Diario de dianastuder

Plus the @mentions, and what trickled in during the last week.
I have caught up.

Now I can concentrate on IDing for GSB.

Then, when that dust has settled, I will upload my own pictures.

Yesterday's beach walk for GSB 23 has gained me a few more species for littoral. And a helpful comment for plough shell species

Heading for a digital detox in November.

If you are in the Southern hemisphere (we will need identifiers please?)
Great Southern Bioblitz 24 to 27 November

I will be back to help ID for GSB November into December. Cape Peninsula is my home. Western Cape has even more to offer. Africa needs identifiers!

https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2023/10/false-bay-garden-october-gsb-digital-detox.html

And today - when I didn't have a camera in hand - I saw

A very slender dragonfly. Wings neatly folded back along the body. Wings veined with dark 'spoons'
Then lifted a stone and disturbed a family of young cockroaches.
And saw pseudoscorpions!! Didn't realise they were quite so tiny.

Those pictures are in my head.

(not going to get to the September blog post till December)

A sand toadlet in the winter pools at Rondebosch Common

Hybrid Gladiolus planted at Silvermine, in olden days for horticultural eye candy, not today's more thoughtful locally indigenous.

On Elsie's Peak a lush RED Protea lepidocarpodendron - just lacking the dark pigment says Tony R. Makes a change from the anaemic blonde variants in other species.

https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2023/10/august-hikes-silvermine-elsies-peak-st-james-rondebosch-common.html

Winter in the Cape. From grey wet days when we scuttled home early as soon as we had seen our target species. To those magnificent days with a sparkling sapphire sky when we could enjoy the views.

https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2023/09/July-hikes-blackburn-blackhill-silvermine-simonsberg.html

https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/dianastuder/79449-700-cape-peninsula-species
700 on 4 May.
Another 50 added.
Still a long list of same old same old Unobserved species to gather up.

I guess I have to count the pair of unwanted pet koi dumped in the Otter Pond at Kirstenbosch as number 750 ;~[[

Would rather count the pink and yellow Carpobrotus.
Or the little egret who posed for a photo op while fishing for his lunch in a tidal pool.
Or the Nemesia or Moraea which were both new to me species.

Catching up now Mission Impossible is done.

https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2023/09/june-hikes-slangkop-cape-point-myburghskloof.html

Adding to my life list week by week. The ones we 'always' see that I forget to iNat. The - only a few obs on iNat. And an undescribed Crassula.

Kept pegging away and I am done. Have looked at all the Pre-Mavericks for the continent of Africa.

Some - looked at doubtfully and Mark as Reviewed Next.
Some - helped to RG. Extra points when they have, count them, very few obs!
Some - nudged along with whines and @mentions.

My URL says 4 355 obs reviewed. Not just light at the end of the tunnel. But OUT of the tunnel, back in daylight.

Back to the slow lane with Unknowns on the Cape Peninsula. Recharging batteries ahead of the Great Southern Bioblitz.

103.6 K IDs across iNat.

JP is rolling out a fresh update ahead of the Great Southern Bioblitz 24-27 November. So we can clear the decks and catch the next CV updates in September and October?

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pre-maverick/members?order=desc&order_by=created_at
If you are a member of the project, you can check for your own Pre-Mavericks.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual,needs_id&lrank=subtribe&project_id=156949
Use the dedicated ID link
then filter by taxon, location or your preferred taxon with location.

You can also filter your preferred ID slices by project to Pre-Maverick

• 50% of IDs across iNat come from just 545 identifiers!

I live and was born in Cape Town. Way down South in Africa. When I 'joined the 500' and started IDing it was for my familiar fynbos on the Cape Peninsula.

Then someone suggested broadening your focus, and I realised that while Peninsula plants have a dedicated team that clears them promptly. Step away from the university towns of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, and we need identifiers. There I can't keep up.

@bobmcd built the Low Growth Countries project. Filtered for his African countries (so excluding South Africa), and I was well and truly hooked.

@lotteryd set up Mission Impossible - August for Africa - help to ID our plants on the iNat Forum.
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/mission-impossible-identify-plantae-in-africa/43528

I often see iNatters say - but, I don't know African plants.

You can help us with cultivated plants - this arboretum tree with weird leaves comes from Australia. Melaleuca styphelioides. If you are an iNat taxon specialist, I will @mention you for help (but first must be good clear pictures worth claiming a few minutes from you, and second not too often)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176251464

What we need, is to move plants to a finer taxon level. Edging them from Unknown or broad planty taxa into the filters of taxon specialists - Acanthaceae @iain_derbyshire

I look at the next 30. That one, looks like Scabiosa gone to seed. My iNat bestie Computer vision suggests ... Don't know that, but I can find the common taxon level. Then. We wait.

We have a Mission Impossible project for interesting or difficult obs covering Africa from North to Sub-Antarctic South, from West (St Helena) to East.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mission-impossible-identify-plantae-in-africa

Journal posts for stats nerds at Flora of Africa.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-africa/journal

Since my focus is the problem children, I was startled that we start at 50% RG. The easy half, the low hanging fruit is picked. Some via the Pre-Maverick project. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pre-maverick

FYI and apologies for extra notifications in August.
Thank you for each African plant moved to a finer ID.

19 July---- 100K IDs (mostly Africa)
4 August 101K
13 August 102K