1,000 Species In My Yard

[ncb1221]

After a little less than 5 years on iNaturalist, I finally reached my 1,000th species in my yard in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. This Alligatorweed Flea Beetle larva was number 1,000. I’ve used a custom tag to keep track of this since I obscure any observations I make at my home. Here’s a link to all my yard observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?q=ncb1221%20-%20my%20yard&search_on=tags&user_id=ncb1221&view=species

Here’s a summary of what I’ve found.

By Taxon

• 122 Birds
  

• 11 Mammals
  

• 17 Reptiles
  

• 11 Amphibians
  

• 6 Crustaceans
  

• 5 Mollusks
  

• 608 Insects
  

• 8 Springtails
  

• 49 Arachnids
  

• 11 Myriapods
  

• 7 Other Animals
  

• 102 Plants
  

• 36 Fungi
  

• 2 Bacteria
  

• 4 Slime Molds
  

• 1 Virus
  

By Identified Rank

• 755 Species
  

• 301 Genera
  

• 96 Families
  

• 22 Orders
  

• 9 Classes
  

• 6 Phyla
  

• 2 Kingdoms
  

• 10 Observations of “Life”
  

By Grade

• 597 Research Grade
  

• 565 Needs ID
  

By Status

• 78 Introduced
  

• 512 Native
  

I’m not sure how many more I’ll find, but here’s to the next 1,000 species! I have somewhere between 8-10 birds that I’ve seen in my yard that I haven’t gotten an observation of yet. I’ve even seen an otter nearby, but it went around the corner never to be seen again. One of the most surprising ones I’ve seen was a fish (possibly a mullet) being carried by an osprey from nearby water. Looking foward to my first fish observation from the yard. I don’t expect to see TOO many more vertebrate species from the yard. But plants, insects, and other tiny organisms may help boost me up to 1,500 or even 2,000 one day.

I’d love to hear and read about other people’s yard or 5MR projects, milestones, and goals.

[spiphany]

There have been a couple of relevant threads:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/house-of-a-thousand-species/47407
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/monitoring-gardens-and-spreading-the-message/26094

You can also check out the projects collected here to see other people’s home/yard lists (note that there probably many more users who also track this, but either don’t use a project to do so or haven’t joined the umbrella project)

[tiwane]

Cool! About how large is your yard?

[ncb1221]

Right around a 1/4 acre. It’s in a suburban neighborhood with lots of trees and a nearby swamp.

[egordon88]

Thanks for sharing the link.

Using iNat numbers, I’ve photographed 780 nocturnal species attracted to UV lights in my 1/5th acre suburban garden. Total insect count is a little more than double that, plus other invertebrates, birds, plants, etc. It’s hard to keep adding after 5 years, but not impossible. One of life’s unexpected joys!

[frogmountain]

Did you include stuff that you planted?

[ncb1221]

No, only wild. Some of the things I’ve planted have attracted some interesting bugs though.

[chipperatl]

Thank you for this. I was able to create a project for my yard, and get it added to the Umbrella Project.

[egordon88]

Using the same taxonomic groups as you, I have recorded these in New Mexico:

62 Birds
9 Mammals (stray cats included, dogs and humans not)
4 Reptiles
0 Amphibians
0 Crustaceans
0 Mollusks
1656 Insects
4 Springtails
73 Arachnids
4 Myriapods
10 Other Animals
81 Wild Plants (plus 208 cultivated varieties)
28 Fungi
2 Bacteria
1 Slime Molds
2 Plant Viruses

[ncb1221]

That’s a lot of insects! I need to finally get a moth sheet setup. I’ve been procrastinating forever.

[egordon88]

It’s not all fun either! Hundreds of extra photos to crop, sorting through plates of gray and brown moths, battling mosquitoes…

[jgw_atx]

You 100% should do this, especially if you have the equipment to make photos of very small arthropods. I’m at over 1000 species just at blacklights in my urban yard. >350 spp. of beetles and >350 spp. of moths. So far. I still find something new-to-me almost every time I turn on the lights. There is a lot of stuff that is difficult to find otherwise, or is nocturnal, or just too small to notice (unless you’re sweeping/beating vegetation or doing berlese funnel extraction or something like that).

[egordon88]

Lifer moth genus in my backyard last night. Always something new to see in our yards!

[chipperatl]

1000% agreed. You never know what will show up. I had over 1050 moths in my yard and thought it would be hard to add to that, but am around 40 more so far this year. Plus the chance to find something new for the region. I have 23 moths that are possible 1st state records. I’ve even had a lacewing that was only iNat photo at one point. You never know what will be out there when you walk out the door at night.