Third day of the BioBlitz

Good morning AppState BioBlitzers!

It looks like it's going to be another gorgeous spring day out there today - great weather for making some more observations! Where we stand this morning:

We've climbed to second in numbers of observations just slightly ahead of UNCW, but still trailing behind UNCG. They really got a head start on us this time around! We've recruited a few more active observers (37 for AppState as of this morning, compared to 40 for UNCG), but could use some additional help and up our game in terms of numbers of observations per person involved. Tell all your friends, teachers, classes!

Remember we'll have prices in the end for the most observations made and most species observed. That competition is still wide open. Our most active participants on the morning of day three are nicole_lowder and imlichenlucas sharing the top observer spot with 68 observations each and 52 and 50 species respectively. With the other universities included, the top 4 observer spots are going to three folks from UNCG and one observer at UNCW. Currently topping out the observer leaderboard across all campuses are jaajowele from UNCG with 126 observations of 94 species and iantb from UNCW with 104 of 81 species.

For numbers of species recorded, we are still trailing behind both other universities, so try to find stuff you haven't observed yet to add some more diversity to our species list. Our most observed species so far are golden ragwort (not a surprise - it's blooming everywhere on campus right now), joined by a bunch of introduced/invasive plants (ground ivy, purple deadnettle, garlic mustard, dandelions), our native star chickweed and Christmas fern, and for the animals deer and a water snake that apparently was sunning itself on a rock in Boone Creek and begging to have its picture taken while classes were out there. You can see an overview of what we found on the stats page for the project. Over half of the species we've observed so far are plants, followed by fungi and insects. For the vertebrates, birds are the most common so far.

I received a question about the map. This is based on the official boundaries of AppState properties. I know in some places it doesn't seem to match 100% with trails, fences and other markers on the ground (specifically the Greenway Trail and Greenway Connector right at Clawson-Burnley Park weave in and out of AppState property), but we're stuck with the official boundary map provided by the university. If your observations fall outside, they won't count, so check the map to see what areas are included. There are several AppState properties that are still "blank" so far this spring and could make great targets for a visit: There are just a few observations so far at Payne Branch Park and the old Watauga Highschool property (105 Lot), and Camp Broadstone doesn't have anything at all yet.

We are doing great in terms of observing true biodiversity and not recreating an inventory of landscaping plants! Last fall, we had a large number of observations of planted stuff around campus but this spring people are really avoiding those and finding all the wild things between them. Great job on that everyone!

Posted on April 19, 2023 12:14 PM by annkatrinrose