Maryland Department of Natural Resources needs your help counting wild turkeys for the annual survey this month. Report your sightings here:

Maryland Department of Natural Resources needs your help counting wild turkeys for the annual survey this month. Report your sightings here:
The products that come out of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are some of the greatest examples of ROIs for both #openscience and #communityscience . Here's the first-ever global Avilist - a comprehensive birding check list of every recognized species of bird in the world:
https://ebird.org/news/avilist-a-unified-global-checklist-of-the-worlds-birds-is-now-available
Well...I cannot say I am pleased about iNaturalist partnering with Google to develop GenAI. While what iNat would like to do would be incredibly helpful, it can be done by other means (namely, uh, volunteer or employed actual experts?). My main concerns are simple, and yet, unaddressed by the iNaturalist post about this project:
1) How can we be assured that our data that we share with iNaturalist will NOT be shared with Google; as if anything it seems to suggest free sharing between iNat and Google to develop things using Google's GenAI; thus Google does have access even if indirectly.
2) Will we have an opt-out option, so our data is not used in this project
In the end, nature is about community, not machines. And I do not consent to feeding any of my data into Google's GenAI for any purpose.
Photo is one that was used in a presentation, and one of the questions asked by a 60-something year old Doctor of Biology was "That photo is so good! Is it AI?"
(If you want to see their announcement, https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/113184-inaturalist-receives-grant-to-improve-species-suggestions )
Are you ready to explore the new structure of the ECSA2026 conference? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹𝘀: 𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀, 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻! You'll find all the details on the conference website. Submit your ideas and let’s make this conference unforgettable: https://www.ecsa2026.ngo/call-for-topics/
The call is open from 22 April 2025 to 3 June 2025.
I got tired of opening eBird for incidental birds I see from my window while I work on my laptop. So, I made an automatic logger for my command line, and added an Alfred extension so I could log in with a few keystrokes.
https://codeberg.org/RichardLitt/eBird-logger
You can also add comments and numbers, which is nice.
WeDigBio returns in just 10 days! Help biodiversity efforts by mobilizing thousands of natural history records, and make your mark on community-led science. Click the link in our bio or go to https://wedigbio.org/content/register-event-tour-or-campaign to register.
If you are heavy iNaturalist user and good at plants, I could use some help identifying species from a couple of days when we visited QEII covenants in the South Island. The plant lists are going to go to the property owners to inform policy.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=228718&created_on=2025-01-21&createdDateType=exact and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=228718&created_on=2025-01-25&createdDateType=exact should be the two searches you need.
I wrote an article for the Idaho Sierra Club about the intersection of queerness and community science.
Die neuen #Abzeichen sind jetzt ausgerollt! Wer sie noch nicht sieht, macht bitte eine Pflanzenbestimmung, dann werden die Abzeichen neu geladen.
Viel Spaß beim Sammeln!
Wer keine Lust auf Abzeichen sammeln hat, darf das einfach ignorieren :)
The recording for Wednesday's iNaturalist seminar on phenology records, and their value for research, is online!
Check it out to learn how scientists—including yours truly—use phenology data in biodiversity research, and for a demo of adding phenology data to iNat records
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/105349-phenology-in-focus-exploring-plant-cycles-with-inaturalist
Please answer (and share) a short survey of 10 minutes on citizen science for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Part of the co-design of an updated declaration "Citizen Science for the Sustainable Development Goals". https://www.soscisurvey.de/CS_for_the_SDGs/ #CitizenScience #CommunityScience #SDG #Sustainability
ICYMI: https://youtube.com/live/InPne9G1N08
In this month's citizen science Q&A, Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Lauren Sgro talk about a potential stellar nova, comet A3, and the search for exoplanets while answering viewer and community member questions.
Next SETI Live: New Exoplanets Dropped! And Citizen Scientists Helped Find Them
TODAY, Sep 19, 2:30 PM PDT
One program, called UNITE (Unistellar Network Investigating TESS Exoplanets), brings together a global group of volunteer and professional astronomers. Recently, they confirmed two #exoplanets—a hot Jupiter and a warm sub-Saturn. Dr. Lauren Sgro, UNITE’s Exoplanets Lead, talks with Beth Johnson about exoplanets and #communityscience. WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/live/oM0b9jcp53A
How to get the JSON object for an iNaturalist observation from the command line: https://github.com/RichardLitt/scripts/pull/1/files.
A quarter of all bumblebee records in the last decade came from community science volunteers. Not scientists by trade, but regular people taking time out of their lives to count, photograph and collect data on these important pollinators.
Some apps are good.
#CommunityScience #science #bees
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/community-science-ignites-hope-bumble-bee-conservation
TODAY, 6 August, 9 AM PDT / 12 PM EDT
Unistellar + SETI: Citizen Science Q&A (Part 2)
WATCH LIVE: https://youtube.com/live/NwKtUfoAZYw
Join Dr. Franck Marchis, Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar and director of Citizen Science at SETI Institute, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, for a conversation on citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute.
Calling all citizen scientists!
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency needs your help to collect information on a parasitic plant known as dodder (Cuscuta spp.).
Join the Cuscuta DNA barcoding project in #iNaturalist
By joining the project & reporting your observations, you can help build a collection of dodder #DNA barcodes from across Canada that will be used to help the #CFIA detect and manage this weed.
#CitizenScience #CFIAScience #PlantHealth #CommunityScience
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/cuscuta-dna-barcoding
#PPOD: NASA's Juno captured this unusual and extraordinary view of Jupiter from the gas giant's southern hemisphere during perijove 32. The white storms are the so-called "strings of pearls". They are about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of Earth each. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / AndreaLuck
In a joint effort to expand our understanding of the cosmos and inspire global cooperation, the SETI Institute, UNISTELLAR, Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), and AstroSandbox have partnered up to provide smart telescopes to astronomy advocates across the globe. These collaborations aim to unite the expertise of SETI's renowned scientists with extensive networks of amateur astronomers and outreach programs.
Unistellar continues to innovate in astronomy. Their new product, ENVISION, is now a reality! They've launched a Kickstarter campaign for these innovative Augmented Reality Binoculars. Your support would mean the world to us and them. If you find ENVISION as exciting as we do, please consider backing their project and sharing it with your network.