Exciting times as you explore iNaturalist this weekend we'll see lots of observations from around the world being added as we gear up to the City Nature Challenge! While our efforts this year won't influence the Boston efforts as they have in years past, it will still be excited to see what everyone here sees over the next four days! Let's go Brandeis and do some Citizen Science!
This past week in our project had many highlights - one of my favorite is the observation of a garter snake ball near campus. Never heard of a snake ball? It is part of the mating process for garter snakes where males swarm a female as she emerges from the winter. Nice behavioral observation! A complement to the species occurrence data for sure.
Check out the observation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41783795
Watching our project this week made me nostalgic for campus so I thought I would add a few highlights see in and around Waltham this week.
iNaturalist user @ldym21 definitely made a splash with an excellent Red Fox observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40940493) what a wonderful surprise! Be sure to always keep a safe distance from wildlife especially this time of year!
The next highlight comes from one of our Brandeis librarians iNaturalist user @sarahtheentwife who captured a Red-tailed Hawk practicing some predatory behaviors on a stick. Great action shot for sure! (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40920779)
Stay safe and stay healthy!
What an impressive set of observations! Keep safe while out iNat'ting and keep documenting what you see.
Did you see @yuhan5 spotted a black morph of the Eastern Gray Squirrel?
Check out their observation from Toronto here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40261985
And it looks like @mahalalahvis figured out how to upload a video clip - check out the Red-tailed Hawk soaring over campus! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40344169
The blue jay, or Cyanocitta cristata, is a bird you have probably seen (if not heard!) on campus.
It is easy to recognize due to its blue, black, and white coloring, and often a signature crest on its head. They are medium-sized for birds, similar in size to a robin. They are native to North America and are found both in forests and urban/suburban areas.
Blue jays have a diverse diet of insects, nuts, and fruits, but their favorite food is acorns! They can carry their food in their esophagus, allowing them to carry up to five acorns and store to eat later. Because of this, you will often find them near oaks throughout campus.
The most common of their calls is the distinct, noisy (and sometimes annoying) “CAW” sound. Fun fact: This call is supposed to mimic that of a hawk, perhaps to deceive other birds or to alert other jays of a hawk’s presence. They have been known to use this call around feeders as a means of driving other birds away. See more examples of this call and other sounds of the Blue Jay here.
Our first species of the week is the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis):
Also known as a “gray squirrel”, it is native to Eastern North America and is a tree squirrel. There is no sexual dimorphism in the species - males and females look alike! They have long bushy tails with gray, brown, and white hairs. Their bodies can have light to dark gray or brown fur, as well as tones of red. They can grow up to 20 inches long and weigh up to 1.5 pounds.
The squirrels can mainly be found in their dens, made of leaves, moss, and grasses, high up in deciduous trees. Females bear a litter of 2 to 3 offspring, which are born hairless and blind after a gestation period of 40-44 days.
Eastern gray squirrels have diverse diets. You’ll find them consuming acorns, nuts, flowers, or berries, so be sure to look for them by the trees on campus. They hide their food using a technique called scatter hoarding, so they have a strong sense of smell. They are also very vocal creatures! They can produce chatter and a raspy "mehr mehr mehr" sound, as well as other noises to convey affection or ward off predators. Listen to examples of other calls HERE: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/33905804.
linzynature
|
1 comentario
|
Deja un comentario
Hi everyone! Welcome to the 2020 Brandeis Bioliteracy Project! This project will document any and all observations of wildlife found on and around the Brandeis campus during the spring semester. This is Isaiah, the curator of the project and a TA for Conservation Biology. As the semester starts up, many of you will be using iNaturalist for the first time. As such, you may have some initial difficulty with identifying the species that you document. Do not worry! It will take time and practice to recognize the plants, animals and/or fungi that you see. While iNaturalist has a built in identification feature, it is not always accurate. At times, it can be completely off, suggesting plant species when you photographed a bird. As such, do not rely on it entirely and take its suggestions with a grain of salt. Below is a short guide of tools and resources that you can use to help you identify the species in the observations that you make.
First and foremost, a great resource to consult is last year's project. The 2019 Brandeis Bioliteracy Project is a complete list of all observations made last spring. If you go to the species tab, you can see a breakdown of the most commonly found species. Using search, you can break it down into categories like birds, plants, mammals, etc. With lots of high quality observation photos, this is a great place to look if you are unsure of a species' identification.
For plant identification, Go Botany is a really helpful website. They have a breakdown guide where you can enter some basic characteristics and it will give you a list of potential candidates. By answering more questions in the sidebar, you can narrow it down further.
For identifying birds, the Mass Audubon Society has some great resources on the common bird species of Massachusetts. The site also breaks it down by fall/winter and spring/summer birds. In general, they also have some great resources on other forms of wildlife like mammals, reptiles & amphibians, insects & arachnids, and more.
Cornell's Lab of Ornithology also has some great birding resources. They created an app called Merlin that is available on Android and iOS that is a fantastic resource for bird identification. You can enter some basic characteristics and location of sighting and it will give you some suggestions with great accuracy. Their website also has some high quality photos you can browse if you have some idea of what you are looking at.
For insect identification, Brandeis' own Even Dankowicz (@edanko) has created an amazing comprehensive guide. It covers a lot of different groups and families, but his section on flies (Diptera) is the most detailed.
The library also has some great naturalist guides that can be checked out. I am a big fan of Roger Peterson's field guides, but there are a lot that all focus on different groups of species (trees, birds, butterflies, etc.). They have full color illustrations and detailed notes on descriptions as well as similarities and differences from other species.
Finally, if you have any questions on iNaturalist, the project, an identification, or just want to say hi, you can reach out to me at ifreedman@brandeis.edu. I would be happy to talk or answer any questions that you have. I look forward to seeing all of your observations over the course of the semester!
