Become a citizen scientist
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Have you noticed the change in your own back yard?
The number of birds and animals coming to our feeding station is amazing. Yesterday our neighbour saw a blue bird, not a blue jay but the little brilliant blue bird. When we first moved into our home 37 years ago we were visited by a blue bird and built a little house for them. They stopped coming within a year or so after that.
We are at the edge of town on North St. W. but we have never had a redtail hawk use our neighbourhood buffet of bird feeders for his dining pleasure before. North St. was a busy street with trucks cars and agricultural equipment rumbling by, but COVID-19 really slowed that down so it is much safer for the big raptors to get their free food.
Do you get off the couch to watch nature outside? You are a citizen scientist! Didn’t know that did you? Simply observing, you put facts in your head so why not share with scientists so they can learn more about all species we must share our planet with. Now only wildlife life but plants too! Now this is something you can do as a family or all by yourself and for every age, from kids through to seniors, year-round.
People have watched since time began, but the general public didn’t get really involved scientifically until the last couple of centuries. Back in 1900, 27 people in 25 locations including Toronto and Scotch Lake, New Brunswick counted 18,500 birds and 89 species. This first bird census was the beginning of what is now called Citizen Science. In 2018-19 80,000 people counted 49 million birds on a one-day count in 2,616 locations. But now it isn’t just about birds it is expanding to all areas of ecology and natural science and we have a lot more than a book, eyes or binoculars to use. We have online networks, crowd sourcing, digital photography, smartphones, drones and other technology and software needed to help, which is also readily available to us. Plus, the scientist have the computers to handle the gazillion photos and data we can send.
So, what do you like? Insects? If you want to know how insects are doing go for a drive and see how dirty your windshield gets. When I was young, Dad had a summer ice-scraper in the car that he could use on bugs and the mayflies would cover the screen of our back door. Did you know they live for a day and have been around for 100 million years? Here’s the scary one, from studies in Germany in 1989 and 2016 results show 76 per cent drop in insect biomass. We need insects and in your back yard there should be a cornucopia of them. Why not check it out compare your results with a friend and the scientists!
If you have been doing Turtle Tally with the Toronto Zoo you are a seasoned Citizen Science! They have a great program for turtles, frogs/toads, and will send great flash cards or you can use app@torontozoo.ca. Check out all their programs at www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond.
Two of the largest bio diversified, Citizen Science platforms you can go to are eBird and iNaturalist, both of which use experts and us. You get to post your information and photos.
eBird, managed by Cornell Lab or Ornithology, have globally entered 140 million sightings. iNaturalist began in 2008 and today is partnered California Academy of Science and National Geographic, the number of sighing doubling to 2019 have 14 million. We have a branch in Canada, iNaturalist.ca that works with CWF (Canadian Wildlife Federation), Nature Serve Canada, Parks Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum.
These two groups will share your sightings, track and use your information and save it online, all for free, including the apps for your computer/phone.
If you don’t like computers and smart phones you can get your species field books, note books, magnifying glass, camera, binoculars, whatever you need but you will have to send it in by computer etc.
Besides being fun to learn about all the different species including plants in your back yard, parks, beaches or forests, you get access to the information on line to learn more but you are helping the experts learn more. All of the information will help track the extinction and hopefully recovery rates more accurately, migration routes, diseases, invasive species, etc.
What a wonderful project for kids in the summer, for families or seniors who want a purpose, you can do all kinds of sightings, even from a balcony.
Check out the sights and get busy and become a Citizen Scientist, or you could even form a Tillsonburg Group! That would be fun. The sky, the trees the dirt and the water will provide what you need.
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