Nature of Acton and Boxborough April 2024's Journal

Hi everyone, thank you for all your contributions this past weekend. Right now we have over 400 observations of 274 species by 16 observers. This included lots of plants and birds, but also salamanders and a watersnake. Thank you to everyone who contributed. All of your observations from April 26 to 29 contribute to the Boston Area City Nature Challenge tally. But, we can keep making observations, I kept this project open to May 6. Of course, you can contribute your observations any time!

Hi everyone, I opened up the window a few days early to get you started on making observations. Looks like we have a few people making observations already! Looking forward to a nice weekend of exploring.

Hi everyone, almost 1,000 observations in the last two weeks, despite rainy weather and bad air quality. Some interesting findings showing up lately, including a watersnake, toads, and many kinds of mushrooms.
Thanks again to everyone for contributing, especially some of our superobservers!

Hi everyone, I am really enjoying checking out all the observations that people have made, including some recent ones of a red fox, killdeers and a pileated woodpecker. There are also lots of different kinds of flies, that I didn't know anything about including Bee-mimic Robber Flies and the Ornate snipe fly. (Love those names!) There are many sounds uploaded as well, for frogs and birds, which is pretty cool.
Only a few more days left in the Bioblitz! Thanks to everyone for contributing.

We have over 300 observations, thank you to everyone who is contributing!
I see that we have several observations of snapping turtles, a bobolink, and a running crab spider (never heard of that!).

Thank you to everyone for getting out there.

Hi everyone, we are off to a great start today, the weather is beautiful and clear, although it will be getting hotter this afternoon. I think rain is finally in the forecast. A few tips for identification.

1. Take more than one picture. Sometimes it takes more than one picture for iNaturalist to identify a species. If you can take a closeup and a profile, that sometimes helps.
2. Cultivated/captured. When you make an observation, iNaturalist includes an option for cultivated or captured species. If, for example, you know that a rhododendron in your yard has been cultivated, it would be good to note that.

3. Sounds. I have been experimenting with uploading sounds. You can actually make a sound observation, without taking a picture of the object, e.g. a bird, and identify the species. Alternatively, you can identify a bird using Merlin (another app), and upload the sound later on, if you have a picture of the bird, using the phone or a digital camera.
   There might be better ways to sync the sound and the image, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Good luck!

Hi everyone, this is Matt Liebman, the project site administrator. Thank you for signing up, we have 24 people signed up, which is very exciting. The window opens tomorrow so start scoping out sites. There are so many conservation areas in Acton and Boxborough to explore. You can upload pictures from your smartphone, or your digital camera. And, you can also upload sounds too. If you have any interesting observations, feel free to post them in the journal. Or, if you are organizing a walk with a group of people, you can post that too.
See you around!