Our annual bioblitz ran from April 24 through May 3. A bioblitz is when participants try and observe as many species over a set amount of time. For this event, we used the app iNaturalist, where observers submit their data. iNaturalist is a community-based science app where users submit pictures, sounds or notes on a species, and a predictive feature in the app suggests what they may have seen. Other users, such as experts in the field, also suggest identifications.
Thank you to all of those who participated. This year we reached a new level of participation! We saw a 6% increase in observers and a 303% increase in bioblitz project followers. Over 300 different species were observed. This included a wide range of plants, animals, birds and insects. The most observed species were American robin, common star of Bethlehem and garlic mustard. There was a total of 697 observations that were identified by over 130 people. One of our favorite observations was actually one of the first submitted, and this was a bald eagle that was sighted in Tacony Creek Park! Some other exciting observations include a few rose-breasted grosbeaks, a black swallow-tail and wood ear fungus.
Don’t forget you can check our Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Wildlife project to see what’s in our watershed throughout the year. We are also asking users to submit observations at our restoration sites. We have created specific project pages for these locations: McKinley Elementary School, Abington Junior Highschool , Rock Lane Park, Ethel Jordan Park, Abington Friends School, Conklin Pool. We know watershed restoration projects also create great habitat. Help us to document this by going out to our restoration sites and exploring!
Contact Ryan@ttfwatershed.org for more information.
