30 Day 1000 Species Challenge

Crane Fly, Tipulidae sp.--1 of 1000 species I am out to find

This month I am teaching my annual biodiversity course at Rosemont College in Philadelphia.  As part of this Diversity of Life course, students need to find and blog about 10 different species from across the range of life on earth--from bacteria to birds and other vertebrates.  They are also able to obtain extra credit for observations of additional organisms.

To get in the spirit of this biological exploration, I've set myself a 30 Day 1000 Species Challenge.  During the month of September I'm going to document 1000 species in my life--plants, animals, fungi, bacteria...whatever!  This will go beyond what some might traditionally consider nature exploration--so here are the rules:

1) Each organism needs to be identified--that means scientific name, and English name if available.  Organisms identified to a level above that of genus and species are acceptable, but need to be identified as well as possible.

2) The date and location for each observation need to be recorded.

3) Organisms may be found in the wild, in captivity, or in commercial products.  Organisms that are not alive are countable if they are still in the food chain--for example mushrooms in the grocery store count, roadkill counts, but museum specimens do not count.

I figure I should be able to get at least 100 wild birds for the month, as well as numerous moths and other insects.  I will do an inventory of the plants in my yard.  I will explore the species found at local grocery stores.  I may check out the wild animals available for sale in the local pet trade.  There are lots of other places to look for species, and I look forward to a fun month of explorations.  I will post and regularly update my tallies here on my blog.

Running Total of All Species Here