How often to make observations of local organisms?

[jackcadwell]

Observations of the same species in the same place over time might help researchers learn something in the future. Capturing an organism, and its surroundings, sends a lot of information to people in the future. I hope the AI will be able to search landscape photos in the future and find stuff we don’t wee when we are taking photos.

We had a severe wind storm in 2019. Many groups of trees were blown down, exposing bedrock. I have been making observations as some opened canopy areas grows new plants.

With climate change, the forests in New England are getting younger as big trees don’t make it. I am documenting the big trees near me. Little ones, too, as I’m out wandering. Photos of the same trees year after year might be useful in the future.

I wish someone had photographed the Chestnuts. I remember the big Beeches from the 1960’s, but the groves of big Beeches have been replaced, and I don’t have photos. I’m recording three sugar bushes with ancient Sugar Maples.

The other reason to photograph the same things in the same place is to see when things bloom, fruit, and die off. We have a lot of photos of Canada Mayflowers blooming in May, but showing the ones still green in October, maybe November now, could be useful.

[binned]

I have a similar dilemma. I snorkel and dive in local areas where I see many common species which I don’t bother to record or only record once. So I worry about skewing the record of biodiversity etc… However, I think that this is where bioblitzes, such as GSBB and CNC are invaluable because people tend to record everything they see just to make up the numbers.

[nancylightfoot]

On eBird, repeated lists from favorite locations (patches) are considered among the most valuable types of data. I think a daily snapshot of your wasps would be valuable, and I would have no issue IDing them if I were expert in that area. I think this type of daily record is especially valuable around seasonal transitions as we grapple with Global Climate Change.

Bear in mind that it is very easy to skip over an organism if you are annoyed about having to ID it multiple times. I would definitely ID your paper wasps every day if I had the skills. Don’t forget that there’s probably lots of other stuff to see out there though. It gets to be a bit of an addiction…