Circus of the Spineless and a New ‘Bioblitz’

by Cindy ~ March 31, 2007

Bev, who always has something to teach and delight me at her blog Burning Silo, is this weeks’ host for the 19th edition of Circus of the Spineless. I’ve come to respect Bev as not only a fine photographer, but a seasoned naturalist who is always learning about the natural world and shares that knowledge so freely. Be sure to drop by, she has a great list of reading to follow up on.

I also learned of a blogging ‘bioblitz’ via Bev- which I’ll be participating in if my body cooperates. I hope to see more of my photographer friends join in, as most are pretty savvy about the subjects they photograph. As Bev says well “By the way, you *do not* have to be a biologist to bioblitz a chosen area. Anyone equipped with a couple of field guides should be able to conduct at least a simple species survey. Personally that is why I joined in- I’ve done a few organized blitzes at nature centers in the past, and they were a blast. This is by NO means a contest of who can find the most species, etc.. nor is it limited to those in academics, it’s meant to be fun and shed some light on the diversity of life that can be found in our own spaces. This is the brainchild (blogchild?) of Jeremy Bruno at Voltage Gate, and you can read more about how to sign up and participate here. We should have many moth species emerging by then, so my focus will mostly be on birds (duh!), flora and moths! We had a large emergence of Half-wing Moths (Phigalia titea) several evenings ago- unfortunately I didn’t have my sheets out, so had to settle for a photo of one on our trash bin. It’s cooled off since then, but moths don’t waste much time when it comes to emerging- because they don’t have much time to do what they do- mainly reproducing the species.

So come on fellow natural history buffs/birdwatchers and photographers… plenty of you admitted to owning many field guides, (except for Claire who is still in denial) ;), so dust them off and let’s have some fun!