Instead of focusing on what your main interest is, start taking photos of something different and see if you can get 366 species for this year. The observations must have been in 2016 and they must have the name, no genus, or class, or family, or kingdom allowed!
I mainly photograph plants (which are green) so when I look at my observations I look at all of them for 2016 that are not green, then I check to make sure that they do not have genus, class or family then I add them.
Well after a few months here I am starting to get the hang of how this all works and so to make things interesting for this year I have created a project called 2016 Leap Year Project: 366 Species
Since August 2015 when I joined until now, I have racked up 588 species so I had to make the project more of a challange. The best way to do that is to remove a taxa, so I decided to remove Plants as that is my most photographed taxa, of which to date I have observed 351. So taking that away from 588 leaves me with 237 species.
Ok, so that means that it may be quite easy to get 366 in a year when I got 237 in 5 months. So to make it even harder I decided that only named species could be added and no genus, family, or class level. I am not too sure how to find out how many that will eliminate, but I know that I have quite a few observations that are only down to the genus or class level, so that should cut out quite a bit more.
Feel free to join the project if you would like a challange!
I enjoy having things to work towards so I decided that trying to find and photograph all of the rare plants of home would keep me out of mischief :)
Using the NZ Plant Conservation Network I put together a list of rare plants and then asked one Peter, of the moderators, if he could kindly check the list for me and let me know if I had missed any obvious plants or had any there that shouldn't be there. He kindly offered to do a full list for me and after making sure that it was not an imposition, I agreed and he did the list. When I received it I split it into the following. (the numbers are how many how many I had already found / how many in the category )
2 Taxonomically Determinate Data Deficient vascular plants of home (1/2)
17 Taxonomically Determinate Nationally Critical vascular plants of home (0/17)
8 Taxonomically Determinate Nationally Endangered vascular plants of home (0/8)
14 Taxonomically Determinate Nationally Vulnerable vascular plants of home (1/14)
28 Taxonomically Determinate At Risk / Declining vascular plants of home (7/28)
6 Taxonomically Determinate At Risk / Relict vascular plants of home (0/6)
53 Taxonomically Determinate At Risk / Naturally Uncommon vascular plants of home (3/53)
2 Taxonomically Determinate Non-Resident Native / Vagrant vascular plants of home (0/2)
5 Taxonomically Determinate Non-Resident Native / Coloniser vascular plants of home (0/5)
3 Taxonomically indeterminate Data Deficient vascular plants of home (1/3)
1 Taxonomically indeterminate Nationally Critical vascular plant of home (0/1)
5 Taxonomically indeterminate At Risk / Naturally Uncommon vascular plants of home (2/5)
After seeing these lists I was shocked to see that I already had seen a Nationally Vulnerable plant, and further more, it was in Henderson Bay. Looking at the photos taken that day I realised that the Drosera Pymaea was seen behind my whare!
The other thing that surprised me where some of the at risk / declining plants that I had already seen that I did not realise were at risk becuase I see them everywhere! These are pingao and sand coprosma which grow all over Henderson Bay as well as the other beaches up this way, and the Kunzea linearis and Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum which grow all over the place at Henderson Bay.
So I have alot of plants to find and as I do not know them, it will be a pleasant surprise when I get one :D