The Great Southern Bioblitz

Dear Leaders of Friends Groups,

It is almost time for the Great Southern Bioblitz which takes place for 4 days from 20 to 23 September 2024 – see attached poster. The final date for uploading photos and doing identifications is 7 October.  I hope all of you have downloaded the iNaturalist app on your smart phones and are getting ready to take part in recording the biodiversity in our City! If any of you need advice on how to do this, see below and if you still have questions, you are welcome to ask me.

This year many cities in the Southern Hemisphere will be taking part in this City Nature Challenge – including 42 places in Southern Africa –  so let us all do our best to keep Tshwane’s name among the leaders!

Adelene Marais would like to send out a communication for the GSB 2024. If your Friends Group plans to host a bioblitz, please will you send the following information to: adelenem@tshwane.gov.za  and also please cc me at carolma@telkomsa.net

 

Group	Date	Time	Where to meet

 

See these websites for information and to follow how each city is doing once the challenge has started:

Worldwide: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2024-umbrella

Southern Africa: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2024-southern-africa-umbrella

City of Tshwane: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2024-tshwane

iNaturalist Guidelines  – (smartphones might be a little different but basically more or less the same)

If you have not done this before, or to refresh your memory:

As many people as possible are encouraged to take part during the four days of the GSB (if possible, on all 4 days!) anywhere within the borders of the City of Tshwane, using  the iNaturalist app on a smart phone to photograph plants, insects, birds, spiders, wild animals and fungi (no humans or domestic pets though). You can do this in your own gardens, looking out for butterflies or birds or other interesting wild creatures, or even the spiders and geckos which come into your houses. Even better,  go to our green and nature areas where there are many species of grass and trees to look at, as well as many different insects, birds and other wildlife.

Here are some tips.

1. The photos must be taken using the iNaturalist app on your smart phone. Download the free iNaturalist app (the logo is a green bird) and sign in with a username and a Gmail email account. You can also download the app on your computer and use a camera as long as the camera can show your location with a GPS.
2. During the Bioblitz you must enable your location to be seen on your smart phone (this is to prove that the photo was taken within the boundaries of Tshwane and during the time of the challenge). To do this – go to “Settings” on your phone, scroll down to “Location” and tap to switch it on.
3. You can automatically upload the photos as you take them but this does use a lot of data. So it is better to upload them when your phone can be on Wi-Fi.  I would advise you to open the iNaturalist app, at the top click the “menu” (three horizontal lines) icon and scroll down to “Settings” and switch off “Automatic Upload”. While you are in “Settings” you can click “Suggest species” and  you can also click “Show Scientific names first”, and “Show common names” (many of the common names are American though which can be disconcerting),  and you can also make the Common names place South Africa.
4. When you are ready to take your photo, open the iNaturalist app. At the bottom click the green circle with a white cross in it – it will give options for whether you would like to take a photo or record a sound – click the “take a photo” option. (note: the” record a sound” option can be used to record a bird call or a frog sound).

When taking a photo, try to get as much detail as possible which would help to identify the object, e.g. a plant. You can take a photo of the flower, then click the “camera” icon next to your picture at the top to take another photo of the same plant, such as the stem and leaves or top of leaf and underside of leaf. You are given the option after each photo to say ‘OK’ or to ‘Retry’. Once you are happy with your photos of the plant, click the green circle with the  white “tick”. This will upload your series of photos of the same item.

5.If you photograph a bush with flowers of a different species poking through the branches and a beetle on one of the leaves – upload the same image three times and make three different observations: (1. Bush, 2. Unrelated Flower, 3. Beetle).

6. You will be asked “What did you see?” – If you know the name, preferably the scientific name, of the object, put it in. Or just say “Plant” or “Insect” etc

There might be a suggestion as to what the species is – if you agree, then click the suggestion.

7. To take a photo of another object, click the green circle with the white  cross in it and do as above.
8. Practice a bit before the date of the City Nature Challenge to get comfortable with all this.

Identifications of all the photos taken in Tshwane during the GSB:  Identifiers will be needed to help identify all the photos. This is best done on your computer. So if you are able to help, especially if you are knowledgeable about plants or birds or insects, please go to the website for Tshwane’s challenge and identify as much as you can once people have started uploading their observations. Identifications can be done until 7 October for the challenge (but can be done afterwards as well even though will not form part of challenge results).

Have fun and do as much as you can! And encourage all your members to take part!

Kind Regards,

Carol Martin

WESSA Tshwane Branch