33 days - Garven 14PA43, eskers and the floodway

Garven 14PA43 is shared by the City of Winnipeg and the neighbouring East St Paul and RM of Springfield. The Floodway cuts the square in two east west sections. Large esker ridges quarried for gravel and sand are located in this square . Parks in this area include Transcona Bio-reserve, Kilcona Park (Harbourview), George Olive Nature Park and Silver Springs Park.

At the time of posting, 899 observations had been uploaded by 82 observers led by @seraphinpoudrier and @carolannvermeer. 309 species have been identified so far--plants (143 species) in the lead, with insects (65) and birds (64) next in line. The most frequently observed organism is the Canada Thistle (20) followed by Red Osier Dogwood (16) and Willow Pinecone Gall Midge (16).

There were a group of questions asked at a recent virtual presentation on INaturalist which ran along the lines of what sorts of things is iNaturalist looking for in an observation. Are observations of tracks and scat wanted? Does the organism have to be alive? What if the photograph is not very good?

One of the things that I like best about iNaturalist is that it does not have a research agenda. As long as the organism is 'wild' - and the image shows 'evidence' of the organism then the observation is appropriate to be included in the database. There is discussion about what is exactly is meant by wild - the short summary is your pet and your potted plant are definitely not wild but there is no hard agreement about where exactly the line is beyond that :).

I find the ability to store up the history of my observations in an easily accessible form online, with support from a community of people of varying expertise but the same interest in the natural world combined with the constantly updated scientific names exactly hits the sweet spot for me. I get to choose what I feel I want to observe and when I want to do it - I can help add observations to contribute to others research goals - like the scientist that is looking for fungi on horsetails ( i haven't seen any yet) or I can pursue my own goals - like trying to learn to identify at least one other willow this year.

Hope that you too enjoy iNat in the way that you like the best!

Publicado el marzo 27, 2021 03:42 TARDE por marykrieger