Projektin City Nature Challenge 2021: Geelong Päiväkirja

Rod sent information about this years’ CNC BioBlitz and I was pleased to be a part of Geelong’s effort, exactly a year after I joined inaturalist. In the main my observations have been restricted to our front and back yards so the BiolBlitz was really just an extension of what I have been doing all year, but with more incentive to record as many species as possible each day.

Though certainly lacking the excitement and rewards of field trips to a range of habitats, there is still wonder aplenty to be found in observing the many fascinating creatures that share our domestic spaces.
I was completely unaware of the rich diversity of life right in front of my nose, until I started really looking, and recording with my iPhone. I mean, taking a walk around the garden at different times each day, visiting hotspots of activity - like the sheltered southwest corner at the back where the orange lion’s paw grows against the fence and the cape gooseberry sprawls in the autumn sun, and the shy Chinoneides tasmaniensis with a geometric pattern on its back soaks up the first warm rays each morning. Or recording the raucous conversations of the Rainbow Lorikeets in the lemon scented gum nearby - as tall as a church spire and nurturing a whole universe of birds.

Each garden outing becomes a meditation on diversity, and each engagement a rich experience. Who could fail to be enchanted by an encounter with the White-banded House Jumping spider, Maratus griseus, or members of the Opisthoncus genus, like tiny bearded aliens matching your gaze with their telescopic eyes? The glistening wings of the Ladybird beetles, (Large Spotted, Spotted Amber, & Fungus Eating), and the antics of the Boatman Flies, Pogonortalis docile, forever rowing in circles, are perennial highlights for me too.

Absorbed by my daily explorations the four days passed quickly. It was good to find so many different species thriving in our garden, and I was delighted with some of the new finds. I’m looking forward to the Great Southern BioBlitz in October.

Terry (gecko9)

Knowing I’d be at a marine volunteers weekend at Anglesea YMCA Camp, I planned my Friday morning for maximum number of easy species to tick off—the local residents such as my roosting Welcome Swallows which had to be caught before they were up and away for the day and the resident lapwing pair; the squabbling throngs in the nearby flowering street trees; and then the well-fed waterbirds at St Augustine’s Lake who swim or waddle up to have their photos taken.
The YMCA camp environs have nice walks for some familiar coastal and heath plant species, although I didn’t cross paths with the Rufous Bristlebirds that some others saw. One of the Saturday workshop sessions was on the use of iNaturalist for marine observations, so I was able to spruik the City Nature Challenge for the weekend. I joined Pete Crowcroft who put his moth sheet up on Saturday night and who got some excellent photos.
Sunday morning was the main field sessions and I chose to go hunting on the exposed Pt Addis rock platform for nudibranchs with the VNPA ReefWatch (including Sea Slug Census) team. It was amazing to watch a 1 cm strip of greenish ‘something’ in a rock pool and realise it was moving—Elysia Coodgeensis, a fairly common species. My favourite for the weekend though was Lamellarias australis, which is a prosobranch gastropod like most of our familiar gasteropod sea shells, not an opisthobranch (sea slug) at all, though it looks ‘squishy’. It has a fragile internal shell completely covered by the fleshy lobes of the body and is in the same superfamily as the cowries—you learn something new every day!
Monday was my Orange-bellied Parrot roster for monitoring the captive released birds, and after we finished the main tasks we went for a walk in the saltmarsh with our receiver for the birds and camera for the plants, many of which are, of course, OBP food plants. Not as easy to ID everything to species level as I had expected, but I’m now good at spotting Frankenia pauciflora, particularly when it does deign to put out a flower or two.

Unfortunately, I was not feeling well in the week prior to the CNC. Could have been a reaction to the Covid injection or a cold caught from the grandchildren who visited the weekend before. Either way, my energy level was down at the start of the event.

On the Friday, I remained local with two short trips - one to the Seaview Reserve grassland behind my house and in the afternoon a visit to Jerringot Wetlands. This is my traditional first start to a bioblitz as each location has a project in iNaturalist (see links below) with associated species list. So, I know what I am looking for, gets me off to a good start day list (81 observations) plus always provides a few surprises. Highlights for day 1 were finding 6 grasshopper species plus my first even sighting of a Purple -winged Mantis.

https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/gfnc-seaview-park-collection
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/gfnc-jerringot-wetland-collection

On the Saturday, I decide to take my two grandchildren (12 and 9 years) along to a few places on the Bellarine. I supplied each with a camera, suffice to say after 10 minutes I realised that my normal pace of doing the bioblitz was not going to work. So, decide to concentrate on teaching them on how to take photos and be instructive on what we were seeing. Didn’t get as many observations in the half day as planned but a nice time was had in fostering their appreciation of nature and just walking about the Drysdale reserves.

After dropping them off for lunch and following a brief rest, I headed off alone to the Dog Rocks at Batesford and found a few damselflies at the pond and then wondered if there would be still dragonflies / damselflies at the Barwon Water Reserve in Brisbane Ranges. John Newman and I had previously found quite a few species there a month earlier. Alas, nothing was found there but at least I proved that the season for these creatures is now come to an end. A few isolated observations on the way back home – after uploading to iNaturalist I was surprised to see I had accumulated 62 Observations on Day 2.

Sunday was a brief walk around the Geelong Botanic Gardens providing a few highlights. Met Kelly Clitheroe there who pointed out a small red Katydid- the nymph of the Common Garden Katydid. Later, I photographed a new species for me an interesting Hoverfly that had only one other record in iNaturalist for Victoria.

On Monday ventured down the coast for some beachcombing and finding seashells. Low tide was at 9.30 am so arrived in Lorne about 8.30 am and after a couple of long walks finished up around midday. Searching for molluscs is a good way to increase the observation and species count and I ended the CNC with 96 observations and 51 species identified including 5 new species for my life list.

On reflection, I must admit I did enjoy the excitement of the weekend BioBlitz and am so glad that I pushed myself early. By the end I had forgotten about being crook. I was pleased to end up with 149 total species including 17 new species for me.

Cheers rover--rod

As usual I really enjoyed the CNC. Good for my fitness too. I didn’t count how many times I climbed into and out from the creek-valleys in Long Forest.

The mothing went well. I set up the light and sheet at home every night except Monday (wet, wet, wet), including turning on the moth light at midnight on Thursday. Usually I’d get up every few hours to check, but keeping in mind that I had to look for other things in the day, I limited the checks to 10 pm and 5.30 am. In Bacchus Marsh, I recorded 71 insect species, mainly moths with a wasp, a mantid and a lacewing included. On Sunday night Cathy Powers and I went to Steiglitz for mothing. It was warm and humid for a few hours and the sheet was really jumping. There was thunder and lightning all around but we had no rain. I'm told the moth people got washed out in Melbourne. I entered 30 of the species we found. Cathy would have entered more than that as she concentrates on the tiny moths that my camera can’t quite reach. She also ran her moth sheet from her home in the Brisbane Ranges. Then we had a blitz on identifications and entry into iNaturalist.

For my plant recording, I mainly focussed on Long Forest - as usual. Hardly any species were in flower. I know many plants by the leaves. With help from Chris Lindorff, Lorraine Phelan and Chris Clarke, most got over the line to Research Grade. I was thrilled to find one Brittle Greenhood Pterostylis truncata flower remaining from the several Cathy Powers and I had found eight days earlier.

On Monday, I decided I needed a walk in a new area without steep climbs. Cathy Powers recommended the Brisbane Ranges – the firebreak walk between Butchers Road and Furze Track. Dean and I remembered the area from when we were orchid fanatics (1980s). What a lovely walk. We found lots of flowers. For a few I knew the species, for some I knew the genus and for most I didn’t have a clue. I just enjoyed their beauty and the experience of lying on a soft bed of grass while photographing (rather than on the stones and hard ground of Long Forest). My favourite was Mitchell’s Wattle Acacia mitchelli in flower. Chris Lindorff told me that the Woolly Daisy-bush Olearia lanuginosa is in a disjunct population in the Brisbane Ranges (main range, Big and Little Deserts, Grampians). Then it started raining and continued for the rest of the afternoon and night.

I found the time frame for entering and confirming observations a bit short. I had little time during the event, because of plant-finding in the day and mothing at night. Many of us have hundreds of photos to organise and enter. For moths there are always many we don’t know and the research can be a long process. For those of us with expertise in a field, the confirmations of other records can take ages.

I didn’t do any shopping or housework for 10 days. The washing and kitchen situations were in crisis.

Regards, Marilyn

My family announced that they were going away for the weekend of the City Nature Challenge. Did I want to join them? No way, Jose!
So I had four days to myself with no commitments, no meals to prepare, no clocks to watch.

I had a wonderful time photographing (mainly plants) in the Shelford area, the Brisbane Ranges, Forrest and Stevenson’s Falls and, on Monday, the Anglesea heath. I set up the moth sheet in my back yard. Each evening I sat with my feet up while I sorted through my photos, editing and uploading. I had my reference books out all week while I admired everyone else’s uploads and tried to help with the identification when I could.

My best finds? A stunningly beautiful Red-banded Greenhood, a Smooth Solenogyne, and two Threatened plant species, Button Wrinklwort and Spiny Rice-flower, growing next to each other in the grassland.

From the first photo on iNaturalist, a Welcome Swallow uploaded by Deborah, to the last it was all fun. And exhausting.

Lorraine Phelan

We had a wonderful time over the four days of the City Nature Challenge, choosing different environments and exploring them to see what we could find. Geelong is ideally located close to a variety of beach and bushland places. We have a 4WD so we chose places perhaps a bit more difficult to access, and where others might not go, such as Kirk’s Point (coastal), Inverleigh Reserve (rough tracks) and Aeroplane Rd in the Brisbane Ranges (very steep). We found more species by driving and stopping to explore rather than by walking longer trails.

The first day we went to Bannockburn where we found the Flame Robin and Jacky Winter but were disappointed as the Acacia Paradoxa has been cleared (very few small birds) and the Sugar Gums are being harvested. It was dry and there wasn’t much understorey flora coming through. A long time-consuming walk netted just 36 species.

Next day Kirk’s Point had a wealth of birds and coastal flora, some shells and sea urchins. Then we went to the Western Treatment Plant which was closed last year. Birds were plentiful despite the migratory ones having left, and there were some interesting coastal plants. Bird highlights were Brolgas, Blue-winged Parrots and Red-necked Avocets.

The Brisbane Ranges had some birds and a lot of plants. Many are not flowering so it is harder to identify them at this time of year (many thanks to the people who identified them for us). There wasn’t much fungi yet. Flowering plants included Epacris impressa, Early Wattle, Golden Grevillea, Shiny Cassinia and Cranberry Heath. Some Nodding Greenhood leaves have started to come up.

Inverleigh had lots of flora, again mostly leaves with some nice orchids coming up. We are looking forward to returning there in a few weeks time. To end the nature challenge I took our six-year old grandson to Balyang after school on the Monday. He is an excellent finder of insects and snails but he couldn’t find much. There are relatively tame birds to photograph, some water plants and a few insect cases.

We have enjoyed sorting our photos and seeing the discussions on iNaturalist, including tips on what we need to photograph for identification (different for almost every species)!

Susan Kruss

Thanks Susan for sharing. Rod

Hi All,
After a successful CNC, I invite participants to share their story about their experience and learnings from the CNC. You can either do that by replying to this post below. Alternatively send me your comments or if you wish I can grant you edit authority to the project and you can add your own directly.

Last night at the Geelong Field Naturalist Club Plant Group meeting, Susan Kruss, (Brisbane Ranges) and Marilyn Hewish (Long Forest) spoke about their plant observations at their favourite locations. Lorraine Phelan gave an overview of interesting plants observed during the bioblitz and mentioned some of the well-known to the area plants that we failed to find.
Will look to share details on the meeting when it becomes available.

Cheers Rod

How did Geelong perform in the CNC 2021 Rankings?
Following are the rankings for a number of categories using different criteria.
Category Ranking (Total Number of Cities)
Overall Total Observations: 88 (419)
Total Observations with less than 100 observers: 13 (301)
% Research Grade Observations (> 500 obs): 11 (231)
Average number of Obs per observer (>20 observers): 36 (212)
Total Observations- Temperate Climate: 49 (222)
Total Observations – Oceanic Zone /Temperate: 12 (36)
No Observers participating: 144 (419)
Total No of Species found: 53 (419)
Total Research Grade Species 28 (419)
Total Observations – Australian Locations 3 (17)

Note: Observations means total verifiable observations for all cities and therefore does not include causal observations.

Overall good performance from Geelong in a strong field of contenders. Thanks very much to all observers and identifiers for their valuable contributions.

Summary of the CNC 2021 from the International organisers is below. Note One of Helen Schofield's Orchid observation is shown in the highlights from around the world. Local summary will follow later today.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize, participated in, and identified observations from the 6th annual City Nature Challenge! Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we had over 10,000 more people participate compared to last year, and for the first time ever, we made over one million observations in the four days of the challenge!

Here are the collective results:
Observations: 1,270,767
Species: 45,300+, including more than 2,100 rare/endangered/threatened species
Observers: 52,777

Most-observed species globally: Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Since you can't click the links in the infographic, here are some of the interesting observations from around the world:
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)
Lixus placidus weevil
Turkish Snail (Helix lucorum)
Witches’ Cauldron (Sarcosoma globosum)
Blainville’s Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma blainvillii)
Purplish-backed Jay (Cyanocorax beecheii)
Sargassumfish (Histrio histrio)
Southern Lion (Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita)
Common Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista philippensis)
Euglossa macrorhyncha bee
Adelpha zea butterfly
Short-clubbed Wasp Orchid (Chiloglottis reflexa)

The City Nature Challenge also contributed to the most observations uploaded in a week on iNaturalist again - and also gave iNaturalist the first two weeks ever with over one million observations uploaded!

Thanks everyone! Continue to help IDing those CNC observations - it takes awhile to get through them! We're looking forward to CNC 2022!

The organisers now have our final numbers and will include them in their event report being issued early Tuesdays our time.
In terms of number of observations, we look like being around 100th in a field of more that 300 participating cities.

During the CNC, we recorded 23 observations of 12 vulnerable/ endangered listed species. See link for details. https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?place_id=any&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2021-geelong&subview=table&threatened&verifiable=any&view=species

For the International note worthy observations report, on behalf of the Geelong Region, I have listed the Hooded Plover observation by Andrea Dennett, the Gang-gang Cockatoo - Graham Possingham , the Otway Black Snail -Kelly Clitheroe and the beautifully coloured Rainbow x Scaly -breasted Lorikeet photographed by Jeff Dagg.
Still happy to receive other nominations - refer earlier journal

Cheers Rod