Great Southern Bioblitz 2024
Great Southern BioBlitz 2024
Pic Your Patch!
We’re participating in the Great Southern BioBlitz again this year [#GSB2024], and we’d love you to get involved as well. This year we are trying to fill in some of the places in the Greater Hume area map that don’t have any records yet. So why not head to your favourite patch or just head to somewhere new and spend 30 minutes taking pics of any living things you see. You can uploaded them to our project page on the iNaturalist platform as you go or, if you have no signal, you can upload them anytime over the following 14 days.
There are so many places in our Greater Hume area that have not been surveyed before, and a great way to help with this great citizen science project is to look for a place with no observations and be the first to record something there. Below are a couple of pictures of the current iNaturalist observations for the Greater Hume region to give you some ideas.
It doesn’t take long. In just 30 minutes you could observe and and take pics of 30+ plant and animal species, or you could just stop for 10 minutes at a place you pass on your way to the cafe or shop and take pics of as many things as you can in that time, and then upload your pics to iNaturalist while you are enjoying your brew.
Who knows, you might discover a new species, or help with valuable research!
What's a BioBlitz?
Great question! Well, you can read all about the origins of the BioBlitz initiative, and how the Covid Pandemic gave rise to the Great Southern BioBlitz here in Australia and throughout the southern hemisphere – HERE…
How do i join in?
- Head to iNaturalist and create your account – https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/
- Download the app (either android or iOS) from your app store/play store
- Join the “Great Southern Bioblitz 2024 – Greater Hume” projects
- Set your phone camera so it geotags the locations on your photos.
- Get out between the 20th and 23rd September 2024 and start photographing and uploading!
A few quick tips to get you started:
- Create an account: Click on the “Sign Up” button and fill in the required information, such as your email address and a password. You can also sign up using your Google or Facebook account for convenience.
- Set your privacy preferences: After signing up, go to your profile settings. Look for the privacy settings, where you can control who can see your observations. You can choose from options like “Everyone,” “Members,” or “Only you.”
- Turn on location settings: To enable location tracking, you’ll need to allow iNaturalist to access your device’s location. This is usually a prompt that appears when you first use the app or website. If you missed it, you can go to your device settings (for mobile) or browser settings (for web) to enable location services specifically for iNaturalist.
- iNaturalist is all about sharing observations while respecting privacy and the sensitivity of certain species’ locations. To protect that info, iNaturalist often obscures or adjusts the location data. If you’ve noticed that your observation’s location is too precise, you can manually adjust the accuracy of the location information. Just go to your observation, click “Edit,” and then you can tweak the location accuracy to a broader area. It’s a neat feature to balance sharing your findings and safeguarding the environment!
We’ve also created a quick introductory PDF guide to using iNaturalist Australia. Click here to access it…
How do you survey?
Get down to your local creek and take photos to upload to iNaturalist – a global app for recording nature. [Try and get a few pictures from different angles if you can]
If you join our project (‘Great Southern BioBlitz 2024 – Greater Hume’, anything you upload will be able to be seen by everyone else in that project.
We get a great catalogue of plants, animals, birds, fish, insects and any other living things that are living in and using our waterway systems. And we contribute to scientific knowledge, and our knowledge of the catchment. This is a worldwide event with people across the southern hemisphere joining in.
What if I don't know what it is?
As long as your image is clear and the subject is quite large in the picture, iNaturalist has an identification feature that can identify your image most of the time. If that fails, the iNaturalist community (which includes many experts) can help to identify it after you have uploaded it.
Are there any local HLN events I can attend?
Holbrook Landcare doesn’t have any events Bioblitz events planned yet, but Peter and Kylie will be out and about at a few local spots around Holbrook. Keep an eye out on our social media channels for updates.
What are some of the things I might see?
How Do Your Observations Make a Difference?
