Journal archives for January 2019

January 1, 2019

December 2018 Photo-observation of the Month

Congratulations to Kyle Tansley for winning the December 2018 Vermont Atlas of Life iNaturalist photo-observation of the month. The image of a Barred Owl with a rodent in its bill was the most popular photo-observation.

The Barred Owl is the most common owl in Vermont. The Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas found it had increased by 36% compared to the first atlas.Barred Owls eat many kinds of small animals, including squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, rabbits, birds (up to the size of grouse), amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. They hunt by sitting and waiting on an elevated perch, while scanning all around for prey with their sharp eyes and ears. They are very vocal and will frequently call during the day. The distinctive call is given by both the male and the female, with the male's deeper voice distinguishable in duets; the call can be translated as who cooks for you? who cooks for you-all? A variety of shorter calls, squeaks, and grunts are given too.

Visit iNaturalist Vermont, and you can vote for the winner this month by clicking ‘fav’ on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!

Posted on January 1, 2019 10:45 PM by kpmcfarland kpmcfarland | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 3, 2019

Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist Builds Biodiversity Big Data in 2018

On September 29th Micki Colbeck snapped a photograph of a beautiful patch of Delicate Fern Moss (Thuidium delicatulum) in Hyde Park, Vermont and submitted it to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist (VAL) immortalizing it as the 250,000 observation for the project. And observations kept coming. In 2018 alone, we had almost 2,400 naturalists contribute nearly 72,000 observations representing more than 3,100 species verified. Over 1,940 naturalist helped to identify and verify data. And we joined the more than 336,000 iNaturalists worldwide that submitted over 7.6 million observations in 2018! Thank you for your help!

Check out the 2018 year in review statistics dashboard, and see your year in review too!.

Read the whole story and learn a lot more on the VCE Blog!

Posted on January 3, 2019 09:05 PM by kpmcfarland kpmcfarland | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 8, 2019

Explore the 2018 Photo-Observation of the Month Winners

    Each month, iNaturalists ‘fav’ any observation they like as a vote for the iNaturalist Vermont photo-observation of the month. Check out these awesome winners from 2018 and learn a little bit about the natural history of each organism.

    Posted on January 8, 2019 02:41 PM by kpmcfarland kpmcfarland | 1 comment | Leave a comment

    January 20, 2019

    Help Us Map Oak Distribution!

    If you’ve driven Interstate 91 through Vermont from the border of Massachusetts in the south to the international border in the north with an eye on the trees along the road, you likely noticed changes along the way. You might have noted just how predominant Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) is in the south and how it slowly disappears as you cruise northward, until it is completely missing when you reach the border. Visit the VCE Blog at https://vtecostudies.org/blog/help-us-map-and-identify-oak/ to learn more about this. We need more observations AND we need help verifying oak observations that we've already gathered so we can share them with forest ecologists who are working on understanding and tracking ranges of oaks.

    Posted on January 20, 2019 04:35 PM by kpmcfarland kpmcfarland | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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