Welcome + Links

Hi everyone, there are only a few hours left until ID-blitz December 2021 begins. If you are tagged in this post, you joined the project in time to become an official participant! Woo-hoo!

Now what? We have a count-down running on the project home page that you can watch to see when the event begins. Once the count-down has reached zero, start identifying! You do not have to do anything special for your IDs to be counted, just do your usual thing or check out the links below.

As you are identifying, if you see an observation that's particularly wow-worthy, you may add it to this project to share it with other participants. Please do not add more than a few observations total to the project--we are not using the project to count IDs so there's no need to add everything you see.

Unknowns

Tomorrow right when the event starts, I will note the total number of unknowns in the iNaturalist database. At the end of the event, we can see how much the total went down!

To ID unknowns, you can use this link here. (It's a bit slow to load, so if you don't see anything right away, be patient.) This link is provided for convenience, but you're welcome to make changes to it or use an entirely different search. For example, if you want to see a particular part of the word, add a place filter after you open the link. I have it showing observations older than Oct 31st to avoid stepping on new uploads. However, I don’t plan to worry about the observation age when noting start/end numbers or participation totals.

Kingdoms

Tomorrow right when the event starts, I will note the total number of observations ranked exactly at kingdom level. At the end of the event, we can compare the new total to the old total. What do you think, will the number go up, because we are putting a lot of coarse IDs on unknowns? Or can we make the number go down?

To make IDs, you can use this link. If you'd like to see one kingdom at a time, type it into the search box after you open the link. You may also add geographic filters or whatever else you like.

Here's another cool link, showing observations at exactly kingdom Plantae that do have at least one lower ID.

Or if you prefer, here are observations exactly at Kingdom Plantae that also have at least one ID of Tracheophyta.

If you'd like help making a custom link, let's talk about it in the comments below.

Collaboration

To pull up observations recently ID’d by other participants, click here. If you have the skill to ID to lower levels, I encourage you to use that link and refine the community taxon as you are able. It will be nice for people sorting unknowns to see some observations get refined quickly. Technically this pulls up all observations ever ID’d by participants, not just those done during the event, but I do have it sorting by recently updated. If you would like to see specific taxa or geographic areas, add those filters after opening the link.

Questions?

If anything is unclear, please ask in the comments below. Thanks everyone and have fun tomorrow!

@abhijatshakya, @annkatrinrose, @antrozousamelia, @arboretum_amy, @avocat, @beetle_mch, @blastcat, @bouteloua, @caja-manga, @calopogon, @dallonweekes, @danieldas, @deboas, @dianastuder, @driftlessroots, @egordon88, @elschongar, @emilyearthquake, @fluffyinca, @fseichter, @fuzzyspider, @glisby, @hederahelix, @helmwige, @ionam, @jbecky, @jmillsand, @jonathan_mack, @kevinfaccenda, @kitbeard, @kristalwatrous, @lappelbaum, @leahmfulton, @lera, @lisa_bennett, @lothlin, @lynnharper, @machi, @marina_gorbunova, @mchs_citizen_science_club, @mmmmbugs, @naturejeanne, @navaneethsinigeorge, @ncb1221, @odonut, @paloma, @peakaytea, @rainhead, @richyfourtytwo, @roysh, @sambiology, @sdjbrown, @sue1001, @teawren, @trh_blue, @trscavo, @valentinamgn, @vireyajacquard, @wildskyflower, @wkostick, @zoe_clark1

Posted on December 9, 2021 03:34 AM by arboretum_amy