Fungi, Flowers, and Bioblitz Recap

1K Observations

This week we kicked over the k mark - 1000 observations of 396 species. Canbrou continues to lead in both observations and species, and by a long way. See the latest observations here:
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?order_by=observed_on&photos&place_id=177901&project_id=life-in-the-erbg&verifiable=any

Fungi Identifications

We are all fascinated by fungi - so far we have 155 fungi and slime mould observations in the ERBG. They are notoriously difficult to identify properly, and many Australian species can only be separated by microscopic features. Unfortunately the image matching engines in iNaturalist and google often produce a faulty ID for fungi which can add to the misidentification problem.

Our fungi observations are currently being reviewed by an expert in regional fungi and slime moulds. Many will only be properly identifiable to genus level, and in some cases only to family level. So dont be alarmed, its better to be accurate than wrong!

Record Your Flowers

You may - or may not - notice that some of our kind identifiers have been annotating your plant observations for flowering and fruiting. This information is invaluable as it will help us build an annual picture of when plants are flowering in the Garden. So save our overworked identifiers some trouble and annotate your observations - look for phenology under annotations.

On the topic of flowers - stringy barks are now flowering, they can be seen at the approach to ERBG and in the Garden itself. Eucalyptus globoidea in the Garden, but also E. eugenioides seen in coastal spots.

Spring Bioblitz

The first bioblitz at the ERBG brought together observers, photographers, scientists and others. Some of these had been using iNaturalist but were not aware of Life in the ERBG. We have new members of the project contributing some great stuff.

Nature discovery was the theme:

• around 60 people attended, including adults and children.
• 103 observations, 75 species from 7 observers - some species had never been recorded previously at the Garden.
• Nature discovery walks for kids were offered for the first time at a public event. These were adapted from the ERBGs education program and were a great success.
• Insect microscopy was a hit with adults and kids alike.

The early Bird Walk was also a resounding success - not everything was logged, some were just seen fleetingly or identified through calls. Full list of species sighted:

Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Common Bronzewing
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Purple Swamphen
White-faced Heron
Masked Lapwing
Azure Kingfisher
Laughing Kookaburra
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Crimson Rosella
Rainbow Lorikeet
Australian King Parrot
Satin Bowerbird
White-throated Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-wren
New Holland Honeyeater
White-naped Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird
Eastern Spinebill
Red Wattlebird
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Spotted Pardalote
White-browed Scrubwren
Striated Thornbill
Brown Thornbill
Olive-backed Oriole
Rufous Whistler
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Eastern Whipbird
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike
Pied Currawong
Australian Magpie
Grey Butcherbird
Willie Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Magpie-Lark
Australian Raven
Eastern Yellow Robin
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Red-Browed Finch

Posted on 23 de outubro de 2022, 06:05 AM by teacay