carrieseltzer's Journal

I'd love to meet more of you in real life! Let's get together.

Saturday, August 22, 9 am through lunch
Audubon Naturalists Society Woodend Sanctuary
8940 Jones Mill Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Matt Muir (aka muir) was the first person who I "met" on iNaturalist in 2012 and now we both live in Washington, DC but we've never met! Now we will. We also both have toddlers who take afternoon naps, so we've organized this to be well before lunch and nap time. Other kids are definitely welcome!

There's picnic space if you want to bring your lunch. The preserve is small, but you can walk from there down to Rock Creek if you want to go further.

Please post in the comments if you plan to attend and you can also message me directly.

Hope to meet more of you soon!

Is anyone going to the Ecological Society of America's 100th Annual Meeting in Baltimore next week? If so, I'd love to meet you.

I'll be there and you can find me at the National Geographic booth in the exhibit hall. Please stop by!

I've corresponded with several people in the area via email, but I thought I'd do one more journal post about this to see if it catches any more folks.

Where:
Audubon Naturalists Society Woodend Sanctuary
8940 Jones Mill Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Convene near the gazebo (near the gift shop)
Map of Woodend

When:
Saturday, August 22, 9 am through lunch (feel free to bring a picnic lunch for yourself)

Why:
To meet other iNaturalists, of course!

Direct message me on iNaturalist if you arrive and can't find us :-)

I've come across several different resources in the last week or so that I think many other iNaturalists might find interesting/useful. Enjoy!

Plant-O-Matic app (for iOS)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plant-o-matic/id906932765?mt=8

Monarch SOS (iOS app that shows you how to ID monarchs at each stage of the lifecycle and milkweed, too!)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monarch-sos/id956347677?mt=8

Using BioBlitz as the foundation of semester-long inquiry-based science with undergrads: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/scienceforward/course-materials/bioblitz-tools/ (Fabulous resources created by iNat user Kelly O'Donnell)

Smartphone apps for field biologists
http://brunalab.org/apps/

Bumble Bees of the Western United States (pdf)
http://www.pollinator.org/PDFs/BumbleBee.GuideWestern.FINAL.pdf

Workshop in Florida to learn about bark and ambrosia beetles
http://www.ambrosiasymbiosis.org/academy/2016/

And while I'm at it, I should also add a link to the 3 biodiversity scavenger hunts that we've created for the Great Nature Project.
http://natgeoed.org/naturemissions

Biodiversity is all around us, but it can be helpful to have a discrete list to focus attention around a particular kind of organism or concept. That's why we've been creating biodiversity scavenger hunts that we call "missions". So far, we've created missions around three different themes and have plans for several more.

Butterfly Mission: Explore butterfly and moth life cycles. (pdf)

Food Web Mission: Find a food web in your neighborhood. (pdf)

Vacation Mission: Find biodiversity while you travel. (pdf)

We'd love to hear what you think! Do these challenge you to find different organisms or think differently about what you see? How will/did/can you use it? What other topics would you like to see? Feel free to comment here or email us at greatnatureproject@ngs.org.

This morning seven iNaturalists plus two toddlers met up at the Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Left to right: muir (Matt Muir), muir's son, calopteryx (Matthew O'Donnell), briangratwicke (Brian Gratwicke), jhammock (Jen Hammock), treegrow (Katja Schulz), botanygirl (Amanda Treher), carrieseltzer (Carrie Seltzer), and Carrie's daughter.

Brian holding a Chinese mantis (thanks to Katja for the id!).

The littlest naturalists shared their food. Katja also made delicious date bars (I don't think we got photographic documentation though so it's unverifiable).

We had a lovely time exploring just a small section of the sanctuary. I think naturalists and toddlers move at about the same speed :-) Between talking and toddler wearing/chasing, I didn't make many observations. briangratwicke, treegrow, muir, and calopteryx all came with nice cameras so watch for their observations.

Who wants to organize the next one? Pick a time and place!