanks for the link. I would love to make a t-shirt. I don't think Taco Day has one :)

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

@ceiseman - I hope you can join Gall Week! also if you could spread the word on your gall projects?

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

I love the idea and I am ALL IN assuming I won't be in Utah (maybe you could include Utah in that project!

Posted by leslie_flint over 2 years ago

oops now I see the everywhere is included! Yay!

Posted by leslie_flint over 2 years ago

Please read -
I got all excited and created the project this morning as a regular project, but I'm afraid that won't work well. Coming 10/2, it will aggregate observations of all taxa worldwide! That would be pretty incredible, but not exactly what I was aiming for.
So I created an old fashioned project, were we'll have to manually add observations of our beautiful galls during Gall Week - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2021-9e58d299-60ec-4b10-af61-11ec0ab46974
I think this is the best way to go, please correct me if I'm wrong! @tiwane

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

No, I think this is the best option.

Posted by tiwane over 2 years ago

Now that we are all celebrating Gall Week (not just California), please pass the word:

@calconey @adeans @guidingguida @garth_harwood ["garth" was invited above] @jeffdc @kemper @madily @stevejones @astrobirder @susanhewitt @esummerbell @kimberlietx @naturesarchive @ddennism @carrieseltzer @biosam @charlescampbell @upupa-epops @carolblaney @mileszhang @beartracker @sedgequeen @kschnei @jkeller @ivanmunks @srall @lynnharper @donaldasutherland

BTW, next year the list of California-related events will also include California Biodiversity Day, which a lot of us missed. See https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/california-biodiversity-day-events-2021]

Posted by nancyasquith over 2 years ago

Sounds great! I'll be able to look for some more galls this weekend. Unfortunately I don't know of any gall enthusiasts in my area (Southern OH).

Posted by kemper over 2 years ago

@kemper - you can be the first, and maybe next year others will follow!

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

You're making me wish I were in CA and not NJ. But I'll see what I can do from my end.

Posted by srall over 2 years ago

I'm with @srall; Massachusetts is great and full of galls (and we can claim @ceiseman), but I would LOVE to be in California the first week of October!

Posted by lynnharper over 2 years ago

Cool! Looking forward to participating from DC :-)

Posted by carrieseltzer over 2 years ago

I'm adding a promotional blurb to the gall podcast episode show notes that I just released! And will definitely participate as much as time allows.

Posted by naturesarchive over 2 years ago

Yesss this is an excellent plan! I’ll be joining virtually from the DC area as well!

Posted by esummerbell over 2 years ago

Great idea! Hopefully the oaks here in Manitoba hold on to their leaves long enough for this....

Posted by friesen5000 over 2 years ago

Perhaps of interest @marykrieger @brguinn @louisnastasi

Posted by friesen5000 over 2 years ago

This is awesome! I'll spread the word down here in San Diego! @milliebasden thanks for covering AZ for us that week :)

Posted by madily over 2 years ago

Thanks @kemper for the heads up! I will definitely try to find as many galls as possible. We happen to have a bioblitz in east Texas during that time so hopefully there will be some new galls added to the Texas observations.

@kimberlietx!

Posted by annikaml over 2 years ago

@friesen5000 leaves on the ground mean that we can spot the galls on the stems :)

Posted by marykrieger over 2 years ago

As we go nationwide, how about "The Galls Next Door" for the slogan?

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

A gall week,,, in october? Sometimes I forget that other people live in places without winter. I'll try my best, but october won't leave that many leaves out and about to find galls on

Posted by mws over 2 years ago

Ah! More evidence that all knowledge is local!
In California, late September-early October is the best galling season.
So sorry about this phenomenon you call "winter."

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

October is a pretty good gall season for us in Southern Ohio too. November too, a lot of leaves with galls on them begin to fall to the ground.

Posted by kemper over 2 years ago

Looking forward to it! Everyone I would think to include has already been @'ed. I'll keep an eye out for anyone seeming to be interested in galls.

Posted by clay_s over 2 years ago
Posted by kemper over 2 years ago

OMG - I like how this is building! Wow! So many gall enthusiasts!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

awesome, I'll definitely look out for some galls that week!

Posted by alexis_orion over 2 years ago

Heck yeah! I'm always down for a good gall hunt!

Posted by little_metal_weirdo over 2 years ago

How can I help @merav?

Posted by anudibranchmom over 2 years ago

@finatic - calling the San Diego iNat-ters!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago
Posted by clay_s over 2 years ago

This is wonderful! So many people are excited about gall week!
I was going over all the comments. Do you think next year we should try to do it earlier? I do think that for California this is good timing, but I'd love to get more people in. I guess we'll try it this year, and then decide what to do next.
@gyrrlfalcon - I love the new idea! "The Galls Next Door" will make an awesome t-shirt (and buttons).
Here's the project link again - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2021-9e58d299-60ec-4b10-af61-11ec0ab46974

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

@anudibranchmom - I think for now, we mostly need to spread the word. I saw that there are countless gall projects, for different states and cities. If you'd like, you can tag their leaders here or message them?
We could also create a list of resources people could use to get started in gall hunting, maybe by region? We could do that as a journal post in the project itself, unless there's a better idea.

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Looks fun - thanks for tagging me @giusy87! Is this project for galls specifically for galls observed this week or for any galls being uploaded this week? I have a whole bunch of gall pictures from months ago sitting on my phone that I have yet to upload - specifically lots of non-cynipini (eriophyidae?) galls which I'm not very good at identifying...

Posted by oliverc29 over 2 years ago

@oliverc29 - this project is intended for observations that were observed during gall week. Older photos would be great for different projects, such as the North American projects tagged in our project description

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Will do.

Posted by anudibranchmom over 2 years ago

tagging a few more people who might be interested: @newtpatrol @cedric_lee @kueda @blackwarbler @chloe_and_trevor @coltercook @dpom @mhundt @myan

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Looking forward to it! We'll be down in Morro bay just in time to take part in the gall-hunting fun. Thanks for organizing and for tagging us!

Posted by chloe_and_trevor over 2 years ago

Thanks @madily Gallthusiasts unite! will advertise in the different San Diego projects!

Posted by patsimpson2000 over 2 years ago

This is fantastic! I am new at galls, but have fallen in love with them. I've fallen for gallin'. Hey, there's a t-shirt idea!! "Fallen for Gallin'. :)

Posted by beartracker over 2 years ago

Amazing how gallible we all are :P

Posted by patsimpson2000 over 2 years ago

Haha. Gallible.

Posted by beartracker over 2 years ago

Sweet! Love seeing all the enthusiasm. Thanks for the tag @madily

Posted by ekoberle over 2 years ago

How are you defining "the first week of October"? Are you starting on October 1? 2? 4?

Posted by srall over 2 years ago

The banner on the top of the project states that it will be from 10/2 to 10/10 @srall

Posted by kemper over 2 years ago

Make sure you send a reminder at the start of the week to remind me, I am easily distracted by other wildlife :-)

Posted by a_emmerson over 2 years ago

@merav, what do you mean by "regular" vs "old-fashioned" projects?
And BTW, last weekend I found a bunch of round green galls on a small oak, only took one white-light photo but they looked kind of powder blue under UV.

Posted by moonlittrails over 2 years ago

A regular/ new project will accumulate observations automatically, depending on the parameters set. For a BioBlitz, for example, it's easy - you set the polygon and the date, and it will do the rest. Same with "Ants of Santa Clara County". But for gall week, it wouldn't work, as we would need to define every possible gall-inducing organism, which won't be possible, as we'd like to get not only the Cynipid gall wasps and gall midges, but also the unknowns, observations of structures where we don't know who induced the gall. And I'd be happy to see the photos of your galls!

Posted by merav over 2 years ago

Hopefully,I will be able to add something to this lovely project. October means dark evenings here, no iNatting during weekdays and slim chance of clement weather during the weekend. And most of leaves are fallen by then. But good luck to everybody in the more southern areas.

Posted by jurga_li over 2 years ago

Is there anyone in the community who might be willing to come and do a short presentation to my two Girl Scout troops about this? Or meet us out at a park? We are based in San Jose. We are doing the Citizen Science journey, and this would fit right in with that. We are hoping to have our first meeting on the weekend of Oct 2-3. Many thanks for anyone who can point us in the right direction. --- Trisha Bergthold - trishabergthold@rocketmail.com

Posted by trishabergthold over 2 years ago

@trishabergthold I don't know how old your scouts are, but one thing to keep in mind is that no one under 13 can have their own iNat account without their parent or guardian making them an account via https://www.inaturalist.org/user_parents/new

Posted by tiwane over 2 years ago

@tiwane , thank you. I have girls ranging from 1st through 11th grade between the two troops. We can definitely work it so that the youngers are either with one of their parents or one of the older girls. The discovery and photography are the exciting parts for them. I don't think they care so much about having their name attached to their finds.

Posted by trishabergthold over 2 years ago

I tried to resist, but if everyone's going to be throwing their best puns out there... How about a nod to public radio:
"Gall Things Considered"
Especially since many of us (myself included) end up with photos where we're like, "Wait, is this thing a gall or not?!"
:-)

Posted by harsiparker over 2 years ago

I like that one. "Gall Things Considered" is cool! Especially since I've found a couple mysteries this week when looking for actual galls. And mistakenly identified some galls wrong, in a big way. Oops. Still learning, but having fun.

Posted by beartracker over 2 years ago

I love Gall Things Considered! I'm (g)all in!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago

Gall Things Considered!!

Posted by robinellison over 2 years ago

love it!

Posted by srall over 2 years ago

(G)all in for Gall Things Considered too!

I went on a gall walk today and found tons of them!

Posted by beartracker over 2 years ago

Here are the comments that were posted on the Galls of California page before people were encouraged to join the discussion here instead:

Great idea! I'm in. And I will be thinking about the t-shirt design!--kdff about 2 months ago

Is this only for the Bay Area?--biocowboy about 2 months ago

If it is statewide, I'm sure there are a number of us in Southern California who will participate. Unfortunately I will be in Arizona most of that week, but if I'm in California on any of the days, I'll go gall hunting. Millie --milliebasden about 2 months ago

Posted by nancyasquith over 2 years ago

I know @milliebasden is always up for a good gall hunt. Awesome work!

Posted by patsimpson2000 over 2 years ago

That was so fun.

Posted by beartracker over 2 years ago

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