May Quercus Quest
Observation of the Month | April
Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)
© velodrome (CC-BY)
Note: Every monthly Quercus Quest will also feature one of the many incredible observations made last month. Over 2,200 observations were added to the project! Thank you all for your contribution and congratulations to @velodrome for having the most “faved” observation last month. I will reach out soon and also send you a California OakWatch Pin!
May Quercus Quest
It is difficult to believe that April is over and today is the first of May. This past month has been filled with so many celebrations! To start, superblooms are upon us! The unusual wet season earlier this year have brought us beautiful superblooms throughout California. Also, on April 15-22 we celebrated Native Plant Week which ended on Earth Day! Now, this past weekend was also the start of the City Nature Challenge. I hope that anyone who participated this weekend from April 28-May 1st has the opportunity to upload your observations and gear up for the identification period of the challenge (May 2nd- May 7).
With the start of May, we bring you our first Quercus Quest, a monthly celebration of oaks to encourage naturalist to participate in our California OakWatch project. This month's Quercus Quest is simple – make as many identifications of oaks as possible!
1) There are currently 27,700+ observations in the project that need ID:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=california-oakwatch&quality_grade=needs_id&verifiable=any
2) Additionally, there are 16,300+ observations of oaks only identified to genus that could use some help!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations lrank=genus&place_id=62068&quality_grade=needs_id&taxon_id=47851&verifiable=any
3) If you would like to participate in this Qurcus Quest while also taking part in the city nature challenge, be sure to start identifying those observations made from April 28-May2!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-04-29&d2=2023-05-01&place_id=any&project_id=california-oakwatch&verifiable=any
The top 3 identifiers from May 1st - May 31st will be rewarded with a California OakWatch Pin.
Good luck!
Resources
To help you get started with identifications, check out this identification guide:
https://www.globalconservationconsortia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Identification-Guide-for-Priority-Threatened-California-Oaks-1.pdf
CA OakWatch Training Webinar
