#phenology

Citizen science is when regular people work with researchers in a variety of ways, including determining what gets studied, increasing the amount of data collected, and processing data more quickly. Some involve specific groups of people, like Extension Master Gardeners in certain counties trapping invasive insects in their gardens to send to researchers, and some can be joined by just about anyone.

Citizen science is especially vital for environmental and ecology research because it allows for the collection of large datasets that otherwise wouldn’t be feasible for researchers to collect. This data helps show things like the impacts of climate change on plants and population changes in wildlife.

As a disabled person, it’s easy for me to feel pretty frustrated and useless, especially when faced with huge problems like climate change. Citizen science has given me accessible ways to contribute, while also getting me outside.

I wanted to highlight the two citizen science projects that I’m involved in, but there are lots out there, especially for us nature lovers.

The Great Sunflower Project

This project is focused on pollinators in North America. While their flagship program involves growing Lemon Queen sunflowers, that is absolutely not required (I’m growing them for the first time this year!). Basically, you pick a flower that you can identify, sit for at least five minutes, count the number and type of pollinators that visit your flower in that time frame, and enter your data into the website. It can be done in your yard, some else’s yard, at a park, in a ditch — wherever!

USA National Phenology Network

Phenology is the study of the timing of nature’s changes and is vital for tracking climate change. I am part of my state’s phenology project but all of our data is added to the US-wide dataset that anyone can access. This program is more in-depth, as it requires selecting specific plants and/or animal species and completing observations of them at least once a week. You can choose just one tree outside of your building or a bunch in a yard or park — I observe several trees and flowers in my yard as well as hummingbirds. Some areas also have phenology programs with specified plants in parks or nature preserves. You complete observations on things like if plants are flowering, fruiting, or dropping leaves. If you’re observing animals, you record how many there are and what they’re doing. It’s a good way to really pause and notice nature’s rhythms.

November

Hummed and hawed about an achievable theme for this month and also the kinds of things I'd want to paint before the year was up. Little things became the right vibe which evolved to include little moments as well as literally small things in nature.

Observing and recording these little things really brought forth the seasonal changes I feel at this time of year - nature's cycle for me! In some ways this has felt the most personal wheel, full of fleeting moments from my life, a visual diary observing my own days and activities as opposed to that of a facet of nature.

A ladybird on a pumpkin as the seasonal day-job finishes up for the year.

An Irish conker gifted as a totem from a friend 💗.

A seed from a neighborhood tree (pictured here) we all love and have never seen flower before.

My favourite wee apple that grew from only a couple of feet up the tree.

The honeysuckle still flowering and overgrown.

The lemon balm cutting I potted up to try and keep the original plant going.

A bright pink berry while going to the shops.

Winter Jasmine that keeps things colourful for longer.

A leaf on the train tracks before catching the right train after seeing Stewart Copeland.

Good old primrose fighting the good fight, this one always reminds me of Van Gogh.

Rose petal living her Beauty & the Beast moment, fallen and wetted onto the greenery.

Red hot poker on route to go see The Running Man.

Grape leaf as the vibe starts to die back and crisp up, somewhat more weather beaten due to storms than our energy and materials for repair can catch up with 😅.

The ever reliable heather with it's soft, sturdy beauty, greets me every time I'm in and out the house.

Euphorbia on the turn by the front step.

Cutting into two of the big cooking apples where it looked like they had the letters J and C inside (a brief return to processing fruit 🍎🍎🍎)

The variegated ivy out the back.

A floral resurgence at the railings across the road.

Brief colours of sunset.

A day of errands, walking for hours and a striking leaf at the top of town.

Yellow berry and leaves with an interesting underside walking back up from another busy day.

What's left of the lavender in the front.

Wet and stark in the darkness of a winter evening trudge home.

Big tree at the green.

Love a crescent 🌙

Was quite difficult to capture in a photo or with my eyes to be honest. Not sure I've seen winter speedwell before though painted it's counterpart earlier in the year I think.

Laurel, he's always the same - sometimes he takes a growth spurt, sometimes he's buzzing with bees and these days he's just coping with the rain.

C's geranium still looking gorge and holding on.

A crow having a snack on something while we rolled by on our way to a market.

"Phenology is quite simply the timing of when plants and animals are active, and how this timing relates to weather and climate. So, it doesn’t just impact bats but has an effect on everyone – from when we have allergies to when the mosquitos are biting or when fresh produce is available. And of course, our summer plans.

It also means that “sciency things”: shifting conditions like photoperiod (daylight length), precipitation, and temperature, are triggers for bats to be active in the spring, mate and give birth in the early summer, hibernate or migrate in the fall, and so on. Which can throw things out of whack if occurrences like abrupt or intense weather pattern shifts create an adverse domino effect."

Turkey vultures / aura gallipavo (Cathartes aura). In Sierra Vista, Arizona.

February reads!

Two Critical Role novels, “Tusk Love” and “The Nine Eyes of Lucien,” which i quite enjoyed!

Started “Dungeon Crawler Carl” with the Soundbooth Theater Audio Immersion Tunnel, which I highly recommend! The first episode is three hours long and is free.

“Local Heavens” is a futuristic cyber punk retelling of the Great Gatsby, which did a great job at capturing the feeling of the original story while adding layers of a colorful future i could totally imagine happening in real life.

add me on storygraph

(Yes, it's because I watched that iNat seminar on the topic 2 weeks ago)

When I started working on this, I felt like I was focusing A LOT on climate change, but honestly phenology and climate change ARE intertwined. And considering some of the things currently happening, I think it's really important to keep up awareness and kind of highlights the importance of community science.

I'm going to attempt to do more nature art this year mostly in a journaling-type format, including some annual/vegetable garden stuff, native plant write-ups, and detailing some stuff I'd been taking notes on before I knew it was phenology.

Resources:

Phenology in Focus: Exploring Plant Cycles with iNaturalist (video) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=57teTK5V5t0

All About Phenology: How Nature Cycles Over Time (video) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A0171im0r20

Ologies with Alie Ward (podcast) https://www.alieward.com/ologies/phenology

Nature's Archive (podcast) https://naturesarchive.com/2024/08/19/treeleafphenology/

National Phenology Network https://www.usanpn.org/

National Park Service https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/ips-phenology-and-climate-change.htm

During our walk in Nature reserve the ‘Riethoek’ (Reedcorner, Amsterdam Zuidoost), looking for small creepy crawlies for our ‘1000 species year’ project, we were just focusing on a Long Jawed Spider when this happened: Long Jawed spider male in stretch pose Taps a stretched web thread Strekspin vrouw verschijnt – bevruchting Female spider appears – fertilization Threads come out of the…