Do you know your
bugs, plants,
or animals?
We are seeking people with species knowledge to help us with the ID of people's observations. If you are interested in helping with this, you can do so from your home by clicking on the project to see peoples observations.
More information about how to identify observations is available at
BioBlitz
May 2024
Bulls Run Nature Sanctuary and Arboretum in Middletown
What is a bioblitz?
A bioblitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species of plants and animals within a designated location and time period as possible.
How to take part
Go for a walk with your phone in the Arboretum. Take clear photos of the different species of plants and animals you observe. You do not need to know what species they are, a great part about this project is that we are going to use iNaturalist to help with identification. This app/website uses crowdsourcing to identify the plants and animals. you can even use the free Seek app, which does a pretty good job at identifying species, then just by hitting one button you can submit the photo and name to iNaturalist.
When: Go for a hike and make observations anytime during the month of May, 2024. Please make sure to have all observations posted by May 31, 2024.
Location: 3909 Rosedale Rd, Middletown, OH 45042 map
What is iNaturalist?
iNaturalist is a phone app or website you can post your observations for plants and animals to. It provides a place to record and organize nature findings, meet other nature enthusiasts, and learn about the natural world.
How to Use iNaturalist
They have great info on their website on how to make observations with your phone (either apple or android), or on their website. Using the app on your phone is by far the easiest way to upload your observations, especially for those new to iNaturalist.
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started
Create an iNaturalist Account (free)
To take part in the BioBlitz you will need to set up an iNaturalist account to be able to share your observations. Users must be 13 years or older to make an account. If you and your children want to participate, make a family account.
Join Our Project
On the app
Under projects, search for Spring 2024 Bull's Run Arboretum BioBlitz. Click it to open it and hit join. When you make observations within the Natural Area it will post to the project. You can also check out the observations made by others.
You do not have to join the project to post observations. If you have locations turned on on your phone, it will automatically post to the project.
On the website
Visit the Community dropdown, then select projects. Search for Spring 2024 Bull's Run Arboretum BioBlitz. Click it to open it to open page. The join button is located towards the top right in the "About" box. When you make observations within the Aboretum it will post to the project, if the location data is provided.
Make Observations
Using iNaturalist
There is a 1 minute video on how to take better photos of your observations. https://vimeo.com/167341998
Uploading from the app is straightforward.
Using Seek
There is a 1 minute video on how to use the app https://vimeo.com/328588355. Along with creating a Seek account, you will need to create an iNaturalist account to link the data to. When you make your observation on Seek, when it provides a possible species name, it will have a green button that says Post to iNaturalist.
Using a Camera
Photos from cameras need to be first uploaded to a computer and then added to the iNaturalist website as observations.
Submit Observations
An observation records an encounter with an individual organism at a particular time and location. This includes encounters with signs of organisms like tracks, nests, or things that just died. When you make an observation, you’ll record:
Who you are: this is your account name
Where you saw it: If you have location services turned on, your photo will include the coordinates of your observation. If you choose not to turn on location services, you will need to manually add the location. If you use the Seek app, it does not always automatically provide this, so you may need to enter by hand.
What you saw: If you know you saw a butterfly, you can choose a group name like butterfly. If you know it was a monarch butterfly, you can be more specific. If you have no clue, leave this part blank and the community can help.
When you saw it: This is the date you made the encounter, not the date you added it to iNaturalist.
Evidence of what you saw: This would be the photo you took of the plant or animal. Using the iNatualist app, you can even record sound for something like a bird call.
Your observations don’t need to include all of these parts, but they do in order to become research quality observations for science. Remember, you should make separate observations for each separate organism you encounter. If you observed something that is not wild, like a garden plant or a lion in the zoo, make sure to mark it as captive/cultivated to prevent it from becoming research quality.
After the BioBlitz
We will work hard to identify all of the observations. When one of your observations has been identified, you will be notified through iNaturalist.
Do you know your bugs, plants, or animals?
We are seeking people with species knowledge to help us with the ID of people's observations. If you are interested in helping with this, you can do so from your home by clicking on the project to see peoples observations.
More information about how to identify observations is available at https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started#identify
Questions
Please email Melissa Proffitt or Lynn White.