A freshly metamorphosed Gray Treefrog shows off its beautiful green coloration and sticky toe-pads. ©@erint

Congratulations to @erint for winning the August 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Her adorable photo of a young Gray Treefrog (or perhaps Treefroglet?) received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

Late summer is the best time of year in Vermont to be on the lookout for teeny-tiny recently metamorphosed Gray Treefrogs and Spring Peepers. Once they’ve shed their tadpole tail and sprouted legs, these froglets will emerge from the ponds and wetlands they grew up in to explore the surrounding landscape. If you’re out for a walk by your local pond or wetland, keep an eye out for these minuscule amphibians clinging to vegetation with their sticky toe pads. Those who have been lucky enough to see an adult Gray Treefrog will notice that this recently metamorphosed individual does not yet have the gray, warty skin of an adult; in this early stage of development a Gray Treefrog’s skin is mostly smooth and emerald green. In a few weeks though, this little frog will fully grow into its Latin name of Hyla versicolor, becoming a warty, lichen-patterned adult Gray Treefrog with the ability to shift its coloration from whitish to gray to green and black. To learn more about freshly-metamorphosed frogs and see more photos, check out the Vermont Reptile & Amphibian Atlases latest Herp Update.

With 30,481 observations submitted by 2,162 observers in August, it was very competitive. Click on the image above to see and explore all of the amazing observations.

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fave’ star on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!

It took a photo, a drawing, a naturalist’s boundless curiosity, and bee experts from across the nation for Vermont to claim a new bumblebee species for the state last week.

In 2008, artist and naturalist Susan Sawyer snapped a beautiful photo of a bumblebee in her yard. “I took this and many other photos of bees in my yard over the years,” said Susan. “In 2016, when I needed to draw a bumblebee, I used this one to work from.” She showed it to VCE staff at the time, and we knew it was a cuckoo bumblebee, but we weren’t sure which species. Then, we forgot about it. “The VCE team had ideas about what it was, but I don’t think they were 100% certain, with only this one photo; so, the drawing’s title was just Bombus sp., a Cuckoo Bumblebee,” she said.

A few weeks ago, Spencer Hardy, VAL wild bee expert, joined Susan and staff from Four Winds Nature Institute to teach them about native bees. She remembered the bee in question and showed him the drawing. He knew immediately it was a cuckoo bumblebee and might be an interesting record. Spencer asked her to post the original photo to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist so he could easily share it with other experts to get their opinion too.

Right away, Zach Portman, a bee taxonomist at the University of Minnesota, made the identification—Indiscriminate Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus insularis). Bumblebee expert Leif Richardson from the Xerces Society took a close look and agreed. World expert John Ascher, an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore and Research Associate at Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, concurred.

The Indiscriminate Bumblebee is native to western mountains and northern areas of North America. It belongs to the subgenus Psithyrus, the cuckoo bumblebees, which are social parasites of other bumblebees. The queens enter the nest of a host species, kill the resident queen, and then live and lay eggs in the nest. The host workers are forced by aggression and pheromones to rear the offspring.

This species has declined in some areas and disappeared from a few parts of its historical range. NatureServe ranks the Indiscriminate Bumblebee as globally vulnerable (G3), with Maine ranking it critically imperiled (S1) and New York calling it possibly extirpated (SH). Some of its host species have faced significant declines as well. Potential threats include habitat loss, pesticides, pathogens from domesticated bees, competition from introduced bees, and climate change.

Want to help VAL track bumblebees and other pollinators? Join the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist, snap images of the bees in your neighborhood, and add your sightings to the project. Susan’s finding shows how much you can discover in your own yard, local parks, and nearby greenspaces!

The annual Vermont Monarch Monitoring Blitz is back for a 7th edition! From July 28 to August 13, 2023, join the blitz to help us get a snapshot of Monarch populations in Vermont before migration.

Mission Monarch is a community science program to gather data on Monarch and Milkweed distribution and abundance each year during the breeding season. Participants find milkweed, look for Monarchs (eggs, larvae, and adults) and share their observations with us on the Mission Monarch website. It allows us to get an annual snapshot of how Monarchs are faring in Vermont and beyond.

Participation is simple! Just complete one or more missions during the Blitz between July 28 through August 13 and add your observations to Mission Monarch. Conducting a mission is easy and fun! From backyards to mountain meadows, all you need is a place where milkweed is growing. 

What is a mission?
Conducting a mission and participating in Mission Monarch is simple and fun! To conduct a mission, just follow the following steps:

1. Find milkweed - Go outside and look for milkweed. It can be wild as well as cultivated milkweed. To learn how to recognize milkweed and know where to find it, click here.
2. Search for monarchs - Carefully examine milkweed plants, looking for monarch eggs and caterpillars. They can be on or under leaves, in flowers or on fruits. It is important to look everywhere! Note the number milkweed stems you examined. It can be just one stem or a hundred; it’s up to you! Count the number of eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and adults you find. Even if you find none, please report it.
3. Write down your observations - Count and write down the number milkweed stems you examine. You may count only one stem or a hundred; it’s up to you! Write down the number of caterpillars you find. If several species of milkweed are growing at the location of your survey, count the stems and associated caterpillars separately. Even if you find no monarchs, please reporting it.
4. Back home, go to Mission Monarch and submit your data.

Join and learn more about the mission at the Vermont Atlas of Life website.

The 2nd Maria Miner Bee ever documented in Vermont visits one of its floral favorites, the blooms of the Interior Sandbar Willow. ©@beeboy

Congratulations to @beeboy for winning the July 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! His exciting record of a rare bee species received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

Not only does this iNaturalist observation showcase a stunning specialist bee on its favorite pollen-provider, it also marks an exciting second record of this species that has recently been discovered in Vermont. As the coordinator of the Vermont Wild Bee Survey, Spencer has searched the state far and wide for bees just like this individual. Specialist bees, like the Maria Miner Bee, are picky when it comes to which pollen they will provide for their offspring. Some of these pollen-specialists prefer the pollen of plants that are rare or unevenly distributed across the state. If a plant is rare you can expect any species that depend on that plant to be even rarer, which is what brought Spencer to a grove of Interior Sandbar Willow trees on the shores of Lake Champlain. The jury’s still out on whether this species is truly rare or simply overlooked, and iNaturalist records such as this one can help fill in our knowledge of pollinators like the Maria Miner Bee in Vermont. Want to help the Vermont Center for Ecostudies track down rare bees? Check out our Most Wanted list and the list of specialist bees by host plant offered on the Vermont Wild Bee Survey website.

With 34,697 observations submitted by 2,210 observers in July, it was very competitive. Click on the image above to see and explore all of the amazing observations.

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fave’ star on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!

Explore Vermont's astounding moth diversity! By participating in our annual Moth Blitz, you will help the Vermont Moth Atlas develop a better understanding of the moths that call the Green Mountain State home. Over 2,200 moth species have been documented in Vermont with new species being found all the time. Who knows, maybe you will find one! We encourage everyone, from experts to amateur enthusiasts, to find, photograph, and share their moth discoveries with the Vermont Moth Blitz during National Moth Week (July 22-30). Can we beat last years' tally? The Vermont Moth Atlas is a project of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies Vermont Atlas of Life.

Join the project now at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/vermont-moth-blitz-2023. We already have over 300 species and more than 1,000 observations added to the blitz!

A mystery red bee visiting an uncommon willow tree in bloom becomes Vermont's latest native bee species discovery by biologist Spencer Hardy. Read the story on the Vermont Atlas of Life blog at https://val.vtecostudies.org/newsfeed/new-native-bee-species-discovered-for-vermont/

A rare Prothonotary Warbler contemplates his reflection, or perhaps the similarly yellow Vermont inspection sticker? © @ckhunt

Congratulations to @ckhunt for winning the June 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! His photos of a rare Prothonotary Warbler perched on his truck’s windshield received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

The shining yellow body and head and slate-blue wings of the Prothonotary Warbler are more often seen in southern swamps than green mountains, but every now and then one of these gems finds its way to Vermont. Craig’s encounter with this Prothonotary Warbler marks only the second time this species has been reported in Vermont during the month of June! Named for their resemblance to the yellow robes of papal clerks (prothonotaries) of the Roman Catholic church, the Prothonotary Warbler also holds a fascinating place in US History. In a story involving Cold War espionage, amateur ornithology, and even a dash of Richard Nixon, the Prothonotary Warbler plays a major role! Like any iNaturalist observation, Craig’s photos raise more questions than they answer. Is this bird aggressively interacting with its reflection in the windshield? Is it perhaps instead investigating the similarly yellow VT state inspection sticker? Is this bird scouring Townshend, VT for a mate or a place to set up a nest? Or is it instead an unpaired male that wandered northward with the aid of a tailwind? Either way, many thanks to Craig for sharing his encounter with a spectacular rare warbler!

With 28,026 observations submitted by 2,076 observers in June, it was very competitive. Click on the image above to see and explore all of the amazing observations.

NORWICH, VT–By 2100, Vermont is estimated to experience a net loss of 386 species (or 6%), under the current carbon emission scenario. This comes among several key findings outlined in a new report from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE). Their report marks the 10th Anniversary of the Vermont Atlas of Life, an ambitious project that harnesses the power of community science and professional biologists to discover, document, and map Vermont’s biodiversity. You can read the report at https://val.vtecostudies.org/val-10th-anniversary-report.

The report uses nearly 8 million observations from almost 12,000 species reported from across the state to help establish a biodiversity baseline for Vermont. As the researchers explain, this baseline is critical for understanding and measuring future biodiversity changes caused by landscape alteration, climate change and other environmental perturbations.

“Using these vast amounts of species observations, we’re able to identify biodiversity hotspots and areas that harbor unique communities found nowhere else in Vermont. We’re also able to predict where they might be in 50 or even 100 years as the climate changes,” says Dr. Michael Hallworth, a data scientist at VCE and lead author of the report.

In addition to predicting future species loss, the report also found that current land conservation configurations may not be adequately protecting some of Vermont’s most at-risk species. By identifying areas that currently support unique communities—like the Lake Champlain Basin—Dr. Hallworth and his co-authors indicate areas that may be critical for maintaining biodiversity in the state.

The Vermont Atlas of Life (VAL) couples the power of volunteer community science with traditional biodiversity research and monitoring to quantify species diversity now and into the future. VAL joins others across the globe in curating species occurrence records at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international network funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to biodiversity data. With these data, scientists and conservation professionals are discovering, monitoring, and solving biodiversity issues ranging from local to global significance, similar to the research team at VCE.

“We have centuries of open access weather data that has allowed us to monitor and understand climate change; we need the same for biodiversity,” says Kent McFarland, Director of VAL and co-author of the report.

Although these species occurrence records are derived from many sources—from historical museum specimens to field observations—over 95% are submitted by community scientists through VAL-supported platforms like Vermont eBird, iNaturalist, and e-Butterfly.

“Vermonters have risen to the conservation challenge: our volunteer community scientists lead the nation with more field observations per capita than any other state,” says McFarland. “All of these data are curated at GBIF and searchable using the VAL Data Explorer on our website at val.vtecostudies.org/gbif-explorer. Without volunteer community scientists’ dedication to documenting Vermont’s nature, this report—and our work more broadly—wouldn’t be possible.”

These data provide the basis for many quantitative studies that can inform effective regional and global conservation decisions. In this report, the scientists draw upon this treasure trove of biodiversity data to better understand how many species there are and where they occur in the state. They also couple the occurrence records with climate and other environmental data to generate species distribution models, which allow inferences about what species may occur in areas of the state that are not well sampled. These models are essential for assessing conservation status and extinction risk, tracking population change, and guiding conservation efforts.

“The findings presented in this report allow us to see Vermont’s landscape in new ways. We’ve identified potential biodiversity hotspots and made predictions about future impacts of climate change on the state’s biodiversity,” concluded Hallworth. “Together, this information will help target land conservation efforts, and much more.”

Report Key Findings

• The Vermont Atlas of Life has data for nearly 12,000 species across Vermont from 7.7 million occurrence records derived from museum specimens, photographs, and observations by biologists, naturalists, and community scientists.
• Vermont conservation lands, as currently configured, may not be adequately protecting at-risk species. The coverage area for at-risk species (Critically Imperiled: 12%, Imperiled: 17%, Vulnerable: 13%) was similar to species ranked as Secure (12%) or Apparently Secure (14%).
• Only a quarter of Vermont is conserved. By 2100, our current conservation lands will protect approximately 11% of species’ ranges, down from 13% today. Private lands are and will continue to be key for conserving and supporting biodiversity into the future.
• By 2100, the number of species found in Vermont is expected to decline by at least 6%, a net loss of 386 species, under the current carbon emission scenario (RCP 8.5).
• Areas that support unique communities are critical for maintaining biodiversity in the state. The southern Lake Champlain Basin harbors the most unique communities of any region in Vermont. By 2100, higher elevations in the state are predicted to shelter more unique communities.
• Our distribution models show that most species ranges are largely influenced by physical attributes of the landscape, such as underlying bedrock and soil characteristics. For many taxa, bioclimatic variables associated with precipitation are more important than temperature for determining their distributions within Vermont.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 96 species found in Vermont that are of global conservation concern. Seven animal and three plant species are Federally Endangered.
• Only 28% of Vermont’s species have a state conservation rank. There are entire taxonomic groups that have no conservation status assessment because of insufficient data. Over 200 species (164 plants and 53 animals) are listed by Vermont’s Endangered Species Law.
• Climate and land-use change present significant conservation challenges that require an understanding of species populations at large scales. Partnerships between scientists and the public, through the Vermont Atlas of Life, are providing key information now and peering far into the future.

Watch a recording of a webinar presented by the lead author at https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/836249930

A Mining Bee (Andrena sp.) hitches a ride on the tail end of an American Emerald in Starksboro, VT. © @bugeyedbernie

Congratulations to @bugeyedbernie for winning the May 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! His photo of an unusual insect pair received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

This month’s winning photo observation offers a reminder to look closely and pay attention to behavior to make exciting new discoveries! When Bernie noticed a dragonfly acting strangely on the ground, he got up close with his camera and documented a fascinating interaction between a bee and a dragonfly. Surprisingly, the bee was not shaken loose when the dragonfly took flight, and it’s anyone’s guess exactly what was going on here. Some hypotheses put forth by other naturalists guess that the bee may have been in search of salts, minerals, or other nutrients on a rather unusual substrate; or perhaps this male mining bee was confused by the pheromones exuded by the dragonfly and attempted to mate with it! Either way, this observation goes right up there in the pantheon of odd pairings on iNaturalist, including two of my personal favorites: a Wood Frog embracing a Spotted Salamander and an amorous male American Kestrel flirting with a skeptical Merlin.

With 25,171 observations submitted by 1,971 observers in May, it was very competitive. Click on the image above to see and explore all of the amazing observations.

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fave’ star on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!

A rare Yellow-crowned Night-Heron perches in the sun in a Winooski wetland. © @linxlookin

Congratulations to @linxlookin for winning the April 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Their photo of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, a Vermont rarity, received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

Every observation posted to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist has the power to broaden our understanding of biodiversity, however only a select few observations have the power to excite and mobilize birders across the state! This was the case when an unmistakeable photo of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was posted by a curious naturalist exploring a tucked away wetland in Winooski. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons are rare in Vermont, tending to prefer more coastal areas, where they feed primarily on crabs and other crustaceans. Looking back at Vermont eBird data shows only 7 previous confirmed records in the state, with no records since 2015. Shortly after this iNaturalist observation was posted, it was shared across regional birding networks and Vermont birders scoured the wetland at first light the next morning with no sightings. Perhaps this Yellow-crowned Night-Heron dropped in to snack on some crayfish before moving along, or perhaps it was hidden from view deep in the wetland while birders searched for it the next morning; either way, thanks to one community scientist, we know when and where this rare bird stopped in Vermont on its travels.

With 17,566 observations submitted by 1,403 observers in April, it was very competitive. Click on the image above to see and explore all of the amazing observations.

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fave’ star on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!