Over the past month iNaturalistUK users have been busy recording wildlife for three different projects.
- From 6 – 19 September the Natural History Museum ran its first Fat Spider Fortnight event.
Over 700 people recorded more than 1,300 observations of the 11 targeted species. At least 10 new geographical ranges were established.
Spider expert Tylan Berry commented on the results: “Perhaps most encouraging was that the project appears to have generated at least ten range extensions across the species list – this would be where a species was observed in a 10km square (hectad) where there are no current records held for the species.
The Fat Spider Fortnight project has uncovered at least five separate range extensions for this species, and what looks to be records to a new region of the UK!”
View the Fat Spider Fortnight records on iNaturalistUK.
Look out for another Fat Spider Fortnight in the autumn of 2022.
2. During the Great Big Green Week (18 – 26 September) citizen scientists across the UK were encouraged to take part in green activities which included using iNaturalistUK. During the week, around 25,000 observations were made of more than 3,000 species. Most common was the European Garden Spider followed by the Common Darter. You can see all the observation made in Great Big Green Week on iNaturalistUK.
3. For the last weekend in September iNaturalistUK users joined in the world’s first 48 hour continental BioBlitz. Just under 8,000 observers across Europe recorded over 6,800 species in this event. You can see the results on iNaturalistUK
Visit the Projects page on iNaturalistUK to see what projects your observations could contribute to. You could even set up your own project.
Top Tip
To find if there are any projects in an area near you:
From the top grey navigation bar select More > Places
Enter your area in the ’Find a Place’ box e.g. Liverpool city. Any projects that include Liverpool city will appear in the tabs.