FNCB iNaturalist's Journal

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!

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.

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!

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.