Washington County Explorers's Journal

Well I kinda dropped off the face of the planet for a while, and for that i am sorry. But I am impressed with this project. We have surpassed my goal of 3000 species and I believe we are at over 25000 observations. I dont expect any huge discoveries this year, but i would like to see the day this project is at 3500 species and 50000 observations, but those are goals for the next few years. Currently I am interested to see how many species of birds we can find this month. if anyone is interested in helping me curate the observations and/or the bigger task of curing what species are expected to be found, along with native versus introduced species please reach out

Happy exploring

I’ve been a little distracted the last few months but am returning to my duties here on Inat. I will post a review later this week or beginning of next for how we have done so far. You all have been great this last year, and we have so much left to explore here in out beautiful county. I would love to feature people and their stories/favorite observations if people are interested in doing so.

Happy exploring

So I decided to make a website, for this project. This stemmed from the desire to be able to makes graphs and other things that are difficult to do here on Inaturalist. The website is a work in progress, but it will have a wealth of information for Washington County.

https://washingtoncountyexplorers.wordpress.com/

Well its the end of the year. This has been an interesting year all around, and a very exciting year for the county. This project has found numerous first time species for the county in the 8 months so far. Every season there was something new to find, as we all got out and explored this beautiful place we call home. Below are the different categories broken up by higher classification. The brackets are what we have currently, "" are what was at the beginning of this project in April, and the + is the difference

Total species by group
VERTEBRATES
Birds (234) "194" +40
Mammals (48) "38" +10
Amphibians (14) "13" +1
Reptiles (12) "11" +1
Fishes (17) "14" +3

INVERTEBRATES
Insects (549) "368" +181
Arachnids (69) "52" +17
Other (34) "28" +6
Mollusks (30) "22" +8

PLANTS
Plants (1208) "942" +266
Fungi (485) "380" +185
Chromista (1) "1" +0

OTHER
Protozoans (10) "10" +0

TOTAL ADDED SPECIES 714
CURRENT NUMBER OF SPECIES 2714

I believe there are at least 3000 species that call this county home, or pass through it during migration. I know it sounds like a lot but in these last eight months we as a collective have added 714 missing species. So adding another 286 during 2021 should not be impossible. Henry Hagg Lake and the western edge of the county is producing the most new species, so if you can get out there for a few hours.

I want to thank everyone who has participated in this project, and make a few special shout outs. Thank you too @susankirkbride and @philkahler for adding previous county rarities. @insectology thank you for the variety of organisms across the board, and all the county firsts you have found on your adventures. @jonhakim thank you for the rarities you have found while exploring along the border of us and Columbia County. @fernsibley thanks for repeatedly going to Commonwealth lake and showing the diversity that can appear their over the course of a year. Also a special thanks to @jmaughn and @anudibranchmom for their contributions when they traveled up here from California over the years.

Due to a glitch which wiped out a chunk of data, we did unfortunately lose a couple thousand observations and maybe 80 or so species. But we are recovering a and I hope that the admins can fix it. I unfortunately did not make 300 observations but did make 200. I want to remind you all to be on the lookout for rare birds moving through the county this month. Lets make this a great December and get to 34/35k observations.

Its November. Migration of shorebirds and raptors is still underway. I asked if we could get 31,000 before today. You guys exceeded with an extra 451 observations. Thank you so much for everyone who goes out and reports on any life that resides inside of this wonderful county we call home.

Overall stats
Observations: 31,451
Species: 2,754

New observations: 1658
Observations per day : 55.2

New species: 78
New species per day: 2.6
New species per observation: 1/20

New species:
Plants: 27
Birds: 2
Mammals: 3
Amphibians: 0
Reptiles: 0
Insects: 15
Fungi: 30
Arachnids: 1
Fishes: 0
Other: 0
Mollusks: 1
Chromista: 0
Protozoans: 0

Can we make 34,000k by December. I know its alot but I am going to try and do 300 of those observations personally. Is anyone else willing to pledge to that as well?

Oops. Little late on this one. Our numbers are down this month but we did have all that nasty smoke so it’s completely understandable. Raptors are migrating this month along with shorebirds and many other species. Can we get another new bird this month?

Overall stats
Observations: 29,793
Species: 2,676

New observations: 1451
Observations per day : 48

New species: 80
New species per day: 2.66
New species per observation: 1/20

New species:
Plants: 46
Birds: 3
Mammals: 1
Amphibians: 0
Reptiles: 0
Insects: 6
Fungi: 8
Arachnids: 5
Fishes: 0
Other: 0
Mollusks: 1
Chromista: 0
Protozoans: 0

Can we get 31,000 total observations before November ?

Yeah im a little slow this time. Had to work on my day off. But no need to listen to me. August has come and gone.

Overall stats
Observations: 28,342
Species: 2,596

New observations: 1850
Observations per day : 60

New species: 56
New species per day: 1.8
New species per observation: 1/33

New species:
Plants: 18
Birds: 0
Mammals: 0
Amphibians: 0
Reptiles: 0
Insects: 33
Fungi: 2
Arachnids: 2
Fishes: 0
Other: 2
Mollusks: 0
Chromista: 0
Protozoans: 0

Can we get 30,000 total observations before October?

We you guys did it. Today the project cracked 28k observations, can we get another 250 to 500 before the first? Thank you to everyone who has participated in adding to this great land we call Washington County. There will always be more to find, and I am so happy with what you guys find daily.

This species of sedge (Carex aurea) is missing from the state as a whole. It can be found in wet areas, with soil that has a basic ph. Its fruits are a golden orange in color.

Photos
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/76017-Carex-aurea/browse_photos