Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Firefly Watch

This summer, there is a new citizen science project: Firefly Watch. Like other projects, Firefly Watch invites participants to create a user account and enter sightings. However, the protocol for this one is more rigorous, and includes questions about blink patterns and habitat. The reason is that one goal of the project is to assess how pesticides and light pollution affect these interesting insects. (Read more about fireflies and environmental factors on the website.)

I did my first set of observations last night and saw no fireflies. It was probably a result of doing the survey too early in the evening. Oddly enough, the first firefly I noted this summer was inside the bathroom.

[link to Firefly Watch via Nuthatch and Bug_Girl]

Speaking of citizen science projects, eBird has suggested some ways to make summer birding more interesting.