We are SO CLOSE to 30,000 records for the Lower Lake Erie CSI project page. We would like to hit that mark and move beyond it this month! Could you please take a moment and add your existing records to our project? It's very simple:

Once you are logged in, go to YOUR OBSERVATIONS (you can change the number of observations displayed per page at the bottom and display as many as 200 at a time)
Select BATCH EDIT
Select SELECT ALL
Select ADD TO PROJECT
Select LOWER LAKE ERIE CSI

This will add all of the pertinent observation currently displayed on your page to our project. You may get a pop up box that says: "This observation couldn't be added because..." Sometimes it may not be included because it falls outside of the project's geographical boundaries, or maybe because you have already added it to the project.

This data is very important to us. Many of the partners of this project, who are included on our project page, use the data to make resource management decisions in our natural areas. You observations make a difference. Please consider taking time to add your existing observations to our page.

And of course, keep finding new observations! Spending time discovering nature is a great way to beat the winter blues and reduce the stresses of the holiday season!
Thank you again for your participation.

November’s Record of the Month is an observation of a False Puffball (Enteridium lycoperdon) by Nathan Fortunato. False Puffballs are one of several types of slime mold found in our area. Although they resemble fungi, slime molds are actually amoeboid protozoans. They spend much of their lives in the multinucleated plasmodial stage, moving around like amoeba and engulfing bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic particles. During the sporangial stage of life, a fruiting body forms and spores are released. Nathan not only did a great job photographing the sporangium, but also included a micrograph of the spores. Very cool!

Thanks to everyone for helping us meet our goal of 30,000 records by the end of the year! Your contributions are truly appreciated. Keep up the great work!

You can view November’s Record of the Month at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2396787