Diario del proyecto Erie MetroParks

This month was Citizen Science Month, and we had a Citizen Science Month Challenge at Erie MetroParks, challenging our community to submit as many observations to iNaturalist as possible. The improved weather, growth of spring wildflowers, and increased activity of wildlife in general, encouraged more people to spend time outside and contribute to the project. Due to the improved weather (and the aforementioned challenge), we welcomed a few new members to the Erie MetroParks iNaturalist Project, so we are now up to 52 members. Welcome to @dynastycle, @leslie95978, @taylorse, and @jyn417. As always, if you know of anyone that may be interested, please direct them to our page!

The Citizen Science Month Challenge ran from April 1st to April 30th. The community dived in, resulting in our most successful month ever. We had more observations, more species observed, and more observers than any previous month! @jenniferc3 submitted the most observations, winning the challenge, while three additional winners were chosen randomly. Congratulations to @crosscountrycoach, @bluebeehive, and @samantha_smith1!
 
The Project increased from 12219 to 14399 observations (+2180), 1979 to 2132 species (+153), and from 202 to 215 observers (+13).
 
Our number of Research Grade observations increased from 8292 to 9110 (+818). This equates to a Research Grade percentage of 63.27% (down from 67.86%).
 
Of the 2178 observations added to the Project this month, observations included 1305 plants, 206 fungi, 205 insects, 99 birds, 66 amphibians, 52 mammals, 50 cephalopods, 50 arachnids, 23 reptiles, 4 fish, and 2 slime moles.
 
Of these, there were 503 species recorded. Eastern red-backed salamander was observed the most (44 occasions), followed by mayapple (34), Virginia springbeauty (30) and garlic mustard (29).
 
The observations came from 31 observers. The top five observers were @jenniferc3 (674), @lakeerie (478), @hroni (453), @llsparks (93), and @yinglingfam (75).
 
The top observations of the month include:
North American river otter (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/208167937) by @taylorse
Northern slimy salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212263149) by @hroni
Gray ratsnake (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211590078) by @dynastycle
Woodland ground beetle (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205272452) by @martyndrabik
Low pricklypear (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205927349) by @andrea3975

Thank you to everyone for contributing to the Project.
 
~ Martyn