Diario del proyecto AppState BioBlitz Fall 2023

Hello AppState BioBlitzers!

Today is our last day to get out there and find some more biodiversity on campus. We're doing great! UNCW still has the lead in terms of number of observations (currently 6,224 to our 3,744) but we have taken the lead on species identified: 930 so far! Can we crack the 1,000 mark?

There is still plenty of stuff around campus that we documented last fall that we haven't rediscovered yet. Here are some examples what to look for today if you are around to do some more exploring on campus properties:

Mammals:
Last fall, we've documented groundhogs, raccoons, and American red squirrels. Can we spot those again?

Birds:
I know some of you are avid birders. Here's a list of birds we've seen last fall that we haven't spotted again yet. Some of these should be fairly common!

• Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
• Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
• Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
• Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
• Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)
• Southeastern Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus)
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula)
• Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)
• Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)
• Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata)
• Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
• Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus)
• Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)
• Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)
• Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
• House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
• Sora (Porzana carolina)
• Myrtle Warbler (Setophaga coronata coronata)
• Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla)
• American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
• Blue-headed Vireo (Vireo solitaries)
• White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Fish:
Some of you mentioned wanting to go check for fish in our rivers. Here's a list of those we found last year that we haven't reported yet for this BioBlitz:

• Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)
• White Sucker (Catostomus commersonii)
• Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdii)
• Northern Hog Sucker (Hypentelium nigricans)
• Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus)
• Kanawha Minnow (Phenacobius teretulus)
• Eastern Blacknose Dace (Rhinichthys atratulus)
• Longnose Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae)
• Brown Trout (Salmo trutta)

Amphibians:
There are still some of these to rediscover as well:

• Northern Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus)
• Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus)
• slimy salamander complex (Plethodon glutinosus)
• Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)

Species of plants, insects and other invertebrates, and fungi including lichens to find again are too many to list. There is still a lot of stuff out there that we either saw last fall and haven't reported yet for this round, or not seen yet on campus at all. The list includes a couple of common weeds for the area. Don't assume just because it's everywhere it has already been documented! Many of the trees and shrubs have been covered already, so look for the small stuff.

Species numbers can still change a bit as they are based on identifications being added to observations. Not every observation can be narrowed down to a species. Good quality pictures are often needed to clearly identify something. Some tips:

• Try to get your camera to focus on the right thing and if there are multiple organisms in the picture add a note to clarify which one you are observing.
• Get a picture of the whole plant/animal if you can, add a note on habitat as that might be important for ID (e.g. substrate a moss or lichen is growing on).
• Get close/zoom in for details (which details are important depends on the type of organism, e.g. for mushrooms you often need a view of the gills on the underside of the cap).
• Try to get a few pictures from multiple angles, e.g. dorsal and lateral views of insects.
• For flowers, also include pictures of stem and leaves as well - sometimes those provide the clues for identification.
• For trees, buds and leaves are important - a single picture of bark often is not sufficient to identify it.
• Once you have multiple pictures of an organism, it's important to combine them into one observation rather than upload them all separately.

The competition ends at midnight today. Let's get out there one more day and see what else we can find!

Good morning BioBlitz Team!

Wow, what a week! This was our most productive BioBlitz yet. We beat our own records for number of observations and species. It wasn't quite enough to catch up to UNCW for most observations as they went all out this time around and took an early lead. However, we did find the most species (as far as things have been identified so far) and were able to crack the 1,000 milestone on that. Here are the current numbers:

AppState: 4,485 observations, 1,021 species (1,186 taxa), 193 observers (208 project members)
UNCW: 6,554 observations, 936 species (1,057 taxa), 207 observers (233 project members)
UNCG: 1,680 observations, 418 species (468 taxa), 63 observers (69 project members)

The top three observers with the most overall observations uploaded so far are maxbird1 and leighalobelia at AppState and emma_lemon at UNCW. Great job everyone!

These numbers are still subject to change as people may still be processing and uploading images and adding identifications to observations. Remember the date that counts is the date the picture was taken, not when it was uploaded to iNaturalist. So if you took pictures but didn't get around to uploading them yet, there's still time to do so and make them count this week.

There are a few things you can help with as we try to clean up the data set:

Identifying species:
If you would like to help with IDs, check out the identification guidelines. An initial ID will start things moving and more than 1 ID with over two thirds majority will give the observation a "community taxon" and make it research grade. Keep in mind observations do not need to be research grade to count for the BioBlitz. We want our data to be as scientifically accurate as possible, so make sure you can independently verify the IDs you're adding. The iNat Computer Vision suggestions aren't always right. If you don't know what something is or how to identify it, it's better to wait for someone more knowledgeable to push things to research grade.

Marking things cultivated/not wild:
The goal of the BioBlitz is to record the wildlife on campus, so only wild organisms should count. If something is obviously not wild (e.g. domestic animals, potted plants), they should be marked "captive/cultivated" on the identify page. On the observation pages, you would do this by marking No next to "Organism is wild" near the bottom of the page.

Adding annotations:
Making annotations is another great way to add value to observations. For example, for plants you can add whether they are flowering or fruiting, or for insects whether they are larvae, pupae, or adults. These annotations are searchable and allow researchers to e.g. quickly find all the plants that were in bloom or all the caterpillars observed during this month. This is also often easy to determine even if you are not confident enough to add species IDs.

Marking your favorites:
Last but not least, if you browse the pool of observations and come across some that you think are really cool or have really great pictures, add a star to fave the observation! This will include it in the set of most popular observations from the BioBlitz and will make sure we don't miss it when we pick contenders for the best picture winners. Tip: Nearly 4,500 observations is a lot to look through. However, you can use the filters or search by species to find your favorite taxa and see if anyone made observations of them.

Great turnout everyone! Stay tuned for more updates coming soon.