Project Update - July 2021

Firstly, welcome to our new project followers; @carolr, @karen_zimmerman, @morgandh, and @phylomoore. Erie MetroParks employees @spiritualgreen (Digital Media & Information Technology Coordinator) and @tkauffman (Natural Resource Manager) have also joined the project.

When we opened the project last month, we had an initial 1794 observations representing 747 species from 97 observers. This increased to 2360 observations (+566) to the end of July, representing 885 species (+138) from 105 observers (+8). Many of these were from the last month (see below), but some represent slight changes in the project settings. We found out that some of our park observations were not counting due to their boundary boxes and accuracies. Erie MetroParks Naturalists Mike and Martyn went through some of their older observations and increased the accuracies to ensure observations were appropriately included in the project. It might be worth checking some of your observations to ensure they too are included, especially if they are near a park boundary.

We also found that observations with hidden coordinates (e.g. threatened or protected species) were not automatically included. Users have to manually allow projects to view these by trusting the project. To do this, select 'Your Membership' on the project page, then select 'Yes, for any of my observations'. This is important to allow us to view the threatened and protected species that have been found within the parks.

In total, there were 554 observations for July 2021. The observations include 425 insects, 71 plants, 14 fungi, 12 arachnids, 8 amphibians, 7 birds, 6 gastropods, 5 mammals, and 2 reptiles.

Of these, there were 325 species recorded. The joint most observed species were the Gem Moth, Confused Eusarca Moth, and Common Gluphisia Moth. Each of these were observed on 7 occasions.

The 554 observations came from 13 different observers. Our top 5 observers for the month were @mikehensley75, @martyndrabik, @phylomoore, @crosscountrycoach, and @morgandh.

The top observations of the month include:
Red-fringed Emerald (Nemoria bistriaria) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86414870
Pustulated Carrion Beetle (Nicrophorus pustulatus) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87244238
Holarctic Treefrog (Hyla spp) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88858394
Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87538577
Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus griseocollis) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87536182
Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89179918

Thanks to all for contributing to the project. A journal entry such as above will be posted every month. Please also look out for our upcoming programs via https://eriemetroparks.org/programs/

~ Martyn

Posted on 02 August, 2021 14:05 by martyndrabik