Diario del proyecto 2021 Ontario Botanists' Big Year

Hey everyone,

I know I've been pretty quiet lately but don't worry - I'm still here and I'll be taking a look at the 2021 Big Year results over the next few days.

In the meantime, I encourage you to share your observations within 50 km of your home in the comments below using the instructions in this journal post. I realize that some people might not be comfortable sharing the exact coordinates of their home, so feel free to use the middle of your city, town, county or some other landmark meaningful to you as the centre of your circle. (But please don't manipulate your circle too much just to capture a few more observations here or there ;)).

Here's the URL for my 50 km circle as an example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2021-01-01&iconic_taxa=Plantae&lat=43.3153&lng=-80.3658&place_id=any&radius=50&subview=map&user_id=wdvanhem

Happy New Year!

So the results are in and once again I can confidently say that the Big Year was a huge success. You'll notice some major differences in the 2021 project stats compared to previous years. For example,

Observations (2021): 63,373 (vs. 292,158 in 2020; 210,856 in 2019)
Species Observed (2021): 2,268 (vs. 3.126 in 2020; 2,756 in 2019)

The main reason the 2021 project had fewer species and observations overall is that I made it a "closed" project so it wasn't just capturing every plant observation in Ontario. This way the project only captured observations by users who wanted to participate in the Big Year. It also gave me a sense of just how many people are actively participating; this year we had 121 participants, which may not seem like a huge number but it's encouraging to see that there are over 100 people interested enough in wild plants that they want to observe them competitively.

Some more detailed stats to follow, but in the meantime let's take a look at the leaderboard and see how everyone did with the (very difficult) "1,000 in 50" challenge. There are some familiar names in this year's top ten observers, but there are a few new leaders and some new additions to the "1,000 Club" of botanists who observed more than 1,000 species in 2021. Notably, three participants managed to achieve the "1,000 Club" (compared to just one participant in 2020). The top ten participants by number of species observed were:

1. Michael Oldham (@michael_oldham) - 1,147 species
2. Baxter Naday (@baxter-birdnird) - 1,068 species
3. Pat Deacon (@pwdeacon) - 1,057 species
4. Brian Miller (@bmiller001) - 995 species
5. Graham Buck (@g_buck) - 915 species
6. Hannah Mews (@mws) - 852 species
7. Brian Popelier (@popb25) - 800 species
8. Quinten Wiegersma (@birds_bugs_botany) - 684 species
9. Kathleen Houlahan Chaler (@kat_the_nat) - 633 species
10. Scott Ulian (@mossy_stone) - 620 species

I called the 2021 Big Year challenge "1,000 in 50", challenging participants to observe over 1,000 plant species within 50 km of their home. Based on the participants who shared results within their 50 km circles, it doesn't look like anyone was able to accomplish this, but Graham Buck (@g_buck) and Hannah Mews (@mws) got more than 75% of the way with over 750 species! I still think this challenge is possible, but yea...difficult.

If you've read this far, here are some more nitty gritty Big Year stats:

Noteworthy to me was that the top three most observed species in 2021 were completely different from the previous three Big Years. In 2020 and 2019, the three most observed species were common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) and common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). The three most observed species in 2021 were...

1. American elm (Ulmus americana) - 745 observations (and 86% of these were submitted by one participant, @owenclarkin)
2. Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) - 281 observations
3. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) - 268 observations

The 2021 Big Year included observations from every ecozone in Ontario and from all but the northernmost reaches of the province. Geographically noteworthy observations included...

• Northernmost observation: tamarack (Larix laricina) along the Attawapiskat River by @isaacmill
• Westernmost observation: common reed (Phragmites australis) on Shoal Lake, Kenora District by @carterdorscht
• Easternmost observation: American elm along the Ontario-Quebec border observed by - wait for it - @owenclarkin
• Southernmost observation: daisy fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) on Middle Island, the southernmost point in Canada, by @tarra

You can browse some of the iNaturalist community's favourite Big Year observations here. Some of my personal favourite observations include...

• This aberrant hemp dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) observed by @jacqueline_weber
• Red-fruited white baneberry (Actaea pachypoda f. rubrocarpa) observed by @lavitaebella
• Eastern narrowleaf sedge (Carex amphibola) observed by @birds_bugs_botany

If there was a prize for most eager participant, it would go to @carterdorscht, who submitted the very first observation of the 2021 Big Year at 12:29 AM on January 1st. The last observation submitted was this unidentified buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) submitted at 11:22 PM on December 31st by @owenclarkin.

This brings me to some final comments on the 2021 Big Year.

First, even if you don't want to compete in the Big Year or submit your own observations, you can still contribute by helping us identify our observations. Over 20,000 observations are not yet Research Grade and over 7,000 observations have not been identified to species level!

Second, the 2022 Ontario Botanists' Big Year will be live shortly! Keep your eyes on the comments below for a link.

Best botanical wishes for 2022,

Will V.