Scavenger Hunt Anyone?
iNaturalist is making a scavenger hunt for everyone this year. They will post a grouping to find and you will have a week to find it. These will be large enough groups to allow people to find them in most areas of the world. As they do this, they will post a blog to educate us on some of the various similarities in the group.
The first week Jan 3 - Jan 9 was Cormorants and their relatives. Of course I had posted 35 on Jan 1 but for some reason that didn't fall in the first week. Anyway on the last day, Jan 9th, I ventured out in the cold and was surprised to find them quite easily in Allen TX where I live.
The second week Jan 10- Jan 16 was Woodpecker and allies and we learn that they are have zygodacty feet which means 2 toes forward and 2 toes backward. That is an impressive word to make you look smart as well. I don't normally see these in my neighborhood so I made a trip to the Heard, a local nature sanctuary where I usually see them and was rewarded with 2 species.
I hope to be able to find most this year and keep up with @sambiology , @robberfly , @taogirl , @cosmicat , @aredoubles , and others I tend to see online, but some of these look challenging and since most days I'm inside working on my computer, I usually only have time on the weekends.
To see the critter calendar, check out this link: http://inaturalist.tumblr.com/post/136667296078/critter-calendar . It would be nice to be able to click on the picture and go to the project, but it doesn't seem to work that way. It seems to show up on your home page on the right side though so you can see the group for the week, but sometimes it is missing.
And I hope for those that stick with this we can get an inaturalist t-shirt or can at least figure out how to buy one. lol.
Happy Nature Huntting... @butterflies4fun