Hello everyone!
Thanks for reading the December 9 edition of the EwA highlights.
📸 The winter months are a good time to work on your naturalist detective skills, looking for clues about what kind of animal activity might be going on in the forest now or in the preceding months. This can range from subtle signs left by insects all the way to signs that are quite obvious to notice, such as this buck scrape observed by Bill yesterday. This is a territorial sign from a male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), left behind when it scrapes its antlers on the bark of a tree.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Bill MacIndewar · Medford, MA · Dec. 8, 2023)
Jessica observed this puffed-up great blue heron (Ardea herodias) in Woburn on Thursday. Not many of these birds stay in Massachusetts for the winter, but it's not uncommon to see them if there are enough unfrozen bodies of water. When you do see them this time of year, they will often be puffed up like this, with their characteristic long necks drawn in, in order to preserve body heat.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© jessicayuan6 · Woburn, MA · Dec. 7, 2023)
EwA’s most-observed taxon this week was the genus Lycogala, a genus of slime molds which we’ve mentioned before. As I discussed when it last came up, the species in this genus are too similar to identify to the species level without microscopy. Some of you may call this wolf’s milk slime mold (Lycogala epidendrum) when you see it in the field, and that species is indeed in this genus, but our participatory scientists have done the right thing and only identified to the genus level in the absence of sufficient evidence.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Joe MacIndewar · Medford, MA · Dec. 2, 2023)
📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this past week, totaling 314 observations of 180 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here.
🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 170,523 observations of 10,364 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here.
📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events
Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Winter [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows.
EwA Fieldwork (and Resources)
It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅 to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location.
📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here
❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.
That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one!
-Mike
