sambiology's Journal

Every time you go out to Oliver Nature Park, be sure to bring a camera or your smart phone -- you never know what you might see! Each observation adds a tremendous amount of information on the various organisms that call this park home, and they provide information on how the park is changing over time as well.

Thanks for contributing! Keep it up! :)

The week long data surveys have begun at Tandy Hills! Come on out and visit the 160 acre natural area to see how many different plants, animals, and fungi you can observe. With the rains, it may be a GREAT time to look for fungi!

On Earth Day (Friday, April 22) and Saturday, there will be ample opportunities to learn about the various organisms that call Tandy Hills home.

To learn more about this exciting event, go here:
http://fortworthtexas.gov/news/2016/04/BioBlitz/

So, this week is the Tandy Hills BioBlitz, and I'm pretty excited about this Thursday - Saturday (21 - 23 April)... I'm setting a personal mission to observe as many different critters, fungi, and plants as my camera will allow -- so be forewarned of a clogged up dashboard of my pictures! :)

Also, an invitation -- whomever wants to come and join me in this observation craziness is totally welcome! :) On Thursday evening, I'll be out at Tandy Hills with a few moth lights from 8 until... Maybe midnight. On Friday, I'll be out at Tandy Hills most of the day and will do another night of mothing from 8 until I get worn out. Then alllll day Saturday, I'll be out rolling around in the flowers with the public. Want to come and join???

@dfwuw @aguilita @happynaturalist @brentano @kimberlietx @suz @cgritz @zooga1961 @itmndeborah @donaldhapp @andyk @bob777 @annikaml @bogslogger @brenledbetter @cari @charley @griff @janeaskew @jblinde @karinsaucedo @krstldwn @magatr0n @mustardlypig @naturemom @naturenut @ninamarieb @ntc @picklepastures @postoak @prairiepoint @rehb @ryan3 @sbetzen @troutlily57 @txlorax

Probably several others that I'm missing out -- but I sincerely hope you are all able to come and join in the festivities of observing EVERYTHING. :) It'll be a blast. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. BioBlitztastic! :)

Thanks to all that participated both physically and digitally (with identifying!) in the Tandy Hills BioBlitz! If you came to it, did you have a good time? We hope so -- a lot of work went into this event, so we hope that you all enjoyed it.

Results are coming in... If you took some photographs with a camera, please try to get them uploaded as soon as you can. This way, we can send this data out to all of the participants and those that are curious about this event sooner rather than later.

Here are the observations made at Tandy Hills:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=4985&subview=grid&verifiable=any

Here are the species that have been documented and the times these species had been observed:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=4985&subview=grid&verifiable=any&view=species

If you want to help out with some of the ID's of observations, PLEASE do! We need as much help ID'ing these organisms as we can get. Here's a link to the observations that need ID:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?photos&place_id=any&project_id=4985&quality_grade=needs_id&subview=grid&verifiable=any

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions on how this sort of event can be improved in the future, please leave a comment. Thanks for being a part of this BioBlitz! :)

Hey friends!

A funny message that a friend of mine told me at the Tandy Hills BioBlitz... "Hey Sam, I was worried about you. I noticed that you hadn't ID'ed the plant observations I made a while back. Is everything ok?" Haha! :)

I hadn't been ID'ing as many of the general observations from TX/rest of world -- I had been focusing most of my energy to ID'ing stuff from that particular bioblitz (Tandy Hills BioBlitz: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tandy-hills-natural-area-stratford-park).

Anywho, it does bring up a good point -- on bioblitzes/outings with others that you iNat with, I think it's a super important thing to give some feedback on observations. And heck, it feels great when someone looks at your observation and adds in an ID or verifies it! It essentially validates your observations, and that's a cool feeling. It engages the participant and he/she is much more likely to add more observations. I don't have any hard data on that, but I betcha it's true!

Also, something else, to anyone reading this... Please tag! Tag tag tag! You tag with an @ sign and then the screen name. Tag those folks that you consider experts. I'm not much of an expert, but please tag me if you want me to look at your observations or of observations of your friends. Tag away! Even if I can't ID it, I bet I can give a touch of guidance and even tag someone that I think may know.

If I've pestered you to death with my tagging, sorry! But consider it a compliment! :)

ID'ing is a blast, and I've learned so much from ID'ing. I may lots and lots of mistakes, but I dare someone to go into any collection and not find any mistakes. It's ok to mis-ID, although, I think it may be more wise to add broad ID's and encourage the observer to look at particular species. For instance, a genus or family ID for a plant is totally ok -- it engages the observer and hopefully inspires him/her/them to dig a bit for a good ID. Ooooor, it pops up on someone else's dashboard on the taxa they follow.

Anywho, ID'ing is fun and ID'ing is crucial -- that's the point of this journal post. :)