So far we've added 165 taxa to our NatureWatch NZ group (taxa are species and things only identified to higher levels of classification). That's the very beginning. In projects like these, the surveys in the field are only the beginning of the journey.

Last week, staff at Lincoln University made sure that all of our samples are properly archived. All our collected plants went into a plant press, all the invertebrates went into 70% ethanol, and all the poo collected went into the freezer to await molecular analysis.

The third-year entomology class at Lincoln University will make the initial identifications of the collected invertebrates and pass each type on to the relevant NZ expert to complete identifications and confirm which are new species.

Lincoln University and Landcare Research botanists will be looking at the pressed plants over the coming weeks and working through the identifications.

And we've got to enter all of of the observations written on the data sheets from the bird counts, plant surveys, and the different EcoBlitz modules.

Everything will be loaded up onto this NatureWatch NZ project as we work our way through it. And we'll photograph as much of it as we can so you can see what everything looks like. Watch this space.

Once that's all done, we can figure out what it all means and what it tells us about the biodiversity of the Nina Valley area and how it's changing. And get stuck in to describing and naming all our new species.

We've finished our first night of activities at the EcoBlitz. Alongside the talks, students went out spotlighting with experts for mammals, spiders, lizards, and moths. There's lots more planned for our first full day, tomorrow.