Birds, Bugs, Birches, & Barnacles

Description

Calling all people curious about nature. Join Schoodic Institute’s staff on a natural scavenger hunt. We aim to safely document as many bugs, birds, trees, lichens, and periwinkles that can be found on campus, along trails, and at lookout points. We’ll organize in small groups, and use our eyes and ears to note what we find. We can also use a camera, tablet, or mobile phone to capture and upload photos to iNaturalist, Merlin, and eBIrd. These are apps that make it easy to document other than human life all around us. This event is part of the Landscape of Change project, which seeks to revisit historic data on birds and bugs from Mount Desert Island. Also documenting birds and bugs on the mainland portion of Acadia and surrounding region helps biologists with the National Park Service put Mount Desert Island data in context, revealing more information about abundance and distribution of plants, animals, and fungi. After the morning’s field effort all registered participants are invited to a free celebratory picnic on campus. We’ll share some of the sightings of the day and let you know how to stay connected and continue to contribute to monitoring biodiversity in ANP.