Strive 2 Thrive Coulee Region

Thank you to all who participated in the 2022 DABB Nature Challenge!

October 31, 2022
By Erica

And congratulations to the Nature Challenge winners!

My favorite observation was the White-lined Sphinx Moth that I first encountered the during our Moth Mania DABB event this past summer and immediately fell in love with this cute species. In September, another sphinx moth visited me at work and was trying to keep warm against our windows. Poor thing was shaking, and after our photo op, I put it in some plants to help warm and shelter the bugger. I absolutely love finding interesting species like this with the iNaturalist app!

Now that the Nature Challenge is over, the Driftless Area BioBlitz 2022 continues throughout the winter into early spring when the 2023 Nature Challenge kicks off at La Crosse Earth Fair on Sunday, April 30.
 
Currently on the DABB 2022 iNat project page as of October 22:
 
49,274 observations
4,671 species
2,876 observers

The top three observations:  

Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus-impatiens) (456)
Two-spotted Bumble Bee (Bombus-bimaculatus) (216)
Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus-griseocollis) (210)

And I’m happy to report the globally endangered Rusty-patched Bumble Bee had 119 observations!

The fourth on the list of most observed species was the Golden Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) with 183 and the fifth most observed was the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) with 179! FYI…The Monarch is amongst the most familiar of North American butterflies and DABB Partner WisCorps is helping in monitoring their migration by tagging them!  On September 22, Bella Anderson, WisCorps Nature Teacher and Nature Challenge member tagged a Monarch at Myrick Park Native Gardens before uploading the photo to iNaturalist.

For a complete listing by species, here is the link to the Driftless Area BioBlitz 2022 project page

Again, thank you to all who participated in the Nature Challenge and be sure to continue uploading your observations!
 
Stay tuned for a “Thanksgiving” DABB Bytes next month from Strive 2 Thrive Coulee Region and DABB Founder Vicki Miller!
Erica Black 
DABB Coordinator