Project Update - March 2022
Firstly, welcome to our new project followers; @kenr212 and @jonidu!
March signals the return of spring, the emergence of many hibernating animals, and warmer weathers that draw more of us back in to our parks! We had some lovely sunny, warm days, with excellent viewing opportunities for wildlife, and that meant much more observations for our project. We held a BioBlitz program at Osborn MetroPark on March 26th - unfortunately northern Ohio had switched back to winter for a few days, so there was little to see in terms of wildlife.
We added two new ‘places’ to the Erie MetroParks Project; Putnam Marsh and Putnam Extension. This added a few historical observations to the project, as well as a couple of new ones. These locations can be found here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/places/179857
https://www.inaturalist.org/places/179858
The project increased from 3492 to 3583 observations (+91), 1175 to 1191 species (+16), and 125 to 129 observers (+4).
Our number of Research Grade observations increased from 2180 to 2307 (+127). This equates to a Research Grade percentage of 64.39% (up from 62.43%).
In total, there were 77 observations added to the project within March 2022. The observations include 41 birds, 10 insects, 7 plants, 5 reptiles, 4 mammals, 2 amphibians, 2 mollusks, 2 fungi, and 1 crustacean.
Of these, there were 59 species recorded. Bald Eagle, Red-winged Blackbird, American Robin, and Eastern Bluebird were observed the most (3 times each), with several species observed on two occasions.
The observations came from 9 observers. The top five were @mikehensley (26), @martyndrabik (25), @briarrose777 (11), @flosi (3), @kenr212 (3).
The top observations of the month include:
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107822757
Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107804272
Digger Crayfish (Ceaserinus fodiens) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108057290
Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107985810
Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108057478
Thanks to all for contributing to the project. We will post another update next month. There is not a BioBlitz scheduled for April, so our next one will be on May 29th at Edison Woods. Come join us! Please also look out for our other upcoming programs via https://eriemetroparks.org/programs/
~ Martyn
