sambiology's Journal

The urban ecosystem is alive. We daily see habitat loss close to our own backyards, but as Jeff Goldblum says, “Life finds a way.” In the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, biodiversity is well worthy of celebrating. On September 5 – 11, 2021, we held the second annual “Fall Socially Distant BioBlitz,” and once again, we saw tens of thousands of iNaturalist observations of thousands of species from thousands of participants! In other words, it was a great success! We can also compare the results this year to last year – there are some noticeable differences.

Before we get into the results, let’s talk about relevancy. What good is this information and does it mean anything for conservation, education, or habitat management? When a group of folks dedicate time, energy, and knowledge to documenting the organisms that exist here in the city, we can translate this into meaningful change. First of all, we personally change as we learn. Even if it’s learning the name of one of the pesky plants that keeps getting in our flower garden, or an insect noticed for the first time, we gain knowledge and this can be shared with others. Next, we can use this to find out places where biodiversity thrives. There are some areas in DFW that are overflowing with wildlife habitat, and we’ve got the data to show it! Finally, we can collectively convince land managers (city council, park board, HOA’s) that nature matters to a growing amount of people in DFW. It’s well worthy to conserve and manage for nature and this growing constituency of naturalists. The results from this socially distant bioblitz add imperial evidence to this cause. Let’s use this!

So, here are some numbers from this year:
27,401 iNaturalist observations of 2325 Species from 1237 observers identified or verified by 737 others (these numbers may fluctuate a bit as more upload or ID).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fall-socially-distant-bioblitz-dfw-urban-ecosystem-2021
Last year, here are the numbers for the week:
35,900 iNat observations of 2648 species from 1243 observers identified or verified by 1199 others.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fall-socially-distant-bioblitz-dfw-urban-ecosystem

You may notice that we didn’t get quite as many observations or species, but the participation level was magnificent! Over 1200 naturalists and nature enthusiasts went outside to make observations this week. Let’s celebrate that!

This year, here were the 10 most observed species:
Gulf fritillary, American bumble bee, cedar elm, giant ragweed, yellow garden spider, eastern pondhawk, late boneset, poison ivy, prairie false foxglove, and sugar hackberry.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fall-socially-distant-bioblitz-dfw-urban-ecosystem-2021?tab=species
Last year, we didn’t document nearly as many gulf fritillaries (there were the 203rd most documented species!) nor prairie false foxgloves (the 55th most documented species). There were some other fluctuations in the top species as well. Take a look at last year’s top species: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fall-socially-distant-bioblitz-dfw-urban-ecosystem?tab=species

This year was filled with some crazy cool finds! First of all, there were some daily challenges that several people completed. If you did, way to go! Hopefully they were sufficiently challenging, and the challenges provided some extra incentive to go out and explore. Here are a few of the completed daily challenges:

5 Sep: Raccoons have some really great tracks: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93757490

6 Sep: Spore prints – for some mushrooms, it’s good to leave them for a bit on a white sheet of paper to see the color of the spores: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94153460
7 Sep: All spiders have multiple eyes and they’re all somewhat different! Here’s a really cool starbellied orbweaver: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94040918
8 Sep: Green briar name (Smilax): “Smilax gets its name from the Greek myth of Krokus and the nymph Smilax. The story is varied, but here’s one version: Their love affair was tragic and unfulfilled because mortals and nymph weren’t allowed to love each other. For that indiscretion, the man, Krokus, was turned into the saffron crocus by the goddess Artemis (because she, too, was having an affair with Krokus but as a goddess that was okay). Smilax, a woodland nymph, was so heartbroken over Krokus’ reduction down to a flower that Artemis took godly pity on her and turned Smilax into a brambly vine so she and Krokus could forever entwine themselves.” https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93878242
9 Sep: I didn’t realize that pigeons have the ability to smell! Vultures and gulls do, but did you know that pigeons do as well?!? https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94261719
10 Sep: Finding a purple insect is hard! But several still did. Here’s a pipevine swallowtail that has lots of the primary colors as well: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94600186
11 Sep: I love seeing the roots of invasive species. One of the vilest, Bermuda grass, is seen with some roots here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94518668

Here are just a few of the other observations that I marked as being particularly interesting:

Texas wasp moth: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93749922
Brown anole - an invasive species to keep an eye on! These do outcompete the native green anoles: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93756122
Feather legged spider is nonvenomous: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93773289
Mourning warbler window strike project: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93868016
Egg parasitoid: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93896747
Beezlebub bee-killer - this insect has been making a ‘move’ to further north – I’d only seen it down in the hill country in the past, but they’re becoming a bit more common here in DFW: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94014169
Strepsiptera – twisted wing flies that are parasites of paper wasps: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94256963
Chestnut-sided warbler – a fun migrant: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94518193
Beautiful little moth (skullcap skeletonizer moth): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94595632
Cicada parasitizing beetle that can lay up to 17,000 eggs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94340396

I was able to look at around 20k of the observations, and there were so many tremendous ones! I learned a massive amount, especially from the challenge of looking up the scientific names and their meanings. There were so many cool observations that were new to me too! I love seeing all of these – it inspires me to continue to explore even at the little local parks.

Speaking of which, there are two ongoing bioblitzes! One in the City of Fort Worth Parks (https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/news/2021/08/PARD-Pollinators) and another in the City of Dallas Parks (https://www.dallasparks.org/476/Urban-Biologist)! Do try to spend some time making some observations at these city parks!

Also, mark your calendars for next year’s City Nature Challenge: April 29 – May 2. We’ll do another ‘socially distant bioblitz’ next fall too: September 4 – 10.

Overall, hopefully you were able to engage with the outdoors during this week… You learned the names of some of your natural neighbors… You daily celebrate the nature that exists all around us. Keep it up!

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please let me know! Hope to see more of your observations on iNaturalist!

Sam Kieschnick
Urban Wildlife Biologist, DFW
Texas Parks and Wildlife
sam.kieschnick@tpwd.texas.gov
@sambiology on iNaturalist
214 215 5605

P.S. Some folks were mentioning that their app was filling up too much space on the phone. One fix for this is to log out and then log back in – this clears your cache and frees up space on your phone. Make sure that you’ve uploaded all observations on your phone before you do this though!
Also, the app is a great tool for collecting data, but you’ve really got to go to the website to get the most out of iNaturalist.

SAVE THE DATE
October 8, 2021 at 6pm, A Virtual Event

https://travisaudubon.org/2021-vecal

2021 CONSERVATION HERO GREG LASLEY
AUSTIN, Texas– Travis Audubon announces the selection of the 2021 Victor Emanuel Conservation Award Hero.

Every year Travis Audubon honors an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to promoting environmental conservation, education, or advocacy. These heroes are recognized at our annual Conservation Award Celebration, named after legendary birder and conservationist Victor Emanuel. The honorees are influential leaders who have inspired us to greater community involvement and environmental awareness through their work.

The Board of Directors of Travis Audubon is honored to announce that the 2021 Conservation Hero is Greg Lasley of Dripping Springs, Texas. The Board unanimously agreed that no one is more qualified for this award than Lasley, who accepted the honor before his death on January 30, 2021. Lasley will be honored posthumously at the virtual 12th annual Victor Emanuel Conservation Award Celebration on October 8.

Greg Lasley was a force in birding and conservation for more than forty years, but he was a student of nature all his life. He began with snakes—venomous snakes—and as a teenager, worked in the herpetology collection at the Atlanta Zoo milking the snakes for antivenom. Lasley kept snakes until his mid-twenties. He was even a falconer for a time, but it wasn’t until he moved to Texas and saw Painted Buntings at his backyard feeder that Lasley became a birder.

Everyone who knew Greg Lasley felt he was one of the most caring and generous people they had ever met. Those characteristics were evident in his work as a policeman and as a naturalist. Even before retiring as a Lieutenant with the Austin Police Department in 1997, Lasley had dedicated himself to wildlife photography. Lasley first pointed a camera at a bird in 1971 (a Horned Lark at Great Salt Lake, Utah) while he was in the U.S. Air Force. Since then, several thousand of his images have been published in hundreds of books, magazines, and websites. In 2000, he and photography partner Larry Ditto won the prestigious Valley Land Fund South Texas Shootout contest. His legendary photographic skills served as a model of technical craftsmanship and opened a window to the complexity of bird behavior and the natural world. A self-described “birder gone bad,” Lasley’s expertise as a naturalist, photographer, and mentor extended far beyond ornithology and into the world of dragonflies, damselflies, moths, and many other creatures.

Over the last decade, Lasley was a prodigious contributor to iNaturalist, the online citizen-science database, and he recognized the immense value of such efforts to understand the natural world. Lasley verified more than 450,000 observations from around the world, gaining a reputation as not only a knowledgeable naturalist but also as a skilled and patient teacher. Over the last forty years, few people have promoted birding and conservation in Texas—and the world—more than Greg Lasley.

Lasley gathered and shared data on birds in many other ways as well. If he came across a dead bird, he took it to Texas A&M to be part of their collection. He participated in various Audubon Christmas bird counts, a birding tradition that, over the last hundred years, has gathered more data on birds than any other effort in the world. His long editorship of the Texas column for American Birds magazine (and its various incarnations, 1970s-1990s) added keen insight into the data collected by Texas birders. In the late 1970s, he almost singlehandedly re-invigorated the Texas Bird Records Committee of the Texas Ornithological Society, elevating that committee and its work. Throughout his life, Lasley kept a list of every bird he saw and the numbers of each species and submitted this huge amount of data to Cornell’s eBird project. This data helps raise awareness of conservation needs, and Lasley devoted his life to sharing such data about the natural world.

Perhaps Lasley’s greatest conservation legacy is the countless people he inspired and encouraged to learn about the natural world. Lasley was a role model and inspiration to many—especially those just getting started in birding, wildlife identification, and photography. A true ambassador for birding in Texas, he was a kind and welcoming teacher, always willing to share his knowledge and skills. As a long-time birding-tour leader with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, he had a direct role in introducing birders to the beauty and diversity of birds both in Texas and around the world. Greg Lasley is a model for us all when considering the impact that just one life can have on so many.

Lasley’s accomplishments will be celebrated virtually at the 2021 Victor Emanuel Conservation Award Celebration on October 8. We hope you will join us for this wonderful celebration of Lasley’s passion and dedication. Sponsorships will be available soon.

Rules:
Observations must be of a plant with a photo and must be in Texas during Oct 20 - 27. If cultivated, observation must be marked as cultivated.

How can I participate?
It's easy! Just download iNaturalist on smartphone, create username and password. You can also go onto the website www.iNaturalist.org and create a username and password. You can use a camera if you don't have phone; just put the observations on iNat using the computer. Use the app to make observations, but go to the website to look at the data!

Do I need to join the project?
No! Any and all observations of plants made in Texas during October 17 - 23 will automatically be added to the project. You don't have to do any extra steps to add observations to the project.

How can I see the progress of the bioblitz?
Search this page that aggregates all of the observations that match the criteria (plants, Texas, photo evidence). You can filter results by your county/region or by individual or plant family or anything else.

Can I observe a native plant that I put in my landscape?
We would rather you observe plants that are wild and not planted... iNaturalist is best used for natural distributions of organisms, so if we do observe cultivated/planted, they need to be marked as cultivated or captive. After all, we do have elephants in Dallas -- but they're captive. So, observations of cultivated plants need to be marked as cultivated.

Why should non-natives or invasives count to this bioblitz?
So, this data is still important to know! This project is for documenting all wild plants.

Where should I go to make observations?
The best place to go includes those wild spaces like no-mow zones or 'weedy' spots. You can observe plants from around your home or roadside (no trespassing allowed!!!). Public parks are ideal - observations made in these public spaces can guide management.

How else can I help?
One of the most important things you can do is help with the identifications! If you know some plants, take a look at the observations that folks are making around Texas:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&place_id=18&taxon_id=47126
This is best done on the computer/PC. You need to have an iNaturalist account to identify observations.
Also, if you notice that folks are documenting cultivated/planted plants, you can mark these as cultivated/captive on the identify screen.