Well, San Mateo County iNat-ters, here we are, at the end of another COVID-impacted year. But it hasn't slowed this project down! We are now on the cusp of 520,000 observations. Hopefully we can get to 650,000 and more in 2022. I'm cooking up a scheme for increasing our knowledge of moths in the county, and looking for co-conspirators. Currently there are 469 species of Lepidotera in this project. Let's see if we can't push that to 500!

See you afield in 2022!

Jennifer Rycenga, a.k.a. gyrrlfalcon

Happy New Year, San Mateo county iNaturalists! We have now passed 525,000 observations for this project, a statistic of which we can all be duly proud.

Just out of idle curiosity, I decided to check to see what percentage of the total iNaturalist observations, our little corner of paradise accounted for, and here's the result: 00.6%! That may seem small, but our county is 744 square miles. Compared to the planet itself (at 196.9 million square miles), our land mass accounts for a mere 00.00038% of earth. So we are outperforming our relative size.

But, you say, that includes vast oceanic expanses that we cannot effectively iNat! OK, so the land mass portions of Earth amount to 57,268,900 square miles. San Mateo county accounts for only 00.0012%. We are still outperforming our relative size by a lot!

As of this writing (8:00 am on the morning of January 14, 2022) there are 88,455,668 iNat observations overall, for an average of 1.544 observations per square mile of landmass on earth, or .45 observations per square mile of earth (including oceans).

Scope Obs. per sq mile iNat in total San Mateo county iNat
Earth .45/sq. mile 705 observations/sq. mile in county
Land Mass only 1.54/sq. mile 705 observations/sq. mile in county

I call that OUT-PERFORMING! San Mateo county - the little engine that could!

Today was a busy day "at work" = ZOOM meetings, so I took a neighborhood walk in the late afternoon. I've been gradually and semi-methodically "mapping" my neighborhood on iNaturalist. Today I chose a busy local road - Crystal Springs Road - and took the side of the street that lacks a sidewalk. In a mere 45 minutes and a.3 of a mile, with 31 observations, I was able to document 9 of the 13 iNat categories - Mammal, Bird, Amphibian, Insect, Spiders, Mollusks, Other Animals, Plants, and Fungi. I feel certain there was a Slime Mold out there, but I couldn't find one to document. But I felt that this rather unremarkable voyage justified my neighborhood walk practice, all by itself! I've provided a sample of some of the more intriguing observations along my short walk.