Day One: We have da moss!

Day One is about done. I'm sure there are observations that will be trickling in. As I write this (10:30 pm), we have 1,694 observations of 677 species by 83 observers!!! That's stupendous for a first day, and a weekday, at that! Of course, the species count gets harder from here on out. The current leaders are Little Ol' Me with 209 observations, Dwight Bohlmeyer with 152 species, and Salt Marsh Moth with 14 observations. With all the salt marsh caterpillars I saw crossing the road today, I'm surprised there's any greenery left within 100 miles! Dwight also gets the prize for bang-for-the-buck, with 152 species in 161 observations or an observation-to-species ratio of only 1.06!

It took me three trips down Wilson Shoals Road in Madison County, but I finally found the one stupid tree with Spanish moss on it! So, we have one observation of Spanish moss in four years of the challenge. We have 62 species of birds, with great-tailed grackle leading the pack. Duh! We have 8 species of warbler (and chat), which ain't bad, but let's hope they have a killer day at the Big Sit tomorrow. Keep an eye out for feral pigeons. We don't have that one yet. We have 56 species of Lepidoptera, which is pretty good. I'm glad someone got them, but I'm sorry I missed the 2 great purple hairstreaks. One of my favorites. We got 4 tawny emperors, the first in 4 years of the challenge. (I tried, but missed it.) It may be a bit late (or early?) to pick up monarch. We have 13 species of odonate, 32 of beetle (including both the greater and lesser of two weevils), 15 of true fly, 24 of hymenopteran, 20 of hemipteran, 4 of orthoptera, a lacewing, a fishfly, a termite, a caddisfly, and a barklouse! Laura, cover your ears. We have 11 species of arachnid. We have 3 mammals, 10 reptiles, 5 amphibians, and 1 fish. And there are 2 mollusks and 2 "others": roly-poly and a millipede. A nice round 400 of those species are plants. I don't know enough about plants to know what's good or bad. There are 26 species of fungi and lichens.

I've had enough for one day. Catch you tomorrow!
Bruce

Julkaistu huhtikuu 27, 2024 04:50 AP. käyttäjältä bruceneville