This webinar was recorded during the Lorquin Entomological August 2023 meeting. Galls are intriguing plant structures induced by insects (usually), creating a sheltered home for the larval stages of the inducing organism. Galls have diverse and sometimes incredible shapes and colors, and their natural history is equally fascinating, with complex life cycles, tiny opportunistic parasitoids, and more! Dr. Merav Vonshak (Ecologist and Founder of BioBlitz Club) and Michael Hawk (Founder, Jumpstart Nature and host of Nature's Archive podcast) talk about gall biology, common host plants and gall inducers. They discuss how you can find and identify galls, with numerous examples including gall look-alikes.

Naturalist Training - A Deeper Dive into iNaturalist During the second presentation we will discuss how to make better observations, add them into projects, and how to add fields, tags, and annotations. All these features will help your observations stand out, and will make it easier for experts (and you!) to find it and use it. We will also demonstrate how to efficiently search and filter observations. All these features will not only improve the "quality" of your observations, but also your ability to learn from the process. This is Part 2 of a new series of naturalist presentations. Part 1 can be found at https://youtu.be/ty2Fu7Trz8o Co-hosts are Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful and BioBlitz Club Recording date 8/23/23 Resource List from Merav Vonshak - Merav Vonshak merav.von@gmail.com - Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bioblitz.club/ - Website https://www.bioblitz.club/, including a short discussion about useful gadgets here. Some local organizations with great community science programs: - Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful – https://www.keepcoyotecreekbeautiful.... - Sequoia Audubon Society – https://www.sequoia-audubon.org/ - California Academy of Sciences – https://www.calacademy.org/citizen-sc... - Wholly H2O – https://whollyh2o.org/

Naturalist Training - Community Science and Introduction to iNaturalist This interactive presentation is an introduction to community science and iNaturalist. We will explain what iNaturalist is and how we use it at our BioBlitz events. You'll learn the "why" - why should you use the iNaturalist app, if you aren't doing so already, and how can you improve your experience, if you're already a user. We will provide examples of scientific studies using iNaturalist data in order to learn about our environment. This is Part 1 of a new series of naturalist presentations. Co-hosts are Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful and BioBlitz Club Recording date 7/19/23 Resource List from Merav Vonshak - Merav Vonshak merav.von@gmail.com - Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bioblitz.club/ - Website https://www.bioblitz.club/, including a short discussion about useful gadgets here. A few community science programs I mentioned: North America: - **7/22-30** – National Moth Week – document moths at https://nationalmothweek.org/ - eBird – a huge database for reporting bird observations (global) at https://ebird.org - Zooniverse – help researchers analyze data of various studies at https://www.zooniverse.org/ - Firefly Atlas – for firefly observations at https://www.fireflyatlas.org/ - SOD – Sudden Oak Death blitzes at https://nature.berkeley.edu/matteolab/?page_id=148 - Rockd – app for recording geological observations at https://rockd.org/ Bay Area/ California: - The Newt Patrol project – https://www.bioblitz.club/newts - Data at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newt-roadkill-main-project-lexington-reservoir - City Nature Challenge – iNaturalist global event at https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/ - Snapshot Cal Coast – https://www.calacademy.org/calcoast - The Jasper Ridge Ant Survey – https://jrbp.stanford.edu/research/jrbp-ant-survey Some local organizations with great community science programs: - Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful – https://www.keepcoyotecreekbeautiful.org/ - Sequoia Audubon Society – https://www.sequoia-audubon.org/ - California Academy of Sciences – https://www.calacademy.org/citizen-science - Wholly H2O – https://whollyh2o.org/ ** if you’d like to hear more about the Newt Patrol or the Jasper Ridge Ant Survey – please email merav.von@gmail.com