Hi All,

We're now into the last 3 days of the pilot Grounds 4 Nature BioBlitz - we hope you're all having fun discovering the wonderful wildlife in your school grounds!

Rachel and Deborah

Here's the correct link to Jennifer Linde's fifth confirmed observation for Smoky Shadowdragon in Denton County and at LLELA no less: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27475437

We congratulate Jennifer Linde who has just made her 5th confirmed iNat observation of the arguably elusive Smoky Shadowdragon (a dragonfly for the uninitiated). All of Jennifer’s observations for the species have been made at the LLELA—Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area in Lewisville, Texas. She remains the only iNat observer for this species in Denton County and all of North Texas for that matter. The link to her latest observation of Smoky Shadowdragon can be accessed here: https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications/60042243/edit

Statewide, four different Texas iNatters have made a total of 11 observations of Smoky Shadowdragon to date and Jennifer has the record thus far with the five confirmed observations as indicated. You can see the the iNat archive’s page for Texas for this species at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=18&subview=grid&taxon_id=106979

Well it is confirmed we will be leaving on Friday of this week for Colorado. We are so excited to be going on this trip. I am hearing a lot of good stuff right now about the northern states being all bloomed out so I am hoping for the best results on this trek. I am looking forward to all the sights and sounds once again. Rocky Mountain National Park seems to be one of the big spots that we want to visit along with other places around Denver. We will go to springs for a little bit but we only have so much dough for this trip which I totally get. We are going to have a great time I am sure. I am hoping to score some very neat types of wildlife.

As far as gear I will not be able to bring my beat sheet. However this might interest some of you that I will be taking my stick and will use my net as the sheet. It may have a smaller opening but heck I am very resourceful. I have my aunt's binoculars and mine but we still have yet to track down a pair we have been looking for a while. My mom never got to use them but we still need to find them for the trek. I have only a few books in a bucket to wedge under the seat. I will have to trade places with my brother in the back seat so I can get to my stuff easier. I have my net and my backpack ready to go with extra Petri Dishes. I have my choices of clothes that I will wear for the trek. I also have my vest and my new hat that I will be wearing for the few days we are up there. No trip is complete without my iPod I have to listen to Rocky Mountain High at least once when I get to Colorado while we drive through it. I will also have my headlamp for some night reading. I have that Star Trek novel I need to finish. I have most of my stuff already to grab and go. We will get road snacks before the trek.

It has been a long time since we have been though Colorado but it is going to be a lot of fun to travel around up there once again. Love Colorado for many reasons and I hope to rekindle some of those old memories once again but along the way make new ones too. I have iNaturalist in my corner now and part of the memories will be the ton of animals, plants, and fungi I will be able to track down and photograph. I have all of our cameras ready to pack up and ready to go. I may do some iNatting before the trek just to stay in practice and get a few more things but during this trip I don't think we would want to leave anything un photographed. I went there in 2007 or was it 08? I can't really remember but I didn't have this wonderful app to track my numbers but this time I will be ready for anything. We are going to make a few pit stops along the way. My brother wants to go to the Volcano in New Mexico. That will be a great place to go and get a patch and some photographs. I will be on the look out for some really cool patches and things while I am not this trip. I will even be looking for some very cool fossils to buy. I can't seem to go to Colorado without buying fossils from Rock Shops and things. I am doing a favor for a neighbor and he paid me fifty bucks to watch his chickens while he was on his trip. So I will use that as my vacation money. I think I have a little bit more in my shark bank that I can use too so I will be able to by a few things along the way. I am looking forward to this trek. I will be on facebook throughout the few days I am up there to go tell where we are at and what we are doing. It will be a lot different since the last time we were there but still it will be another adventure of a life time. So I have a lot to do until Friday but I assure you that it will be well worth the wait. So next we meet I will be going into a few of the highlights from th trip. I will also be posting pictures on Facebook, Instagram, and make a big play by play blog post on my Tumblr. So until next time here's looking at you. This is Zachary Chapman AKA galactic_bug_man signing off.

I honestly feel bad for anyone who attempts to decipher my bird bone journal posts

That random link I send to people to explain pelvises:
https://biocyclopedia.com/index/anatomy_of_vertebrate_animals/pelvis_of_a_bird.php

Heron Bones:
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/56394/MP150.pdf?sequence=1

Different versions of The Osteology of bones:
The real ole-timey one:
https://archive.org/details/osteologyofbirds00shuf/page/110
The google-books looking one:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044107162786&view=1up&seq=1

General osteology link, I never claimed to be organized:
http://courses.washington.edu/chordate/453photos/skeleton_photos/amniote_skeleton_photos.htm

........................................................................................................................................
GULLS:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23545163
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21807863
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2571306
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3303127

HERONS, EGRETS AND BITTERNS:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20942664
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13686285
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/12683704

HOW ARE WE SURE THIS IS A TURKEY:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13395072
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13395170#activity_comment_3078793

CORMORANTS:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11036398
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/25448886
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16365192
Cool looking cormorant type things:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27039912
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19709685
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15333417
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9170611
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11643027

Pelicans, Herons, Ibises, and Allies:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2571319

WATERBIRDS:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1720889

Penguin:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1163268

CROW:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9513092

........................................................................................................................................

My ramblings about gulls vs ducks vs herons
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27499725

Tiny one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26526068

Another rambling about gulls vs waterfowl but significantly less wordy:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26324417

ID LATER:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3134113 gull?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2365062
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5251075 gull?

Salmon season began in May and after two months, fisherman report that the fish are big and the harvest season is plentiful.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/06/23/after-californias-historic-drought-salmon-season-is-booming-fisherman-say/amp/

On Saturday morning, June 8 2019, I officially ran the USGS Walburg BBS route that I scouted on June 1. The route is made up of 50 survey points on 25 miles on back roads south of Granger Lake in eastern Williamson County. Weather was just about perfect for a survey, clear skies and almost no wind. The temperature was 67º when I started at 5:57 AM and 86º when I finished at 11:15 AM. This was the third time I've run this BBS and this might've been the best so far for some of the targeted grassland species. Of the 50 stops, Eastern Meadowlarks were heard singing at 8 stops, Lark Sparrows at 6 stops, and Dickcissel at 14 stops. A nice surprise were singing Horned Larks at 2 stops. (See the attached audio observations.) Northern Bobwhite was only recorded at 2 stops.

I recorded a species new to this survey route (which started in 1980). At stop 5 I heard a Wild Turkey. And it sure was fun hearing Great Horned Owls at the first 5 stops.

This was the first time I've run the survey on a Saturday morning instead of Sunday. Car traffic was not too different. 6 or 7 stops are difficult (and a little scary) because of the amount of highway-speed traffic, but all in all this route is on quiet roads and is pretty fun to do. The orange reflective vest that USGS sent me seems to be performing its intended dual purpose to improve safety and lend an air of authority to my presence. No one stopped to ask what I was doing!

Photos from this survey are on Flickr here.

Here are two photos, from the first stop and the last:

к 20 июня 2019 года

These keys all need the vegetative stalks in addition to the reproductive ones.

American Fern Journal (you need an ID to read it, but it's free for a limited number of articles per month):
🗝 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1543973?read-now=1&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

eFloras.org:
🗝 http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=111897

LSA Herbarium, University of Michigan:
🗝 https://www.michiganflora.net/genus.aspx?id=Equisetum

The Jepson Herbarium at the University of California, Berkeley:
🗝 http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_IJM.pl?key=9816

Открытие проекта Рязанского клуба "Птицы"

These high sea lion impulse events where they gather in huge groups called herds do happen from time to time in ports and harbors. These herds can reach over 1,000 individuals and can cover entire docks, piers and even boats, but researchers aren’t quite sure why they do this?

https://amp.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather-watch/article231864078.html

Red smut on maple leaves: Eriophyes calaceris

because obviously i'm walking it most weekends and those are the same yellow warblers and pine elfins - the weather this year has been really odd *and* they are doing rock-blasting four days a week mid-trail roughly. like 6/22 is the second day in a row of barely 60F there, the dogbane's blooming and no one is nectaring on it.

In July a few years ago, I observed and identified the small white spikes of Hooded Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana.

I discovered that the Hooded Lady’s Tresses have a small white carrot like root that appear to be for water storage. (I accidentally pulled one up.) Roots that store water make sense - the Lady’s Tresses I have observed are located in an area that is wet during the rainy season, but becomes very dry during the summer when the leaves wither and the plant blooms and sets seed.

I identified these plants by their small white spikes, but there were no leaves present. The leaves are described as linear and grass like. In the spring, I looked for the plants to emerge - but which of the leaves belonged to the little orchid? They were in an area full of grasses and sedges. This year, I think I have found them. They have light green upright clusters of leaves. I continued to observe them every week and was finally rewarded with some spikes topped with buds. I will be able to positively identify these plants when the buds open. See my June 15, 2019 observation.

I will be exploring how to use iNaturalist to track individual plants and hyper-local populations. Tracking individuals l would assist with identifying plants like Spiranthes romanzoffiana that are difficult to find when there are no blooms or other recognizable characteristics. Is there a way to physically tag or otherwise register specific individuals in observations made through the seasons and years?

More rain, today. We are 3.5 inches above normal for the month of June and 6.3 inches above normal for the year. This is the third year in a row of rainfall well above normal. What affects will that have on this environment? Significant erosion is one obvious affect. Will more erosion change the habitat making it difficult for some species to live and/or creating opportunities for new species to move into the affected areas? These are things we will watch in the future.

I have posted several observations to this site. I very much appreciate the verification of my observations from more knowledgeable experts. I have benefited from the site's expertise in identifying species. For example, what I thought was a Woodthrush that I see frequently in and around our yard is actually a Brown Thrasher. That is one of the main reasons I am here - to learn.

I am going on a Bioblitz this evening on the nearby golf course and I hope to observe many animal and plant species, as well as fungi. I will attach some photos if possible of what I observed.

I have noticed a certain type of bug, called a wheel bug, which is in the assassin bug family, on my eastern USA property. It looks like a prehistoric mosquito, but without wings. It uses its beak to prey on/kill other creepy-crawlies and insects such as spiders and bumblebees. Apparently, it has a painful bite, so I would NOT want to hold one. Also, apparently not many people have heard of this scary-looking bug. Have any of you guys seen or heard of the wheel bug? By the way, the name comes from the spiny half wheel shaped-thing on its back.

In the beginning of July mature adult pouched lamprey (Geotria australis) will begin their migration up the rivers in Adelaide. These adult lamprey have just spent time (researchers do not know how long!) in the ocean feeding and are now making their way back into freshwater in order to spawn. PhD student, Allison Miller, from the University of Otago will be going to Adelaide to collect samples for genetic analyses. The results from these analyses will depict how lamprey in Adelaide are related to all other pouched lamprey in the Southern Hemisphere.

I read this on National Geographic, today. Some good news about the article I had posted about the illegal capture of ocean life in Russia. I thoughtI would share the update.
If you go to this news article, By Natasha Daily on National Geographic News, it also supplies photos.

Authorities today loaded eight of 97 belugas and orcas onto trucks for release.
In what have since been declared illegal captures, four Russian companies that supply marine mammals to aquariums caught almost 100 beluga whales and orcas over the course of several months in the summer of 2018. The animals have been in holding pens in Srednyaya Bay, in Russia’s far east, ever since.

Today, the Russian government began the process of returning them to the wild, announced Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Gordeyev during President Vladamir Putin's annual televised public call-in program.

Authorities from VNIRO, the Russian Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, have begun moving the first eight animals. Six belugas and two orcas were lifted in slings by cranes and prepared for transport. They’re to be released in the Sea of Okhotsk, roughly 1,100 miles away, where they were originally captured. The journey, by truck and by boat, will likely take about five days, according to Charles Vinick, executive director of the U.S.-based Whale Sanctuary Project. He has been in contact with Vyacheslav Bizikov, the deputy director of VNIRO, who is overseeing the transport and release.
Gordeyev said it will take four months to move all the animals and that the cetaceans will be released in small groups, according to a Reuters report on his remarks. According to a VNIRO statement translated by The New York Times, the cetacean transport will be monitored by 70 specialists, including veterinarians and scientists. Each whale will be accompanied during transport by two people and will be equipped with a GPS tracker before release.
The orcas and belugas attracted international attention in late 2018 and early 2019 when a drone captured aerial video footage of the facility, which showed 98 orcas and belugas crowded in small sea pens. The footage led the media to label the facility a “whale jail.” The situation sparked outrage worldwide, both over the capture itself and the the cetaceans’ treatment
At the time, three of the four companies maintained that the animals were captured legally, and the fourth did not respond to requests for comment. None has made any public statements since the release process began

.Transport begins
Putin personally monitored the start of the transport operation via live feed, reports EastRussia, an English-language Russian news outlet. The Russian president commented on the release, according to a BBC translation of the Russian televised program. "The killer whales alone—as far as I know—are worth around $100 million," Putin said. "When it's big money, problems are always hard to solve. Thank God things have started moving."

Western aquariums are scaling back on keeping cetaceans in captivity (Canada last week banned the practice altogether). But in China, dolphinariums with wild-caught animals are a booming business: There are now 78 marine mammal parks and 26 more under construction.
Vinick says transport back to the waters around Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk “is the right decision.” In April, he was invited by Russian authorities, along with Jean-Michel Cousteau, founder of the California-based nonprofit Ocean Futures Society, to assess the whales’ condition and draft a rehabilitation plan. After their visit, they published a joint report stating that most of the animals had skin lesions, which could indicate health issues, and that they would require further health assessments. But they noted that all appeared to be well fed and had undergone minimal training. The report concluded that all 97 could be rehabilitated and released.
Vinick says the team recommended more significant rehabilitation prior to transport and release, to ensure that the animals were in good health. “While every detail is not perfect,” he says, “we have been told that they are trying to follow as many of the recommendations [that] our international team provided as they can.”

“Monumental” change to come?
Deputy Prime Minister Gordeyev also said Russia will clamp down on the capture of cetaceans and that the government will change the law that currently allows the capture of cetaceans for “educational and cultural purposes,” a loophole that fisheries in Russia have long used to legally capture belugas and orcas for use in aquariums in Russia and abroad, notably in China, as documented in National Geographic’s June feature on captive wildlife tourism. Export of orcas for commercial purposes was made illegal in 2018.

If those changes are indeed enacted, which would require amending federal law, cetaceans could only be legally caught for scientific purposes. It would mean the end of Russia’s commercial cetacean trade, which would be a “monumental” development, says Vinick. “It changes everything about the capture of these animals for public display. That would be leadership by the Russian government for the world to see.”

On May 31, the South-Sakhalin City Court, which has jurisdiction over the area where the cetaceans were captured, declared illegal all catch quotas that the Federal Fisheries Agency issued for belugas and orcas in 2018. In other words, the four firms’ argument that they had caught the animals with government permission was retroactively nullified. As a result, two of the four Russian firms have been fined. On June 7, White Whale LLC was fined $435,000. On June 14, Oceanarium DV was fined $870,000, reports the Moscow Times. The cases against the other two firms, Afalina LLC and Sochi Dolphinarium LLC, are still in progress, the paper reports.

Pens icing over
During their months in captivity, the animals appeared to be suffering, Dmitry Lisitsyn told National Geographic in February. Lisitsyn heads Sakhalin Environment Watch, an NGO based on Sakhalin Island, near where the cetaceans were originally captured, that has been monitoring the situation since last summer.

In November 2018, after the drone footage went public, regional authorities opened an investigation into the alleged illegal capture of the marine mammals. While the investigation was pending, the animals remained in the holding pens. As temperatures dropped during the winter, ice formed over the surface of the pens, alarming cetacean experts in Russia and abroad.

In late February, one of the orcas, Kirill, who had been ill for some time, went missing. Facility owners filed a police report saying he likely escaped. Environmentalists with the Free Russian Whales coalition, who are familiar with the facility, said that escape was highly unlikely. He has not been found.
What’s next
Details are scant on whether the cetaceans will have any period of adjustment once they arrive at the release point, says Vinick. “Our recommendation was that they have some period of time to get acclimated to the area. There are risks involved in any kind of release.”

VNIRO did not immediately respond to requests for comment or further details.

“We could all be second-guessing every part of this, and many people will, and they should,” says Vinick. “But at the same time, we have to be grateful that this is moving in this direction.”
Natasha Daly is a writer and editor at National Geographic, where she covers animal welfare and exploitation.

Dear all,

For those who are moth fun, please register a National Moth Week event！
REGISTER YOUR MOTHING LOCATION and/or PUBLIC MOTHING EVENT TO PARTICIPATE IN NATIONAL MOTH WEEK 2019.

Good to check up the following URL for further details.
http://nationalmothweek.org/register-a-nmw-event-2019/

Good Day.

I took a walk through our woods, today. I am especially impressed with the health of the ferns. They are loving this wet weather we have been having this spring. I have never seen them this full and vibrant.

Today, I joined this iNaturalist website. It looks like a good place to record my observations of nature and simultaneously contribute to science in a small way. My goal is to observe and record as much of the flora and fauna around Crann Mor and in eastern Kentucky as i can. I want to develop into a good amateur naturalist and participate in the naturalists' community - learning and contributing when I can.

I practiced posting observations and photos of two birds that frequent our feeder. I think I did alright. My first posting has been identified (verified?) and given the status of "Research Grade". That sounds official and gives a shot of self esteem. I look forward to posting more observations from this home we share with plants and animals.

The Bugs on Alfalfa naturalists have now recorded 32 taxa! Let's keep the observations coming. You might even become addicted to contributing, like me...

Lately I've been wondering what would happen to all these invertebrates if someone were to eradicate this naturalized weed. And this thought reminded me of this paper:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=15&ved=2ahUKEwjsqPWAnvviAhXKqp4KHdx_Av8QFjAOegQICBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.naba.org%2Fchapters%2Fnabambc%2Fdownloads%2Fgraves%2C_shapiro_exotics.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2MaVDxeSMHlKDLXvJaVIpl

Cheers, Lauren

The orientation, mandatory for all first-time counters and highly recommended for veterans, will be conducted at the University of California, Irvine Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center (located at 401 Tilting T Drive, Borrego Springs, CA, 92004) on Saturday, June 22th from 9AM-2PM. We know many of you have counted bighorn for years, but we can all use a refresher. The orientation will cover bighorn sheep identification, California Fish and Wildlife’s recovery efforts, bighorn sheep natural history, census methods, desert safety, and site assignments.

https://theabf.org/calendar/2019-bighorn-sheep-count/

Hello everyone!

There is a large bioblitz on July 5-6 at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, celebrating E.O. Wilson's 90th birthday.

It's a 5-mile radius circle around Walden Pond, and given the long and rich data from that area dating back to Thoreau, the data this blitz will generate is valuable.

They're planning to use iNaturalist heavily, with a goal of 2000+ species. I'm sure they'd appreciate anyone who's willing to identify observations on iNaturalist from home as well during the blitz.

Details they've sent me (I am not an organizer):

• Bioblitz runs from Friday 6:30 PM to Saturday 6:30 PM
• Reception 6-8 PM on Friday with EO Wilson for registered experts
• Lunch Buffet + EO Wilson talk on Saturday 12-2 PM for registered experts
• Hopefully a tenting area, and some workspace

Non-specialists & general public welcome, but food for the reception and lunch buffet is limited to registered specialists.

Taxonomic expert registration (Deadline 6/26):
https://www.walden.org/explore-walden-woods/great-walden-bioblitz/

iNaturalist Project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-walden-bioblitz-2019

Facebook Event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/443283279818703/

@charlie @tsn @susanhewitt @susanelliott @reallifeecology @billryerson @karolina @kueda @erikamitchell @berkshirenaturalist @kpmcfarland @zaccota @maractwin @cgbb2004 @patricksweeney @danielatha

A BIG thank you to everyone who's out there checking identifications and refining those records.

Incredible! This project just surpassed 10,000 observations! Thank you all for contributing to this project and making so many observations around the state. We (FWC) has been able to add records of many rare species as a result of this project, as has the Florida Natural Areas Inventory. Please keep the observations coming and, in particular, try to record species that aren't already represented!

Keep up the great work,

Pete Kleinhenz

Birds are a particular passion of mine, and previous research I have done has shown that school grounds can be great for our feathered friends. Let us know what birds you have seen in your grounds during the BioBlitz week by uploading your observations to iNaturalist. Remember, although observations with a photo are particularly appreciated, a photo isn't essential.

Rachel

The sun is out and we already have over 100 species and nearly 300 observations! I wonder if any schools are going to try and add more school ground sightings over the weekend?

Rachel and Deborah