Biodiversity Month - Report 131

Backyard Bioblitz

Event type: Backyard BioBlitz
Number of participants: 7 Scientists, 73 Students

General Description of area surveyed:
A small canyon with hills all the way around, oak trees everywhere, and a creek running through the property

What species was cool?
The thing that got the most attention was the baby deer. One of the participants was looking in an old drainage pipe for insects and down about three feet was a brand new baby deer stuck in the hole. He rescued it, and everyone started clapping. The pseudo scorpions were a big hit also.

Event summary:
We had 35 participants sign up for the BioBlitz, and ended up with 80 participants. I had the County 4-H All Stars come to help take registration as people came. Our first County Backyard BioBlitz was a huge success! This 4-H event was held to have kids interested in any field of living science, to come together and collect/identify every living species found. This was an excellent opportunity to teach the kids about the scientific approach.

We had 73 participants and 7 Scientists on hand to help the kids classify what they found. The process is used to count as many species from as many groups of living species as possible in a 24-hour time period. . It was held at 22221 McClellan Ranch Park in Cupertino. This is a 30-acre site with meadows, Oak studded hillside, a tree-lined creek, and a few buildings which we used as headquarters and classification central.

The Entomologist that came, Stan, was a student from San Jose State University, he is getting ready to get his major in Entomology (the study of insects) with a concentration on Taxonomy (naming insect species). He worked with the kids collecting in the field, and then at the microscopes, classifying. He did an awesome job with them, he didn't just tell them what the insect was, but he asked them questions so they could figure it out and learn from the experience.
The bat specialist (didn't catch his name) came and set up a trap across the creek at sundown. He set up his computer in the parking lot so he could monitor them. He caught six bats, brought them over to the group of kids and explained what type of bat they were, and tagged, and released them.

Two people came from the BAAR (Bay Area Amphibians, and Reptiles) was on hand to classify the snake, salamanders, and lizards we caught. He was wonderful, when a member caught something and brought it up to headquarters, he would get all excited, and have them show him exactly where it was found.
The professional Botanist, Jeff Caldwell and his wife, was a specialist in grasses, but he knew a lot about Biology and was a big help classifying the plant life at the park. He really took the time to sit down and tell the kids, that if you have a certain type of grass in an area, you can be sure you have certain kinds of insects. We learned a lot from him.

The bird specialists (two) came early Sunday morning (5:30 am) and went around counting the birds that were on the property, there were 44 different species of birds. Including some owls, oriels, and beautiful Western Blue birds.
Everyone that attended the Bioblitz had a great time. The Santa Clara County 4-H sent their team of County Ambassadors to assist in the organizing of teams, kept track of who was there and when they left. They used the walky talky's to send teammates where they belonged. They did a great job!

It was absolutely wonderful to see a scientist working with 5-year old talking about what they had found, and talking to them as though they were a colleague.
I had incredible feed back, everyone wanted to know when the next one will be. EVERYONE, even parents, had a great time and they were happy catching as well.