Belle Park BioBlitz
You see a flower that you’re not sure the name of, a bird you’ve never seen before, a creepy crawly or a weird leaf and you exclaim, “What is it?!”
This curiosity is the foundation of science. You are on your way to become a scientist! Now there’s a way to satisfy your curiosity. Welcome to the bioblitz!
A bioblitz is discovering, photographing, and identifying every living being in a certain space within a certain time frame. We are hosting a bioblitz between May 23rd and May 29th to discover every bird, animal, plant, flower, tree, bug, moss, and fungus living in Belle Park.
By using the iNaturalist app on your smart phone you too can be a citizen scientist! Download the app, create a free account, and let iNaturalist be your guide as you explore the natural world.
The bioblitz has three main components:
DISCOVERY. Let your senses take you on a journey! Smell something sweet, herbal or horrible? Hear a buzz, tweet or grunt? See a flash of wing or a streak of fur? A brilliant patch of colour? Or a green leaf you’ve never seen before? It all starts here! It’s as easy as a walk in the park. You can observe on your own or join one of our events during the bioblitz.
PHOTOGRAPHY. If it’s alive, photograph it! Tap “Observe” on the app to take a photograph. Clarity is the key. Think diagnostically. What information does the iNaturalist algorithm need for a positive identification? Markings? Colour? Everything from head to tail? Top to bottom, flower, leaf, root? Make the subject big! Now you have two options: tap “Share” or “What did you see?”
IDENTIFICATION. If you hit “share,” iNaturalist will make the best guess for you, and you can move on to the next observation. If you hit “What did you see?” iNaturalist will make several suggestions of names to choose from. View the choices and learn about related species. It doesn’t matter what choice you make! The time, date and location will be automatically added. Don’t forget to add your observation to the Belle Park Project, listed under “Projects” on the app! Hit “Share” and make another observation.
The secret of the success of iNaturalist is the work that comes after you share your observation. Once it is uploaded, it is available to thousands of biologists and naturalists from around the world who view hundreds of submissions every day. They will confirm what you saw or make a closer suggestion down to specific species.
But the importance of your observations is not simply a correct identification. They will be gathered with others to mark trends, find new or rare species, and track the movement of plants, birds or animals across the country. It’s a two-way relationship. You provide the observations and iNaturalist, with open-source data, contributes to better understanding of how nature works in thousands of studies on climate change, host species relationships, species migration range, effects of urbanization, length of growing season, etc.
Your small act of discovery not only feeds your curiosity but contributes to data to make changes for the future. For Belle Park, knowing who lives here now can help to determine future conservation goals. This is especially important considering the history of the site as marsh, dump, landfill, golf course and, lately, rewilding nature park. Species are returning to Belle Park! For instance, last year was the first time an Eastern Meadowlark was recorded in the park. We can hardly wait to share with you the growing list of species inhabiting the park!
A bioblitz brings science, education, and community together! Connecting nature to people, people to nature, and nature to nature. Oh, and people to people too!
