I’ll be heading out to the coast for a few days. Mainly for relaxation, but I’ve got a couple of projects I’ll work into the schedule between surf sessions. Hopefully, the high pressure system will remain in place allowing me to grab some aerial footage for clients. I recently upgraded to Hero 4 black as I need to film in 4K.
I also want to try my hand at something that’s intrigued me for some time – a bioblitz. Unfortunately, I missed the ones being conducted by the National Parks this year. They were held back in the spring when I was just too busy to get out much. I’ll use some online resources to help identify the species I’m unsure about (I’ll post more on that later, perhaps from the field as I is a subject onto itself) and if all goes well, I’m toying with the idea of planning/hosting one somewhere on the coast for next year.
An intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area.
So What is a BioBlitz?
The simple definition is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. A bioblitz differs from a scientific inventory in a number of ways.
Scientific inventories are usually limited to biologists, geographers, and other scientists. A bioblitz brings together volunteer scientists, as well as families, students, teachers, and other members of the community. To encourage more public participation, these BioBlitzes are often held in urban parks or nature reserves close to cities, so I may of the do a bit of thinking on just where to hold one. Brad will be joining me for a portion of my stay so I’m sure he’ll have some thoughts and ideas on the whole endeavor.
European Green Crab
Last week I did a quick news piece on the invasive European Green Crab (Do You Know Where Your Green Crabs Are Sleeping?). Since then I’ve heard back from Emily Grason, Program Coordinator of the Crab Team. Their identification workshops won’t start up again till next April, but she’s provide links (both cheat sheets and videos) to some training material in the meantime.
As I’ll be in close proximity to Willapa Bay, which is one of the few places that the European Green Crabs have been verified, I plan to kill two birds with one stone and hold my trail bioblitz over at the head of the bay. Another location that might be worth exploring would be the North River. A few years back we made a trip up river and if memory servers the place was packed with life.
With luck, I’ll post an update from the coast so check back on either the success or failure of my projects. Either way, I’m sure it will be interesting!
