2018 UC Berkeley, Sagehen Creek Field Station BioBlitz's Journal

Here are some of the big discoveries made during this year's BioBlitz:

• Alex Gallandt and I collected a horsetail that--remarkably--is new to the basin list and to the herbarium collection.
• Amazingly, Ken-Ichi found a carnivorous plant that is new to the basin list (Utricularia minor), and I collected it for the herbarium.
• I found an Arnica (cordifolia) that is new to the list, though there was a note from 1975 that it was expected. Now I need to collect it next year when it's in flower!
• We finally learned what insect causes this weird gall on serviceberry, and this one on snowberry.
• Will Richardson got our first termite observation.
• Ken-ichi got these 3 | unusual | ladybugs.
• Two amazing ant-mimics showed up: a beetle, and a true bug! And a super-cool wasp mimic, too.
• I got some great #EcologyInAction stories from the obs, including the ant mimics, the Utricularia, and phoretic mites (more mites here).
• We got a ton of really excellent insect obs, including some | gorgeous | moths, and this magnificent parasitic Cuckoo Wasp (photo above). Overall, we really got some stunning insect photos from Tony Iwane, Ken-ichi Ueda, Eddie Dunbar, and others--I encourage you to look through them!

It's now officially Sunday, so the 4th Annual Sagehen BioBlitz has ended. Thanks to Lynn, Janet and Ashley for organizing, to all the expert naturalists who volunteered their time today, and to everyone who showed up to help us document life in the Sagehen Basin!

Even with only 14 people having uploaded observations so far, it looks like we have smashed the previous goalposts for number of total observations, and number of species observed. I can't wait to see what the numbers look like when everyone has contributed!

I created an umbrella project so you can compare the past 'Blitzes with this year. Check it out here.

Some of the day's great observations so far include this horsetail (Equisetum hymenale). Alex Gallandt and I sprinted all over looking for it: I noticed it this spring and only belatedly realized it was a new species for the list. This was my/our third trip to look for it, and today we finally succeeded in collecting the plant for the Sagehen herbarium.

This kind of discovery may not seem like a big deal until you realize that researchers and students have been aggressively collecting all over the Sagehen basin for 68 years now. How could they miss something this big and obvious? Maybe it's a new arrival?

There's no telling who will make the next big discovery, so get your observations uploaded soon, before you get busy and forget!

Time to download the iNaturalist app, make an account, and get familiar with how to make an observation and work with the website to get IDs and help others ID their observations, too.

There are videos to help you figure it out! Check out the other posts on our Project page for links.