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Summer Bee Update: Four Years in, the Flood of New Species is Becoming a Trickle
September 6, 2022Year four of the Vermont Wild Bee Survey is winding down, but not before adding at least three new species to the state checklist. Additional species certainly await discovery, but the number of new ones found each is steadily declining, suggesting we’ve located the vast majority of the species present.
After 25 years, Two-spotted Lady Beetle is Rediscovered in Vermont
June 28, 2022The Two-spotted lady Beetle was feared to be extinct in Vermont, until the Vermont Atlas of Life rallied biologists and community scientists to help find them. Against all odds, several Two-spotted Lady Beetles were found and photographed after a 25 year hiatus.
Federally Threatened Orchid Discovered in Vermont
June 8, 2022Botanists with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department confirmed that a population of Small Whorled Pogonia—believed to be extinct in Vermont since 1902 and listed as Threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act—has been documented on Winooski Valley Park District conservation land in Chittenden County. The observation was first reported to iNaturalist last fall.
Common Green Darners have a Mysterious Migration Through Vermont
June 8, 2022The first Common Green Darners to arrive in Vermont this spring on their northward migration were actually seen in the far northern part of the state. They arrived later than expected, but they’re finally here!
Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist Suprasses Half a Million Research-Grade Records
June 2, 2022om Scavo snapped a photo of a Trout Lily and shared it to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist and Tom Norton soon agreed with the identification. It was something the both of them have done thousands of times, but this one was special. It was the 500,000th research-grade record for our project, making this the largest biodiversity database likely every collected for the state.
No Mow May
May 4, 2022Are you dreading the lawn mowing that’s sure to follow the upcoming warm spell? Well leaving the lawnmower in storage is all the range right now! Call the “weeds” flowers, and embrace the insects and other wildlife that will show up to enjoy the buffet.
The Search for Missing Lady Beetles
May 4, 2022Most lady beetles, also called ladybugs, feed on small, soft-bodied insects, including aphids, mealybugs, and scale insects, many of which can cause a lot of damage to garden plants and native flora if their populations grow too large. Lady beetles can smell compounds released by stressed plants and aphids, allowing them to locate their prey in the landscape. Learn more about these important species and how you can participate in the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas here.
VAL Recognizes the Crucial Support of Community Scientists during National Volunteer Week
April 20, 2022National Volunteer Week is April 17-23 and the Vermont Atlas of Life honors the work of all the volunteers that have helped us monitor biodiversity. Thank you so much for joining our efforts and celebrating biodiversity!
Darner Flight Watch
March 3, 2022The Common Green Darner (Anax junius) is a charismatic, migratory dragonfly species that is known for traveling long distances (over 650 km) during its short time as an adult (approximately 7 weeks). Read more about this dazzling dragonfly and our upcoming Darner Flight Watch project, with the goal of better understanding how climate change may influence Common Green Darner phenology and migration patterns.
Long Distance Collaboration Documents An Overlooked, Hyper-Diverse Taxon
February 3, 2022Two dedicated volunteers and a graduate student in Utah come together to document one of Vermont’s least studied and most diverse insect families!
iNaturalists Helped the Vermont Atlas of Life Build Biodiversity Big Data in 2021
January 13, 2022In 2021 iNaturalists added over 201,000 biodiversity records to our rapidly growing database of life in Vermont. We had 7,759 observers contribute more than 200,000 observations representing more than 4,500 species verified. Read about all the discoveries and more!
Vermont Birders Rally During 11th Annual eBird County Quest
January 10, 2022From the frigid mornings of the final Christmas Bird Counts of the 2020-2021 season to the discovery of Razorbills and Northern Gannets which briefly turned Lake Champlain into an Atlantic Ocean look-alike this past November, 2021 was a year full of birding surprises and, unsurprisingly, full of friendly competition during the 11th annual Vermont eBird County Quest.
