Some notes digesting the overall results of the Championship
Of 33,497 observations, there were only 264 mammals observations, of 93 species.
Our team (3.5% of all 140 participants) made 41 of them, that is a whopping 15.5%.
We found 13 species, that is 14% of all mammal species in the Championship. Amazing.
Kim: 16 — 4 species
Laura: 10 — 3 species
Andrea: 10 — 6 species
Susan: 4 — 3 species
Rebecca: 1 — 1 species.
I came across Coyote scat and probably also Bobcat scat. But I was relatively certain about the Mule Deer and Raccoon scat, and added those. Mammal scat so often is just dog poop. (Does anyone clean up anymore? It’s everywhere.) Note to self: scat and tracks count. Learn more about that.
Mammals take time and luck. And if one is focused on plants and insects, eyes to the ground of the immediate area, so much slips by. Only 73 of the 140 participants even made mammals observations.
But look at the birds stats:
There were 2,779 birds observations, of 732 species. Our Kim made 278 of these observations, 10%, and found 95 species, 13%. Really impressive, Kim!! I thought I was short on birds, but still found 48 species. And I missed so many of the ubiquitous birds around, like Lesser Goldfinch, Turkey Vulture, Phainopepla, House Wren, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, American Crow, American Robin, etc.
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I saw a rat and a mouse as they dashed away into brush. I waited and desperately wanted to photograph them, but alas, they did not make an appearance. I was hoping for a raccoon or coyote, but I don't often see them.
And, I still don't know why I did not make an observation of the bear scat...sigh.
I also watched a cute weasel-like critter dash across the road in front of us and disappear.
Two more missed opportunities, darn nature :)
Perhaps a theme for a CWW team challenge - tracks and signs, including scat, etc. Focus on mammals. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/scatology, https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/north-american-animal-tracks-database.
I think finding mammals takes time. Just like finding snakes takes not only time but lots of luck. I purposely did not pursue any birds, maybe to the detriment of the team, but I saw Kim add so many on day one I didn’t think I could add many new species.
As it is, I lucked out with the northern flicker and canyon wren as they all just popped up in my vicinity. Canyon wrens are particularly difficult to get photos of as they are not super common. Flickers are more common but often are high up and hard to photograph. I purposely stopped to get the vermilion flycatcher shot and really should have hung out for more species as I knew there were some at that park. But I was just so hot that I didn’t have the patience to do so.
Btw, Australia did well I’m thinking because it is cooler there right now and just after spring. I feel like we could have done so much more with a couple of more days and slightly cooler weather.. There were places I wanted to go but didn’t due to distance and/or heat.
Let's make August a tracks and signs month :)
And, in September, I propose we aim to add observations to the California Pollination Project
Chime in with other ideas my fellow wild women
Ooh, should we create a new project to record our themes and observations ?
I guess every team had to deal with whatever nature served up, including a highly transmissible virus. The Oz based team had to deal with bad weather, actually, much needed rain. But they were spread out around the entire S/E tip of the continent, covering three states with their very diverse habitats. By comparison, we focused on micro-climate pockets of SoCal plus Sierra Nevada mountains, and given time and other limitations (*) came up with a really impressive species count in a relatively small footprint.
(*) Other limitations includes this was my first competitive bioblitz. I'll write a separate post about what went wrong and what I learned.
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