Journal archives for October 2020

October 2, 2020

September 2020 Photo-observation of the Month

Congratulation to Tom Norton for winning the September 2020 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist. His image of Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) captured the most votes from other iNaturalists. Some of you may recognize Tom from his help in identifying your observations. Amazingly, he's made 293,706 identifications in iNaturalist helping observations reach 'research grade'. His image of Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) captured the most votes from other iNaturalists.

Shaggy Mane tends to spring up after rainy autumn days and is easily identified by the shaggy appearance. It undergoes a startling transition in late-fall in an effort to distribute its spores. The tall, oblong shape of the Shaggy Mane gives it an advantage over other mushrooms, as it has much more room in its gills to store the spores that will go on to become new fungal bodies. The conundrum this fungi faces is how to distribute its spores when they are all hidden deep within the cap. Deliquescence is the answer. As the fungus matures, the cap slowly deliquesces, or appears to melt away. The cap slowly liquefies from bottom-to-top into an inky sludge, the spores that were hidden deep within the cap are exposed to the wind and free to blow on to their next destination.

With neary 21,000 photo-observations submitted by 1,790 observers in September, it was extremely competitive. Click on the image to see and explore all of the amazing photo-observations, including the first record ever recorded of Common Blue butterfly, a species introduced to Quebec from Europe that has now arrived in Vermont.[/caption]

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fav’ star 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 October 2, 2020 01:16 PM by kpmcfarland kpmcfarland | 2 comments | Leave a comment

October 16, 2020

Lunchtime Learning Sessions

Hi everyone! Starting next week, I will be doing a "Lunchtime Learning" session every Wednesday at noon. For the first 15 to 20 minutes, I will present on how to use a feature in iNaturalist, Vermont eBird, or eButterfly. With my screen shared, you can easily follow along. Some weeks I will give a 15 to 20 minute presentation on a cool Vermont natural history topic. For the rest of the hour, feel free to stick around and ask questions, either focused on how to use one of the aforementioned platforms or on something surrounding Vermont's ecology and natural history. Please pre-register using this Survey Monkey form and I will email you the zoom link on Wednesday morning. There is an option to add any questions you may have in the Survey Monkey form - if I get your questions by Monday each week there is a chance it will be the topic of the mini-presentation! For this week, I will consider questions until Tuesday because I have not given much notice about this. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, either through my iNaturalist page or by email: jpupko@vtecostudies.org. Looking forward to meeting many of you in the coming weeks!
-Julia

Polished Lady Beetle (Cycloneda munda)
Image credit: Julia Pupko

Posted on October 16, 2020 04:58 PM by jpupko jpupko | 2 comments | Leave a comment

October 27, 2020

Lunchtime Learning Session Update

Hello everyone!
Here is the link for the recordings from each week's Lunchtime Learning session. For those of you who may have missed the previous post, I will be hosting a zoom meeting each Wednesday from 12 to 1, covering some iNaturalist tips through the lens of a seasonally-relevant Vermont natural history topic. If you want to sign up for future sessions, fill out the Survey Monkey form here. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, either through iNaturalist or by email: jpupko@vtecostudies.org.

-Julia, Community Science Outreach Naturalist


Northern Short-tailed Shrew

Posted on October 27, 2020 03:07 PM by jpupko jpupko | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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