Socially Distant Bioblitz (7/5/2020)'s Journal

It is hard to believe, but our 10th and final Socially Distant Bioblitz is this Sunday, 18 October 2020! With only one event left, we are just 7,000 observations shy of reaching our goal of 100,000 observations. To help us achieve this, we encourage everyone to recruit 2 people to participate in Sunday’s bioblitz. Extra credit if they are new to iNaturalist!

Within the 93,008 observations collected so far from 73 countries, we’ve found some beautiful plants and charismatic animals, both common and globally rare species, and even a few new species records for iNaturalist! 13,528 species in all! It may be a challenge, but can we find 472 additional species on Sunday to reach an even 14,000?

We hope to "see" you there!

Mark your calendars! Due to requests for more Socially Distant Bioblitz events, three more events have been added (every 3 weeks on Sunday) to the Socially Distant Bioblitz Series:

26 July 2020
16 August 2020
6 September 2020

While many countries are transitioning from quarantine to modified normalcy, others are still struggling with outbreaks of Covid-19. Regardless of your region’s social distancing policies (if any are in place), all are welcome to contribute observations to these projects. Click on the links above to join a project, and all your observations on the project day(s) will be automatically added.

Looking forward to exploring more of Earth’s biodiversity with you!

Once again, thank you, everyone, for participating in the fifth Socially Distant Bioblitz (SDB)! Here is a condensed event summary followed by an overview of the 5-part Socially Distant Bioblitz Series. Enjoy!

SDB #5 summary:

80 observers submitted nearly 7,750 observations from 6 continents and 21 countries, which yielded 2,596 species. Congratulations to @ivanort in New York, USA for finding the most species (465) during the bioblitz! Runner-up mentions go out to @bonnieeamick, in Virginia, USA (416 species) and @alexis_orion in Germany (378 species).

Our collective “day” started soon after midnight at 12:54 AM local time west of Gold Coast, Australia, where @dustaway documented an Hypomecis externaria moth. After 41.5 hours of bioblitz fun, the observation period ended when @masonmaron recorded fire-colored beetle southeast of Seatlle, Washington (USA) at 11:26 PM local time.

SDB Series Summary:

The bioblitz on 5 July was the fifth and final bioblitz planned in our Socially Distant Bioblitz Series, which collected over 65,000 observations containing nearly 11,000 species. Over 700 participants submitted observations, representing 62 countries! Our goals for this series were to 1) help stave off cabin fever with many people working from home or stuck in quarantine, 2) encourage local and hyper-local exploration of the natural world, 3) bring more exposure to iNaturalist, and 4) give citizen-scientists an opportunity to feel socially connected while physically isolated. We hope you feel we achieved these goals, and we trust you enjoyed participating! Questions, comments, or feedback? Share by posting a comment below or send us a message – we would love to hear from you!

Lastly, @stephen169 brought to our attention the upcoming Great Southern Bioblitz , which runs from 25-28 September. Don’t live in the Southern Hemisphere? You can still support this event by assisting with IDs and encouraging your more southern friends to participate. It is going to be a fun international event!

Warm regards,

Steven Lamonde (@slamonde ), Sara Lobdell (@slob973 ) & Michael Nerrie (@mnerrie )

List of SDB #5 participating countries (21): Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Fiji, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.

Well done, everyone for a solid bioblitz on Sunday! Hundreds of observations are still coming in, and our species tally, currently at 1,738, is rising steadily. Keep working on unsubmitted observations when you get the chance, and all observations shared by Friday will be included in the event summary. Can't get your observations submitted this week? No problem! Anything you observed on Sunday, 5 July, will still contribute to the SDB project and longer SDB series, regardless of when it is submitted!

Shout out to @ivanort in Long Island, New York (USA) for being the first person to reach >400 species this bioblitz!

Thank you to the 56 observers who have submitted observations so far - we have found over 1,100 species! Check out these colorful organisms, one from each participating country:

Australia: Climbing Sundew found by @cobaltducks
Brazil: Blue-gray Tanager found by @nelson_wisnik
Canada: Variegated Pond-Lily found by @marykrieger
Croatia: Pine Ladybird found by @pedrozazafernandes
Czechia: Violet Carpenter Bee found by @helik7
Fiji: Eglantine Cowry found by @birdexplorers
France: Short-toed Snake-Eagle found by @baudart
Germany: Marbled Fritillary found by @redhat
Guatemala: Asphaera beetle sp. found by @gpasch
Honduras: Spot-breasted Oriole found by @fcodubon
Mexico: Stenomacra marginella found by @luisstevens
New Zealand: Common Grass Moth found by @meurkc
South Africa: Cape Snow Bush found by @cecileroux
South Korea: Painted Bug found by @onidiras
Switzerland: Chalkhill Blue found by @lex1980
Trinidad and Tobago: Wiegmann's Striped Gecko found by @magichin
United States: Prairie Warbler found by @kayley-j-dillon

It seems it was only a few hours ago that we reached 300 species, and we've since doubled our tally! At present 613 species have been recorded among 1,034 observations. Our 600th species? This Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) submitted by @amzamz near Saarbrücken, Germany.

Also, welcome Mexico, United States, Trinidad and Tobago, France, Switzerland, and New Zealand!

Observers from Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, Canada, Austria, and Croatia have submitted 284 species so far. Which country will we see observations from next? Over 50% of observations submitted so far are insects, including this neat-looking caterpillar of a moth in the genus Limenitis found by @onidiras.

Socially Distant Bioblitz #5 is underway, as observations come in from @amzamz in Germany and @onidiras in South Korea! Looking forward to a great day with everyone :)