Diario del proyecto Sarasota-Manatee EcoFlora Project (FL, USA)

Hello Everyone,

We are currently in third place in Florida for the City Nature Challenge with over 2,000+ observations at the time of writing this so keep up the good work! While you are out there recording so many plants and animals maybe give it a try finding our next ecoquest species, Monarchs and Milkweeds!

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is an easily recognizable and beloved butterfly species in North America. Monarchs are one of only a few migratory insects. They embark upon a 3,000 mile migration each fall, heading to the cool, high mountains of central Mexico, where they overwinter. They pass through Florida on their long journeys. Like all butterflies, monarchs have a different diet as larval caterpillars than as adult butterflies. In the caterpillar stage, they feed exclusively on plants from the milkweeds group of the Apocynaceae family. In the butterfly stage, monarchs feed on nectar from a variety of flowering plants, including milkweed. Find more on this Month's Ecoquest, Monarch's and Milkweeds! Any observations by May 3rd will be included in the City Nature Challenge as well.

The Monarch Butterfly perched on a host milkweed and the focus of this month's ecoquest! Photo by z7nikon

We have tallied up the winners for the City Nature Challenge 2021 in Sarasota and Manatee Counties below! We are also proud to say we have come in 3rd place in Florida with 4,333 observations, of over 1,175 species and helped support numerous projects including our EpiFlora of the US and Canada. The Alachua County and South Florida projects were ahead in the 10,000 observation level and neck and neck with Alachua winning by 100 observations. We had 153 observers and 273 identifiers support this achievement and we are very proud of everyone. If you have any photos you would like to show off please submit the observation link to ecoflora@selby so we can spotlight them on the Sarasota Manatee EcoFlora Page!

The top six observers and three identifiers have won some prizes ranging from Selby membership to native plant pots including species seen during the challenge. Future ecoquests and CNC's will also offer prizes from time to time so stay tuned at the Sarasota Manatee EcoFlora Project for details! Selby Staff who participated are not eligible for prizes but for the joy of winning against other staff members.

The winners are:

Observers:
crowleynaturecenter with 598 observations and 297 species!
lazynaturalist with 555 observations and 224 species!
ceherzog with 227 observations and 193 species!
Sandrae34242 with 160 observations and 119 species!
carol418 with 160 observations and 102 species!
jwilli with 112 observations and 56 species!

Identifiers:
jayhorn with 270 identified observations!
aliandbrice with 248 identified observations!
antoniw with 104 identified observations!

Thanks for participating everyone! We will see you again next year!

Photo from Z7nikon of a Dutchman's Pipevine.