Diario de lynnharper

We had a wonderful time up on Mt. Watatic yesterday, at least till the rain started. Thank you to everyone who came!

Some of the highlights, at least for me: The young Bald Eagle circling overhead before anyone else showed up. The Eastern Milk Snake, unfortunately dead. All the grasshoppers @stevetobin and @flamingninetales77 caught (three species, do I have that right?). The cool rock tripe @mohale showed us and the Peregrine zooming by that she pointed out. That goldenrod growing in the cracks of the ledges that @tsn identified as Squarrose Goldenrod. And meeting people I've only known from iNaturalist, like @radbackedsalamander and @bkatzenberg . I didn't know my cousin @danlharp was going to show up, but it was great to see you, Dan!

So, let's do this again some time, yes? I was thinking that it might be fun to go to Burrage Pond WMA in Hanson and Halifax, or to Muddy Brook WMA in Hardwick, or to the Trustees' Bart's Cobble in Sheffield, or hey, why not Mt. Greylock? I haven't been to the top of Greylock in decades. Where would you all like to go? How often would you like me to set up a get-together like this?

The weather looks good for a meeting of any and all iNaturalists on top of Mt. Watatic in Ashby/Ashburnham, MA, this Sunday at noon - hooray! If you're just seeing this, see my previous journal post for details.

I hope to meet many of you there!

Since we got rained out over the 4th of July weekend for an iNaturalist gathering, @radbackedsalamander, @pat_huckery_masswildlife, and I thought we'd try again for August 27th. Please join us - and let's hope it doesn't rain! Here's a repeat of much of what I said before the July date:

You all are invited to climb Mount Watatic in Ashby/Ashburnham, MA on Sunday, August 27th. The plan is to meet at the eastern summit (the big ledges with a view to the east) around noon, eat our lunches, meet each other, and make loads of observations. There might be dragonflies hill-topping, for example. Or interesting grasshoppers. Certainly there will be Sibbaldiopsis and Red Spruce and Turkey Vultures (maybe Black Vultures?) and grasses I'll never be able to identify. I'll figure out some way to make it obvious where exactly to meet - maybe an iNaturalist flag?

Whatever organisms we find there, it's a beautiful view from a mountain that's now mostly protected by a coalition of conservation groups; take a look at the map at the bottom of this article to see what's protected there: https://www.mass.gov/news/land-protected-at-mount-watatic

Logistics: This isn't an organized hike where we all start at the same place at the same time; you are free to start whenever and wherever you want to. Depending on which way you go up, it can be a steep hike, but a relatively short one. To my knowledge, there are no facilities like porta-potties at any of the trailheads. Dogs are permitted on leash. There are four parking spots I know of:

DCR Ashburnham State Forest, off Rt. 119, more or less opposite Old Pierce Road. This area has limited parking for about 15 cars, which often fills up quickly. Sometimes, people park on Old Pierce Road itself.

On Rt. 119 itself, a little east of the DCR lot. This is a paved pull-off with maybe 8 spots.

MassWildlife Ashby WMA, off Rt. 119 to the east of pull-off right on Rt. 119. This spot is shown as a P on the map I linked to above; there's a blue MassWildlife sign there. Parking for probably 8 cars.

MassWildlife Ashby WMA, at the end of Watatic Mountain Road in Ashby. This is at the end of the woods road at the end of the paved road, and there's only parking for 2 cars here.

While everyone is invited, here I'm going to mention people I think might be particularly interested: @adamkohl, @agave6_tomwalker, @bkatzenberg, @btk, @cbuelow45, @ceiseman, @cpellegrini, @davidhsmall, @deparia1950, @jackcadwell, @janice22s, @jcarm, @julie_richburg1, @karro_frost, @maygrz, @mohale, @mtjones, @naturalist2073, @stevemirick, @stevetobin, @threepogonias, @tmurray74.

It looks both Sunday the 2nd and Monday the 3rd will be mostly rainy and beset by thunderstorms, so I am cancelling the iNaturalist gathering on Mt. Watatic. Darn it! Stay tuned for another gathering later this summer, but I haven't decided when or where yet.

A few months ago, I was chatting with @radbackedsalamander - I don't even remember the context - and we thought it would be fun to organize a field trip for iNaturalists in our area. Somehow, that stuck in my head, so...

You all are invited to climb Mount Watatic in Ashby/Ashburnham, MA on Sunday, July 2nd, with a rain date of July 3rd. The plan is to meet at the eastern summit (the big ledges with a view to the east) around noon, eat our lunches, meet each other, and make loads of observations. There might be dragonflies hill-topping, for example. Or interesting grasshoppers. Certainly there will be Sibbaldiopsis and Red Spruce and Turkey Vultures (maybe Black Vultures?) and grasses I'll never be able to identify. I'll figure out some way to make it obvious where exactly to meet - maybe an iNaturalist flag?

Whatever organisms we find there, it's a beautiful view from a mountain that's now mostly protected by a coalition of conservation groups; take a look at the map at the bottom of this article to see what's protected there: https://www.mass.gov/news/land-protected-at-mount-watatic

Logistics: This isn't an organized hike where we all start at the same place at the same time; you are free to start whenever and wherever you want to. Depending on which way you go up, it can be a steep hike, but a relatively short one. To my knowledge, there are no facilities like porta-potties at any of the trailheads. Dogs are permitted on leash. There are four parking spots I know of:

DCR Ashburnham State Forest, off Rt. 119, more or less opposite Old Pierce Road. This area has limited parking for about 15 cars, which often fills up quickly. Sometimes, people park on Old Pierce Road itself.

On Rt. 119 itself, a little east of the DCR lot. This is a paved pull-off with maybe 8 spots.

MassWildlife Ashby WMA, off Rt. 119 to the east of pull-off right on Rt. 119. This spot is shown as a P on the map I linked to above; there's a blue MassWildlife sign there. Parking for probably 8 cars.

MassWildlife Ashby WMA, at the end of Watatic Mountain Road in Ashby. This is at the end of the woods road at the end of the paved road, and there's only parking for 2 cars here.

While everyone is invited, here I'm going to mention people I think might be particularly interested: @adamkohl, @agave6_tomwalker, @btk, @cbuelow45, @ceiseman, @cpellegrini, @davidhsmall, @deparia1950, @jackcadwell, @jcarm, @julie_richburg1, @karro_frost, @maygrz, @mohale, @mtjones, @naturalist2073, @pat_huckery_masswildlife, @stevemirick, @stevetobin, @threepogonias, @tmurray74.

If you can't make it on the 2nd (or 3rd) or don't want to hike up a mountain, I'm hoping to organize another get-together in a month or two. Suggestions for locations are welcome - maybe a pond or lake with a picnic pavilion somewhere?

I've had great fun learning about galls over the last couple of years vis iNaturalist, largely because of Adam Kranz, @megachile. Now he's going to give a Zoom talk to my local Athol Bird and Nature Club. Here I'll quote from the club's newsletter. You all are invited!

Oaks and Wasps: Shaping Novel Organs in the Seasonal Round
Adam Kranz, via Zoom

Join us in person at the Millers River Environmental Center in Athol, MA, to watch the Zoom presentation together. Oak gall wasps take advantage of the annual flow of resources throughout an oak tree to produce beautiful and distinctive novel plant organs to feed and protect them. With an estimated 1000 species in North America, each producing two different galls per year, this symbiosis is one of the most engrossing puzzles in nature. Adam Kranz would like to equip you to help him put it together.

Adam Kranz is one of the co-founders of www.Gallformers.org an online database for amateur and academic naturalists studying plant galls in North America. He lives in Austin, TX.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: May 10, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Topic: Oaks and Wasps: Shaping Novel Organs in the Seasonal Round

Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eHhPGrokR4mspgwFJ7-jcQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

My local nature club is offering what should be a fascinating talk this Wednesday night, and luckily it's via Zoom, as well as in-person, so you all can attend. Here are the details from the Athol Bird and Nature Club's email newsletter:

Wednesday April 12, 2023, 7:00 PM “The Guests of Ants” Christina L. Kwapich, PhD

This talk will explore the hidden biodiversity inside ant nests, and the behavioral mechanisms diverse parasites employ to infiltrate ant societies. Some intruders tickle ant mouth parts to steal regurgitated meals, while others use specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm their aggression. Once able to “speak the language,” these outsiders can masquerade as ants. Suddenly colony members can no longer distinguish friend from foe.

Christina L. Kwapich, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Ecology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and the co-author of the book The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts (2022, Harvard University Press). Her laboratory examines the organization of labor in seed harvesting ant societies, subterranean ant nest architecture, and ant guests. In person at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street, Athol, MA 01331, or by Zoom.

Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Z-Y4dR2sTkS3Ta-8BeGBng After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
.......

I hope to see some of you there! By the way, next month's talk for the Athol Bird and Nature Club is about oak gall wasps, given by Adam Kranz, who is megachile here on iNaturalist. It will also be available on Zoom. I'll post more about that talk in a few weeks.

Guess what starts four weeks from today? The world-wide City Nature Challenge, of course! Clear your calendar for Friday, April 28th, through Monday, May 1st, because we are going to have fun!

This year, I'm helping to organize the Western Massachusetts City Nature Challenge, so I'm inviting all of you to join that project and help out. We're nailing down the final details on 15 workshops and field trips for you; in two weeks, we'll publish that list as a journal post in the project.

If you've never participated in the annual City Nature Challenge before, you should know that everyone is welcome to help out in this global bioblitz, whether you're an expert in some obscure taxon or you're completely new to learning about the natural world. The real aim of the CNC is to connect people with the natural world around them, whether in cities or the smallest rural towns. Sure, we'll keep track of how many species we find, but even more importantly, we hope to encourage the most people possible to post the highest number of observations possible during those four days. And you don't even have to figure out how to add your observations to the Western Mass CNC project; iNaturalist will automatically add any observation you make on those four days, within the four western counties of Massachusetts, to the project.

So start thinking about your favorite places to visit in spring, and join us for the Western Mass CNC!

You all are invited to join the second annual New England plant ID-a-thon! Link here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/2023-new-england-plants-id-a-thon-feb-24-26

Like last year, we'll spend 48 hours, from 7 PM Friday night to 7 PM Sunday night, identifying Needs ID plants in New England and helping to clear out the backlog of observations before the next field season . Not to mention spending a cold winter weekend immersed in the greenery we all miss at this time of year! (Surely it's not just me who is sick of winter already?)

Head on over to the project link, join up, and I promise we'll have a good time!

So I thought I'd discuss making identifications here in a journal post and see if any of you want to comment.

A year or so ago, I committed to making lots of IDs for other people on their iNat observations. Currently, I've made over 80,000 IDs, almost all on Needs ID observations (rather than on observations that are already at Research Grade). Yay, me!

But the combination of winter coming on here in New England, no fun trips on the horizon, and the daunting prospect of enormous piles of observations needing IDs has got me down. So, this is a plea for help. Not help in the sense of my mental health, but in the sense of asking you to help with making IDs.

I'm curious: if you've never made IDs for others, why not? Do you think you need to be a expert to help? Nope, you don't; I'm certainly not an expert in anything. (Which reminds me - thank you to everyone who corrects my mis-identifications!) Are you just too busy with work/school/family/the day to day detritus of life? OK, you're excused; go play outside whenever you do get a chance. Are you just ... anxious about making IDs? I hear you - I'm just beginning to learn to ID an easy fly and I'm all worried I'll screw it up. But, really, a few mistakes do not matter.

If you'd like to try making IDs and want some hand-holding, I am more than willing to help. Just send me a private message or comment on this post and I'll do what I can.

Another thing you can do to make the lives of identifiers easier is to improve the quality of your observations. I'm not just talking photo quality here, although photos in focus are always appreciated. I'm talking about remembering to add an initial ID when you upload an observation. Even a very general ID like Birds or Mosses will get your observation in front of bird and moss IDers more quickly, and it means generalists like me don't need to spend time adding a general ID to observations that are labeled Unknown.

It also helps if you can do a little research, on or off iNat, about what characters are needed to ID certain species and then try to remember to photograph those characters when you encounter the species. For example, I learned that one of the identifying characters of Black Oak is the hairiness of the vein angles on the undersides of the leaves. Now, I try to remember to photograph not just the overall shape of the leaves, but also a close-up of the vein angles on the undersides. Again, if you're new to all this, feel free to ask me (or, indeed, most IDers on iNat) what resources to use to ID an organism to species level. (Hint: for plants in New England, use Go Botany.)

Keeping up with the ever-increasing flood of new observations needing IDs is something a lot of hard-core identifiers discuss often in the iNat forum. Right now, there are close to 1.8 MILLION observations just in New England that are at Needs ID. Sure, many of them can never reach Research Grade, but I bet at least half of them could be IDed to species. Indeed, around 750,000 are already at species level, just needing an agreeing ID to reach Research Grade (or a disagreeing ID, if the species ID is wrong).

So, think about helping. I'd love it if you have any comments on this, either publicly on this post or privately via message. Thanks!