Virtual Spring BioBlitz! Oklahoma 2020's Journal

May 15, 2020

Participant Patches

Virtual Spring BioBlitz! Patches will be sent out on Monday! Better late than never! 😁

We have extra and would love to send out more to those of you that participated in our project.

To receive your patch, send us a private message with your name and mailing address and we will pop it in the mail next week.

Posted on May 15, 2020 09:19 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 3 comments | Leave a comment

May 5, 2020

100 Species Observers

If you made observations of 100 or more verifiable species during our BioBlitz!, you have earned a participation patch! Please message us with your mailing address and we will send it to you as soon as we are able.

Congratulations and thanks for participating!
Priscilla
BioBlitz! OK Coordinator

Posted on May 5, 2020 02:04 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 1, 2020

GRAND BioBlitzer!

Congratulations to our GRAND Virtual Spring BioBlitz! OK 2020 Citizen Scientist - Zach DuFran! He observed 567 verifiable species during the month of April in Oklahoma. He nearly 100 species more than any other BioBlitzer!

Zach did an spectacular job of documenting our littlest animals, especially the moths!

Zach earns free registration for his family to the fall BioBlitz! event weekend at Roman Nose State Park, a subscription to Outdoor Oklahoma donated by our friends at ODWC, and citizen science glory! Well Done Zach!

Posted on May 1, 2020 08:20 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Winner of the Ultimate Herp Challenge!!

We have records for 24 species of amphibian and 57 species of reptiles and a currently undescribed species of amphibian for a total of 82 species! This a great sampling of the diversity of Oklahoma herps.

At this point it appears we have a runaway winner for the Inaugural Ultimate Herper award and that is Ian Kanda with 35 species. There were 7 other iNaturalist members who had more than 20 species and those members were: Teriyaki12, Amphibianaddict, Goody, Bugcatchermark, Ellaleigh33, Gregsilva, and Hollynff. Great job to those members and to everybody who participated.

We also are going to award an extra shirt to the member that made the most outstanding herp record, and that member is Aaron Goodwin for the undescribed Woodland Salamander!

Congrats to Ian and Aaron!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44442638

Posted on May 1, 2020 08:19 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 1 comment | Leave a comment

New Plants to the State!

Two new plant records during this Spring BioBlitz! These species that are new records for Oklahoma were verified by our BioBlitz! expert botanist, Amy Buthod.

One snuck over from Arkansas and was recorded by virtual and in-person BioBlitzer Lynn Michael - Smooth Yellow False Foxglove (Aureolaria flava)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44037713

The other species, Common Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta), was spotted by Bob Webster and Sandy Graue at two different state parks. This annual species is from Europe and can be grown and eaten as a leaf vegetable. Although not native to Oklahoma, it is unlikely to become a invasive weed in natural areas.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=virtual-spring-bioblitz-oklahoma-2020&subview=table&taxon_id=55752&verifiable=any

To recognize these BioBlitzers, we offer free registration to our annual fall event along with a free event t-shirt.

Well done!

Posted on May 1, 2020 06:18 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

April 27, 2020

Just a few more days to go!

About 3 1/2 days, or 80 hours, left to our Virtual Spring BioBlitz! Oklahoma 2020! We have nearly 22,000 observations and over 2,600 species recorded!! You folks are doing great!

As an added incentive to BioBlitzers to keep exploring to the finale, all participants that make observations of 100+ "verifiable" species will earn a special prize.

Verifiable =
has a date
is georeferenced (i.e. has lat/lon coordinates)
has photos or sounds
isn't of a captive or cultivated organism

Posted on April 27, 2020 07:21 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Pollinator Winner!

Well done BioBlitzers! So many wonderful pictures of a diversity of pollinators for our Pollinator Challenge! Congratulations to iNaturalist user emtroyer for winning Challenge #7!

Posted on April 27, 2020 01:58 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 1 comment | Leave a comment

April 23, 2020

Challenge #7 - Pollinators!

Now that the weather has warmed up a bit more, it is the perfect time for our Virtual Spring BioBlitz! OK Pollinator Challenge! Make observations of 10 different species of pollinators on flowers. Don't forget to capture images of our less acknowledged pollinators - beetles, ants, flies, and even spiders!

Deadline to enter this challenge is Monday April 27th, 8:00 a.m. To submit your observations, send links of each one to bioblitzok through the iNaturalist message system. Observations made previously may be counted.

Have fun and don't forget to stop and peer into the roses!

Posted on April 23, 2020 07:44 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 1 comment | Leave a comment

Challenge #6 Winner

Great job to all our neighborhood birders! There were birds on feeders, on nest boxes, roof tops, at playgrounds...
Congratulations to iNaturalist user serokitty for being our randomly chosen winner of this challenge.

Details on our next Virtual Spring BioBlitz! Oklahoma 2020 challenge will be announced this afternoon!

Posted on April 23, 2020 12:18 PM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

April 21, 2020

Meet the Experts - Plant Edition

Our third "Meet the BioBlitz! Experts" online discussion will be Friday, April 24th, 11:00 a.m. This week we will be focusing on plants with Amy Buthod and Abby Moore of the University of Oklahoma Bebb Herbarium.

Amy and Abby will answer your questions about the plants you have been observing for our Virtual Spring BioBlitz! They will give you tips and suggestions for identifying common and confusing plants that you are encountering. And they will share their love of all things botanical! Anyone interested in Oklahoma plants is welcome to attend.

Register by Friday at 10:45 a.m.: https://ousurvey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2twD63WnsoouBtX

Posted on April 21, 2020 10:25 AM by priscillacrawford priscillacrawford | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Archives