Backyard BioBlitz

Backyard BioBlitz — Find and Identify as many species in a specific area

The primary goal of a BioBlitz is to get an overall count of the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms that live in a place.  Use your map as a guide to see what you can find in this area! 

Materials:

1. Tree ID Guide
2. Go Botany — New England guide to plants
3. Fungi ID Guide
4. Bird ID Guide
5. Mammal (Tracks) ID Guide
6. Mammals 
7. Insects & Arachnids (Vermont guide)
8. Insects (only)
9. Annelids (Segmented worms: bristleworms, ragworms, earthworms, leeches and their allies)
10. Mollusks (Snails, clams, mussels, squids, octopi, chitons, and tusk shells)
11. Arachnids (Spiders, mites, scorpions, whipscorpions, pseudoscorpions)
12. Fish
13. Reptiles and Amphibians
14. iNaturalist (optional, create your own account)
15. Paper 
16. Hard surface to write on
17. Pencil

What to do:

• Learn more about a BioBlitz from National Geographic here
• Set up your paper like this or you might want to create a nature journal
• Write down the key traits for each taxon
• Decide what taxon you want to focus on (today) and look at the ID guide to see what you might find
• Walk around your mapped space and see what you can find!
• Add the species you find to your map!

BioBlitz Data Collection Sheet

Taxon	Annelids	Mollusks	Arachnids
Key Traits	Invertebrate with soft body -Segmented body -No legs	Invertebrate with soft body -Body has head and foot -Body has mantle that secretes hard shell	Invertebrate, hard exoskeleton -Two body parts -Eight legs
Local Examples
# of Species Found

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Taxon	Insects	Bony Fish	Amphibians
Key Traits	-Invertebrate with hard exoskeleton -Three body parts -Six legs	-Vertebrate, bony skeleton -Cold-blooded -Breathe with gills -Scales and fins	-Vertebrates -Cold-blooded -Live in water as young, land/water as adults -No scales
Local Examples
# of Species Found

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Taxon	Reptiles	Birds	Mammals
Key Traits	-Vertebrates -Cold-blooded -Breathe with lungs -Scales	-Vertebrates, hollow bones -Warm-blooded -Lay eggs -Feathers	-Vertebrates -Warm-blooded -Live birth -Hair/fur
Local Examples
# of Species Found

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Taxon	Plants	Fungi	Total Species Found
Key Traits	-Make own food (photosynthesis) -Most contain green pigment called chlorophyll -Cannot move	-Absorb food from host -Bodies made of tubes called hyphae -Reproduce by spores	What surprised you about what you found? Why?
Local Examples			Do you think there are more species to discover? Why?
# of Species Found			Total Number of Species:

Adapted from the National Geographic Backyard BioBlitz Activity