Camera and phones down - time to upload
Hi Everyone , in case you were not aware, there is a window to continue uploading your observations taken during the Great Southern Bioblitz timeframe. If you could complete by the coming weekend, it will give identifiers time to view and confirm observations before the final results. We look forward to seeing what species are added.
At this stage the western side of Lake Mac City looks as though it was not visited and there are so many great vegetation communities there - hopefully next year.
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One suburb at a time.... Blackalls Park is on the west! :)
And Coal Point, Killingworth and Fassi - I went there! Also Janet did some obs at Wangi.
BUT - I just looked at our map - there is a BIG empty area near Morisset, Cooranbong and Martinsville - So, yes some good potential there for next year. Would be nice to do a few walks around the foot of the Watagans.
I have several photos posted that have yet to be identified. Perhaps others have also. That is, there could be more records than we know of at present. Janet
My understanding is the organising team have allowed 10 days post Bioblitz to work through the IDs along with other iNaturalist community members.Any records that have yet to be verified are still coming up in the Lake Mac City's backyard project which is the ongoing project for the local government area.
Just wondering Margo, how many non council peeps came on board with the project?
Observer numbers at this stage = 20.
Margo I did not know about the Lake Mac City's backyard project, although when I visit it I discover some of my photos are there. Is it possible to join this project, or is it one that "captures" photos that are relevant? I belong to Bowerbird which was a pre-existing group that "came over" to iNaturalist a while ago. The Lake Mac site is exciting, so good to see so many posts there.
I am intrigued by Glinda's reference to"non council peeps" . . .
@janetgrevillea Lake Mac City's backyard project was set up to 'capture' any research observations within the local government area. It provides a good 'to go' site for anyone interested in citizen science and what has been seen locally. It is public- any iNaturalists can follow the project. It has been set up as an ongoing project rather than Bioblitz timeframes. It is amazing what has already been recorded - we all know there is so much more! All assistance with IDs will be welcomed. Unless noted otherwise, all observations have been taken in members' own time.
Hi @janetgrevillea, what I me3an is how many observers are not Council staff members. Margo works for Council. I do not. Thinking about logistics for next time. How do we get the community more involved?
@glindasglider Hi Glinda. That is a good question. The only publicity I saw about it (apart from an early notification on Bowerbird) was an article in the Lakes Mail, which I access only occasionally online. Now that the Mail is not being delivered to households, perhaps the Newcastle Herald? Since the Cooranbong-Morisset area seems to have been sparsely represented, I wonder if Avondale schools and university might be interested?
Update from organisers:
Everyone who was part of the BioBlitz still has until midnight October 8 (local time) local time to upload any observations that were made between September 25th – 28th onto the iNaturalist platform. We know that many of you just simply didn’t have the access or enough time to upload all of your observations during the BioBlitz, so we trust this is enough time to get on top of it.
Pro tip: If you have 100's of photos to upload, drag, and drop your photos straight in using the iNaturalist website
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/add-an-observation-nz
@janetgrevillea @glindasglider your feedback is appreciated. Regarding promotion of this project - media release at beginning of September which was taken up by papers and radio. Emails to potential stakeholders and ongoing promotion through social media (Facebook etc). Information was included in EcoAdvocate and Landcare newsletters, Council events and through libraries etc
This was the first year so it was always going to be an awareness raising activity driven by existing iNaturalist members and enthusiastic new ones. Our combined results provide some direction for the future and there may be an opportunity for a coordinated area champions to 'divide and conquer' in the future.
If you know anyone who has taken photos within the City over the timeframe, please encourage them to join and upload- they have until 8 October.
@margo_s Thanks Margo. Yes, I realise you did do a lot of publicity, sorry if I implied otherwise, but I am one of those people who don't access many of the popular media places so I appreciate that I just did not see/hear what was out there. Perhaps my contribution for next year will be to do word-of-mouth to others like myself. I have found this whole activity quite absorbing and it has been good to know of others in the area who value the life around us.
I agree with Janet. I could do a lot more to promote the Bioblitz to friends next year too.
Just FYI - I saw it first on the Lake Mac Ecoadvocate or Sust Neighbourhood newsletters.
Well considering it is the first one, I think you all did very well. I am glad to be involved.
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