The first 24 hours of this bioblitz on March 1, 2015, yielded 444 observations of 208 species uploaded by 21 participants. And that on a snowy, cold day in New Jersey. The numbers might change of course, because observations from today might be uploaded later, and some species might get reidentified.

And, just for your information - you OWNED iNaturalist today. Four of the top five uploaders today were from our group, worldwide.

Keep it up everybody!
Lena Struwe

And we have seen 250 species together! And so far the plants are winning over the birds, but just barely. 109 plants, and 102 birds, despite being snowy and icy March.

Day 4 has just started on the Bioblitz. Status: over 1100 (!!!) observations, about 300 species, and the undergraduates are leading the species observation league by far. But no worry, faculty and grad students are probably taking the long, slow, and steady route, right? smile emoticon 90 participants now, so I bet we will reach 100 within a week or two. This is too fun to miss.

Hi everybody - here is a reminder about which observations that can count:

We want wild/naturalized species, preferably seen in nature, where they live. If you identify an older collection (shell, seed, insect, whatever) then you need to mark down the original place and date that this organism was found. In each case you need to put in the description why this species should count towards the bioblitz (since the date will be out of range).

If you don't know the original collection site, then you need to mark it as 'not wild/naturalized'. If you think your organism might not be in its original location, same there (due to cultivation och collection, etc).

Also, you can only count species that you have identified to species level during the bioblitz. If you knew that the collected specimen was from that species before the bioblitz, then you can't count it and don't put it in the bioblitz group (but you could upload it to iNaturalist).

Cultivated and domesticated species, pets, and food doesn't count this year, the rules have changed since we use iNaturalist now. The personal bioblitz is about discovering and identifying species during the bioblitz time frame. There is plenty to discover everywhere, so no despair - just look for tiny arthropods and you will be golden (if you can provide good, sharp photos).

The rules are outlined in the manual which you can download from the Rutgers bioblitz webpage.

Finally, the personal bioblitz curators will start to remove observations that do not fit these criteria. If you think an observation really should be included, then fix the observation and its description, and send the link to us and we will reconsider. There is no lack of species to see - we are over 300 now and over 1200 observations.

Best
Lena

...and they keep coming, despite snow, bitter cold, and ice - talk about perseverance! Amazing finds everybody and thank for helping each other out with identifications, comments and advice.

If you wonder why you might have location names but no map, try to hit enter after your location name and the dot on the map should show up. Then you can move the dot on the map if it is incorrectly placed, just drag and drop it to the right place.

Hi everybody - we love when you see small things like lichens, mosses, smaller plants, bugs, insects, and other critters, but if you want to help to ID these to species or genus, you need to provide good photos. Photographing small things are sometimes not easy, but there are some hints:

Even a cheap digital camera usually has a macrosetting, use it. Make sure you are not too close so that the photo becomes blurry.

If you use a smart phone or tablet, get a clip-on macrolens - they are under $10 on Amazon, or use a regular handlens that you hold in front of your phone/tablet.

Example for clipon lens from Amazon (not endorsed): WONBSDOM®3 in 1 Universal Clip on Lenses Kit Black) with FishEye Lens+Macro+Wide Angle Lens
Example for handlens from Amazon (not endorsed): SE - Loupe - Triplet, LED Illuminated, 10x, 21mm

Crop your photos: before uploading them to iNaturalist, use a simple editing program (or edit directly on your cameras/phones/tablets), to crop out the areas around your species that are not relevant. Better to show exactly what you are talking about here. For example, a picture of a tree trunk might have 3 lichens on it, so take the photo and make 3 photos out of it, so we know which organism you mean.

And, when taking photos light is always important. When you use extra lenses for macro, a simple little LED flashlight will help you a lot in getting better photos.

A clean background is always nice for sessile or dead critters - for living, moving ones, you can sometimes get them into a jar so it will be easier to take a photo then.

Take photos from several directions - top, side, bottom! Often characters are only visible from one directions.

Good luck!
Lena

And so we pass 3000 observations, which is nearly half of what we had during the whole bioblitz last year! And we are now over 600 species, and soon we will probably have 1000 with the Costa Rican and other spring break additions that will come in soon. Remember to try to report both the common species that you know, plus those strange critters and plants that you have no idea what they might be. Keep all the species coming, and it is so exciting to see what you all are finding. I heard some rumors about a predicted snowstorm in NJ this coming weekend, but that just cannot be true. Spring should be here, with its whole load of new species to discover.

Lena (currently in Costa Rica building up a GIANT list)

Hi - I have added a bunch of new curators to this bioblitz project - if you got a message about this, then that simply means that your observations will be immediately included on the species list, and if you agree with other people's observations then those will be added automatically to the checklist. Any questions, just e-mail me (Lena Struwe) or Nick Lorusso.
Keep the species coming! /Lena

I have done some manual editing of the total checklist for the project since there were some species or higher ranks included in the automatically generated checklist that 1) didn't have any observations any longer, 2) were counted both at the species level and at higher ranks, etc. That is why the checklist total dropped. It seems like that iNaturailst generates the checklist automatically as we go along, but doesn't update it when ID's change or become more precise. No problems, but we need to keep an eye on it, curators!

Lots of invertebrate groups are missing, same for algae, protists, and variious small critters and plants. There is plenty of species to be added in the vertebrates, fungi, and plants too, so keep up the great work..

Best, Lena

Just uploading your observations to the project website on iNaturalist might not be enough to get them onto the total count towards the bioblitz. Ths is how it works:

To be counted for the Bioblitz, you need to upload observations to the Bioblitz project, then each observation need to be either 1) Research Grade, or 2) have people that have agreed with your ID of your observations.

1) Research grade observations have a photo, are geolocated on a map, and have at least one person that agrees with your taxonomic identification.

2) Agreeing with identifications - this is easy. You see what other people have uploaded and agree with the species observations that seem reasonable and correct. We have about twenty bioblitz curators that are helping with this, but we have had an overwhelming load of observations :) Over 3000 now... and it keeps growing.

How do you agree with an ID? You click on the observation, check the species name, photo (if there is one), and the map, and then you can click 'Agree' if you agree with the observation and think it is correct. Please also mark things you don't think are wild or naturalized by checking the box No under that question.

So, all of you participants, go in and help by looking at the observations reported from the taxonomic groups you know and then help out by agreeing with ID's and observations. If you do not agree or are unsure about the ID, you can comment in the box under each observation, or provide an alternative ID. You can also message a particular person in iNaturalist if you have a comment you don't want to make public comments.

Remember, this goes for everybody. My observations don't count towards the list either unless someone agrees with them. And, do not just 'auto-agree' with observations to help out your best friend, OK? :)

Any questions, just keep e-mailing me. /Lena