📜 EwA Week Highlights: EwA’s 2023 on Anecdata

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights January 13, 2024‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
	EwA Highlights January 13, 2024 Hello everyone! Thanks for reading the January 13th edition of the EwA highlights. As promised, this week we’ll be taking a look back at a rapidly growing area of EwA’s participatory science programs: our Anecdata projects. Anecdata is a free online platform for hosting participatory science projects that allows us to create customized data entry forms and data collection projects. Every one of these projects went live in 2023! The aim of these projects is to help EwA community members create high quality data from what they’re observing in the field. If you are interested in joining any of these projects, don’t hesitate! You can check out the tabs on the left side of each project page to learn how to get started taking observations. As you’ll see, our Anecdata projects cover a wide range of topics - let’s hop right in. 📸 The EwA Trail Report gives community members a way to document different conditions in our green spaces, ranging from trail quality and litter to different recreational uses. The data helps us to create a clearer picture of how these areas are used, what potential issues might threaten their ecological health, and what maintenance actions may be needed. This is EwA’s largest Anecdata project in terms of observations — they number over 15,000, largely because we’ve imported some data from past surveys carried out on different platforms before we started using Anecdata. Below is an observation from our project taken by Jill, who spotted this dog poop bag hiding out on the trail. EwA Trail Report Record (© @jillbrogan · Winchester, MA · Jan. 12, 2024) EwA Buggy is a project focused on creating high-quality arthropod survey data. The idea for Buggy arose from the frustratingly complex task of standardizing and streamlining the use of supplementary data fields on iNaturalist. Buggy is EwA’s alternative. It empowers our naturalists to create observations that situate these animals in their ecological environment by including information about host plants, weather conditions, behavior and more. Buggy is our largest project, with over 100 members, but is a little slow this time of year. Kate observed this crab spider (species Misumessus oblongus) back in November. EwA Buggy Record (© @kateestrop · Massachusetts, USA · Nov. 27, 2023) EwA Pheno Lite is designed for taking incidental phenology observations. EwA has some specific plants that it observes very closely for phenology (seasonal changes), but narrowly studying these individual specimens gives a limited view of what’s happening. With EwA Pheno Lite, you can document the phenophase of almost any plant you see out in the field! This helps us give a broader view of Boston’s phenological landscape and how it might be shifting as Boston’s climate changes. Jason observed this New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-anglae) in September. EwA Pheno Lite Record (© @jasonfeng · Winchester, MA · Sep. 30, 2023) Our last Anecdata project is perhaps our most urgent: the EwA SGARs Brigade (warning: this project contains images of dead animals, and one appears below). The SGARs Brigade tracks the presence of SGARs (a type of rodenticide) as well as documenting sick or dead animals that are likely SGAR victims. SGAR bait boxes have become a common feature of our urban landscape, but these poisons do not just kill rats; they often slowly kill whatever is eating the rats as well, such as hawks, owls, and even larger mammal predators. Jim observed this barred owl (Strix varia), suspected dead of SGARs poisoning, in Arlington just last week. EwA Pheno Lite Record (© @jimjoyce · Arlington, MA · Jan. 4, 2024) 📅 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
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