FNCB iNaturalist's Journal

March 6, 2024

Exploring Long Forest

Our March field trip was held on Sunday 3rd. Marilyn Hewish (@mhewish), assisted by our own @enfieldservices, led us on walks through parts of the Long Forest Flora and Fauna Reserve. Marilyn has been observing and recording the biodiversity of the area for many years, and her knowledge and expertise was greatly appreciated by all attendees.

Click on this link to see all the observations we recorded on the day. As we were outside the Ballarat area, our observations also appear in our FNCB Members At Large project.

Marilyn has created iNaturalist projects that collect all observations made in the reserve, by anyone, at any time. Over 1,000 different species have been observed. Here is her umbrella project, from which you can access a project including observations that still need identification, and another for all fully identified observations (i.e. those which are research grade): Biodiversity of Long Forest.

Thanks to our leaders for keeping us all on the right track, and showing us a fascinating place that was new to many of us.

Posted on March 6, 2024 10:12 PM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

February 6, 2024

Warrnambool

On the 4th February, for our first field trip for the year, Andy Arnold took members of the Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat to various sites around Warrnambool, exploring the estuaries of the Merri and Hopkins Rivers. We met up with Dr John Sherwood at Moyjil (Point Richie), who explained the geology, and evidence of Aboriginal use of the area over many thousands of years.

Observations made during the trip do not appear in this project, due to being more than 50km from Ballarat, but you can see them all here.

They also appear in our "FNCB Members At Large" project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fncb-members-at-large

Many thanks to Andy for another interesting excursion!

Posted on February 6, 2024 11:20 PM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 1 comment | Leave a comment

December 27, 2023

Complementary Project

Since the focus of this project was reduced to a circle of 50km around Ballarat, observations made by members outside that 50km were more difficult to access. To redress that, there is now a companion project, "FNCB Members At Large":
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fncb-members-at-large

The intention is for the new project to include observations by members and associates of the Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat as they travel outside the Ballarat region. It will be a way to share observations made while on holiday and at SEANA camps, or for collecting observations made on more distant field trips such as the upcoming trip to Warrnambool.

The project will collect observations made only by people who are listed in the project. If you would like your iNat account to be added to the list, please either leave a comment here or send me a message through iNaturalist (or by email if you have my address).

Posted on December 27, 2023 03:56 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

December 15, 2023

Wrapping Up the GSB

The time for uploading or identifying observations included in the 2023 Great Southern BioBlitz has now passed. Here is a link to the Ballarat Region project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2023-ballarat-region

At the official end of the uploading period we had a total of 1003 observations, which put us in 56th position. You can see the whole list of participating groups and their totals at the Umbrella Project here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2023-umbrella

Over 30 people contributed observations to the Ballarat effort, some of them deliberately and some without any awareness of the BioBlitz. We saw over 440 species, and 55% of our observations are Research Grade so far. Thank you everyone who contributed. Special thanks to Elspeth @cygnet for her outstanding contribution, topping the species and observations tables for the 3rd year in a row!

If you would like to compare this year's results with previous years, I have created an umbrella project for Ballarat's bioblitz projects, which you can see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ballarat-region-bioblitz
(But remember that this year we had a smaller area, as Castlemaine Field Nats took over Hepburn East - the area around Daylesford.)

The 2024 GSB will be held in September. Hope to see you BioBlitzing then!

Posted on December 15, 2023 06:37 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

December 7, 2023

End of Year at Berringa

The Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat had their end of year celebration and field trip on 3rd of December. We visited a private nature reserve in Berringa in the afternoon, then had a picnic meal at Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary. Some members returned to the nature reserve afterwards, to see the nocturnal animals such as bandicoots and bettongs that we had only caught glimpses of during the day.

I'm hoping that some photos of the nocturnal animals will be added, even though the observations would be casual, like this one of a Red-necked Wallaby that we saw during the day.

Here is a link to all the observations made on the day. (This query also picks up a few observations made before the field trip began.)

Best wishes to all, and happy observing, until our regular field trips resume in February 2024.

Posted on December 7, 2023 08:24 PM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

November 27, 2023

Great Southern BioBlitz Thanks

Thank you to everyone who has contributed observations! I hope you enjoyed getting out and exploring, even though it has been a very wet weekend.

Although the observation period has finished, you can still upload photos or sound recordings taken on the weekend and they will be added to the project. Observations can be added and identification can continue for 14 days - until the 11th December. At that point the totals for the bioblitz will be finalised.

Posted on November 27, 2023 08:29 PM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

November 20, 2023

BioBlitz Opportunity - Friday 24th November

Members, friends, and other interested people are invited to take part in a BioBlitz afternoon at Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary this coming Friday, 24th November, as part of the Great Southern Bioblitz.

BYO lunch to eat on the verandah of the Clare Miller Environment Centre from 12.15/12.30pm, ready for a 1pm start for the BioBlitz (convening at the Centre). Attendees should wear sturdy footwear and possibly gaiters, be sunsmart, and bring a water bottle, their favourite field guides and any of the following: hand lens/ binoculars/ camera/ smart-phone with the iNaturalist app.

Any observations made at Clarkesdale will automatically be added to the Ballarat Region GSB Project, which you can see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2023-ballarat-region

Happy BioBlitzing!

Posted on November 20, 2023 12:34 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment

November 15, 2023

Project Area Change

In order to keep this project relevant to the Ballarat region, I have changed the boundary of observations that will be included. The new catchment area is a circle with a radius of 50km centred on the Ballarat Town Hall.

When this project was originally created, it covered the City of Ballarat and some adjoining municipal areas. Back then members had to add their observations to the project manually. When Bill converted the project to a collection project, the area settings changed so that observations from the whole of Victoria were collected. I don't know if this collection area change was accidental or deliberate, but it has meant that the project to some extent lost its Ballarat focus. Rather than return to using the municipal boundaries, which are quite variable in terms of the distances from Ballarat, I created the new circular "place".

If you have any concerns about this change, please comment below.

Posted on November 15, 2023 05:17 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 2 comments | Leave a comment

November 7, 2023

Beautiful Day at Mt. Beckworth

Our November field trip to Mt Beckworth was led by Roger Thomas and @enfieldservices. Their encyclopedic knowledge of the plants and birds of the region was invaluable as they pointed out tiny plants almost too small to see (such as the Pygmy Sundew and the Pink Bladderwort) and easily identified birds by their calls.

Did you know that we have a project for observations at Mt. Beckworth? You can find it here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fncb-mt-beckworth
You don't need to join the project to have observations register in it. It is a collection project which gathers up any observations made within the boundaries of the Mt Beckworth Scenic Reserve, by anyone, at any time.

Click to see all the observations made during our field trip.

Thanks to our leaders for another enthralling expedition!

Posted on November 7, 2023 11:26 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 2 comments | Leave a comment

October 13, 2023

Great Southern BioBlitz 2023

The Great Southern BioBlitz will be held from Friday 24th to Monday 27th November.
The world-wide City Nature Challenge is held each year in the northern hemisphere spring and is hugely popular. But as that is autumn for us, some southern hemisphere naturalists got together and created the Great Southern BioBlitz so that we could record what happens in spring in our half of the world.
The GSB was first held in 2020, and we have participated every year.

The Ballarat Region Project for 2023 has been created, and you can join now to keep up to date with any announcements, and to see what observations are made once the BioBlitz starts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2023-ballarat-region
The project will automatically collect any observations, by anyone, made in our area during the BioBlitz, so joining the project is not essential for your observations to count.
You might notice that the Ballarat Region is a bit smaller this year. Castlemaine Field Naturalists have taken over the Hepburn East area (the area around Daylesford).

Last year we had a successful day BioBlitzing at Clarkesdale, although floods caused the cancellation of another planned group BioBlitz at Mt Erip. The late November timing this year, combined with possible El Niño weather, may make for less than ideal conditions of a different kind.
Whether participating in a group BioBlitz, or BioBlitzing your own backyard, you could find something you’ve never seen before. Happy observing!

Posted on October 13, 2023 03:15 AM by vireyajacquard vireyajacquard | 0 comments | Leave a comment