The Voltage Gate

This post will be updated as new participants are added... Message board and button on the way!

In honor of National Wildlife Week, April 21 - 29, I am inviting bloggers from all walks to participate in the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz, where bloggers from across the country will choose a wild or not-so-wild area and find how many of each different species - plant, animal, fungi and anything in between - live in a certain area within a certain time.

Pick a neat little area that you are relatively familiar with and is small enough that you or the group can handle - a small thicket, a pond, a section of stream, or even your backyard - and bring along some taxonomic keys or an Audubon guide, or if you're lucky enough, an expert in local flora and fauna. Set a time limit. Try to identify the different species of organisms that you find as well as the number of each species that you find. Take pictures if you have a digital camera, compile your numbers, make observations, set up your post however you wish as long as you include your numbers in a digestible fashion (I'll have more details on that later) - then submit it to me and I'll include it on the list. We will also be tallying total numbers of each species found, and then a grand total. There has also been talk of coding an interactive Google Map with distribution information, geotagging regions with a blogger's submitted information.

This is not meant to be a contest, nor is meant to be a hard source of taxonomic data. It is meant to be a fun little excursion to highlight little pockets of biodiversity across the world. I should have a 160x160 button available for distribution in a couple days.

This event was inspired by the National Wildlife Federation's own project, the Wildlife Watch. They will be posting a downloadable list of springtime critters in the near future that may be of use.

So far we have the following participants:

• Adventures In Ethics & Science


• Living the Scientific Life


• 10,000 Birds


• Greg Laden


• Burning Silo


• Behavioral Ecology Blog


• NEW Bootstrap Analysis


• NEW The Infinite Sphere


• NEW Oaksong's Nemeton


• NEW Peeking into the rock