The 2017 Personal Bioblitz report is up online with all its juicy details and lists of winners in different categories, take a look below.

SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS to Ashley Goncalves who won the undergraduate category with nearly 500 species.

LINK: http://herbarium.rutgers.edu/personal_bioblitz_2017_results.html

First, all of you - we broke the records of most species (4874 species) and most observations (20823 species) for a Personal Bioblitz, with a very large margin. Sara Rall broke the record of most observations reported by a single participant (4907, about 25% of the total observations this year). This is amazingly impressive.

Here is a summary of the winners - details will soon be in a full report on our website. Note that the number of species have been corrected and are not correct on the project home page - most people have higher numbers than the home page states.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS - you all worked very hard and I hope you had great fun!

Top ten overall for species:

1. Annika Lindqvist (830) [citizen scientist from Texas]
2. Eva Hedström (685) [field biologist/chemist from Sweden]
3. Sara Rall (672) [citizen scientist from New Jersey]
4. Torbjörn Peterson (580) [herpetologist from Sweden]
5. John Beetham (502) [citizen scientist from New Jersey]
6. Lena Struwe (481) [botanist at Rutgers University, NJ]
7. Ashley Goncalves (470) [undergraduate student at Rutgers University, NJ]
8. Tyler Christensen (459) [undergraduate student at Rutgers University, NJ]
9. Julie Tuttle (452) [ecologist at University of North Carolina, NC]
10. Claus Holzapfel (451) [plant ecologist at Rutgers University, NJ]

Winners in separate categories for most species:
Undergraduate students: Ashley Goncalves (470)

Graduate students: Joni Baumgarten (271)

Staff, faculty (including retired): Lena Struwe (481)
Friends: Annika Lindqvist (830)
Family members: Eva Hedström (685)

Alumni: John Beetham (502)

Top ten overall for observations:

1. Sara Rall (4,907) [citizen scientist from New Jersey]
2. Annika Lindqvist (1,928) [physician from Texas]
3. Eva Hedström (1,275) [field biologist and chemist from Sweden]
4. Torbjörn Peterson (1,131) [herpetologist from Sweden]
5. John Beetham (962) [citizen scientist from New Jersey]
6. Susan Hewitt (954) [malacologist from New York, NY]
7. Erik Danielson (822) [citizen scientist from Staten Island, NY]
8. Lena Struwe (816) [botanist at Rutgers University, NJ]
9. Julie Tuttle (596) [ecologist at University of North Carolina, NC]
10. Alan Weakley (560) [botanist at University of North Carolina, NC]

Winners in separate categories for most observations
Undergraduate students: Ashley Goncalves (512)

Graduate students: Joni Baumgarten (536)
Staff, faculty: Lena Struwe (816)
Friends: Sara Rall (4907)
Family members: Eva Hedström (1275)

Alumni: John Beetham (962)

Most observed species - they are not all birds this year!

1. Garlic mustard (110 observations) - Alliaria petiolata, flowering plant
2. Common dandelion (107 observations) - Taraxacum officinale, flowering plant
3. Mugwort (91 observations) - Artemisia vulgaris, flowering plant
4. Multiflora rose (87 observations) - Rosa multiflora, flowering plant
5. Common greenshield lichen (87 observations) - Flavoparmelia caperata, lichen
6. Japanese honeysuckle (82 observations) - Lonicera japonica, flowering plant
7. Poison ivy (81 observations) - Toxicodendron radicans, flowering plant
8. American Robin (77 observations) - Turdus migratorius, bird
9. Wild garlic (75 observations) - Allim vineale, flowering plant
10. Hairy bittercress (70 observations) - Cardamine hirsuta, flowering plant
11. Eastern Gray Squirrell (68 observations) - Sciurus carolinensis, mammal
12. Common chickweed (68 observations) - Stellaria media, flowering plant
13. Eastern red cedar (66 observations) - Juniperus virginiana, conifers
14. Black cherry (66 observations) - Prunus serotina, flowering plant
15. American beech (63 observations) - Fagus grandifolia, flowering plant

When the full report is up, I will notify all of you via e-mail, Facebook group, and as a journal post on the iNaturalist project page.

Lena Struwe

Everybody, please make sure that your observation dates are between March 1 and May 15 2017 and nothing else.

Last date to upload observations to this project was May 22 2017 at midnight. (So no more additions of observations from the bioblitz this year to this project, even if you have things you did see. )
All observations need to be mapped and be ID'd to at least a major group.

I will go through and remove all observations that don't fit these criteria, so that we can get an accurate observation and species number for this year's, and compare it to previous years. Stay tuned for the final numbers and winners.

You have all been fantastic participants this year, what a record you just set!

Lena Struwe

Remember, tonight at midnight is the deadline for this year's Personal Bioblitz. After that you can't observe anything else to add to this project. You have a couple of more days to add photos and observations and identifications on already uploaded things, see post below (or earlier e-mail).

We have already broken the number of observations record for a personal bioblitz (HURRAY), and we have also broken the number of species reported in the last week. We should be able to get over 3500 species, but then you need report or identify those rare things nobody else has seen yet. And, will we reach 17000 observations? Maybe... lets see.

Congratulations everybody, amazing work.

Lena Struwe

IMPORTANT - as usual, the Personal Bioblitz 2017 ends at midnight at the end of May 15, but we will give you all an extra week (7 days, ending May 22) to upload and ID your photos from the time period March 1-May15. Starting June 1 I and my other curators will check that all observations were within that time frame, and that they are not of cultivated plants and pets (humans are still allowed). Also, if you haven't filled in the Google Doc to sign up for the bioblitz but already have the joined the iNaturalist project, PLEASE do that. We will check that you have joined officially before counting up the totals and winners.

The species and observations are gorgeously rolling in!!! Over 3150 species now... will we break the record?

All the rules and information you need are on the iNaturalist webpage, listed on the right. Keep observing nature!

Well, that didn't take long, two days after I posted the notice that we were not too far from breaking the record of number of observations for a Personal Bioblitz, we passed the magic number and now we are working on a new record.... Will we reach 13 000, 14 000, 15 000 observations this year? Only all of you that have unreported observations will know. Keep them coming!!! And go and and try to identify all your species that are not yet at genus or species level, if that is possible. Post your observations to ID forums, ask friends for help, go in and identify observations by others. Lets see if we can get the species record broken as well....

Happy species hunting,
Lena

As of today, about 3 weeks before the deadline on May 15, it looks like we will break the record of the most observations for a Personal Bioblitz. The old record is 12572 observations in the project (2016), and we already have 11762 reported this year.

For number of species we will see, the old record is 3437 (from 2016), and we currently are 2816 species. For this number, it is important that you report NEW species that nobody has reported before, so look at those fungi, lichens, and invertebrates :) Common plants and animals from far away places will also help with this.

I know many of you have observations that haven't been uploaded yet, so keep them coming. We are fewer participants this year, but more active.

Another fascinating thing that is happening is that the plants are all in the lead. The years when we have had a lot of undergrads involved as part of class participation, the birds were the most observed.

Currently (April 26, 2017):
MOST OBSERVATIONS
srall 3046 observations
annikaml 1355 observations
dendroica 636 observations
er1kksen 530 observations
vilseskog 521 observations

MOST SPECIES
annikaml 517 species
ashmgon 469 species
tchristensen 458 species
srall 410 species
jtuttle 373 species

MOST OBSERVED SPECIES

Common dandelion 72 observations
Garlic mustard 72 observations
Common greenshield lichen 69 observations
Mugwort 65 observations
Hairy bittercress 59 observations

Keep the species rolling in!

Best wishes,
Lena

Ready, set, go! Personal Bioblitz 2017, here we come.

Best
Lena