500 days of observations
Yesterday I hit 500 consecutive days with at least 1 observation each day, running Feb 18. 2020 to July 1, 2021. For those 500 days, I have 7950 observations total. That's an average of 15.9 observations a day (significantly boosted by having 2 city nature challenges in that time frame), with a high of 304 and a low of 1. So far I have 1057 unique taxa identified. Of those, 5805 observations (73%) are currently identified to genus level, 4521 (57%) are identified to species, and 3505 (44%) are research grade. Arthropods make up the majority of observations (43%), followed by birds and plants at 25% each. Other vertebrates only make up ~2 % of those observations (mammals, amphibians and reptiles, no fish). Other major groups include mollusks (4%), crustaceans (~1%), and fungi and lichens (~1%). All observations were made in southern California, within 100 miles of my home. We haven't travelled for more than a day trip since the pandemic hit. Most observations were local (74%), and a good chunk of observations were around my home and yard (35%). Another 7% of observations were made around the places I work. We are lucky to have mountains, desert and beaches all within a couple of hours drive, which provided wonderful places for some of our day trips for the other ~20% of observations. I am hoping to continue my observation streak through the end of the year, maybe beyond. I will see how it goes.
