National Geographic BlogWild

The clock's struck 12, but Team BioBlitz is still crunching data in the Indiana Dunes Inventory Tent, and the tally continues to climb.

"We were looking for beetles, but couldn't pass up some wood roaches," says Drew Carhart, here with Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. He holds up a small glass vial with a bug inside.

We asked teachers and youth group leaders who registered to bring kids and teens to the BioBlitz to tell us why. Here's some of what they had to say...

Green-E, the "Environmental Elvis," wants to know. The eco-conscious impersonator took the stage with curled lip this morning, crooning classic Elvis tunes revamped with an environmental message. His bedazzling second-hand costume was accessorized with rings and globe pendants he found at flea markets, and draped around his shoulders was a green cape with Earth embroidered across the back.

Yeah, tell us about it!

Fortunately, the rain appears to be through—'bout time—and the forecast calls for sun and clouds the rest of the day.

With less than three hours to go, the species count continues to rise. New additions will continue well past noon today, as scientists bring specimens back to their labs for further analysis and identification. There have already been tantalizing reports from the field that previously unknown plant and insect species have been identified within park boundaries.

It's Saturday morning, day two of BioBlitz, and across the broad expanse of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore fresh inventory teams gather and head out into the field. Remnants of the graveyard shift continue to straggle into the West Beach Base Camp, logs in hand for the ever-growing database of found species.

For some, it's already after bedtime. Not so Purdue entomologist Jeff Holland, who's led a small crew from Base Camp out to hunt for moths, midges, and other nocturnal flying bugs with the aid of a long net on a pole and a blinding light, brought in to illuminate the grounds.

Well, we're jumping the gun a bit, but with midnight Central Daylight/Indiana Dunes time fast approaching, the species tally stands at 435.

And counting.

Stay tuned!

"When it's sunny, they come out and they're really active," says entomologist Jeff Holland. "I hand my young daughter a small net, tell her I'll give her a quarter for every one she catches, and it keeps her busy for hours!"

Biology professor Dan Kjar drove more than 600 miles (about 960 kilometers) from Elmira College with graduating senior Gabriel Sackett to find and number Indiana Dunes' ants. I find both in the Inventory Tent, examining specimens through microscopes and mounting them with pins.

"Anything for the inventory, or should we heed the sign?"

As rain begins to fall in earnest, those of us sheltered in the Inventory Tent have begun to reminisce about the beautiful evening we shared last night, when many of the scientists lending their energy and expertise to the BioBlitz converged on the Portage Riverfront and Lakewalk. This sparkling new facility—nestled between dunes, train tracks, and a steel plant—is a microcosm of the fragmented landscape that typifies the National Lakeshore.

A few hours in knee-deep water was a small price to pay for Indiana University South Bend environmental physiologist Jim McLister's reptile and amphibian team, just back from a wade on the Miller Woods trail. "I warned them ahead of time: There's a lot of water where we going, and if we find even a few species we'll be doing well.

In the science tent, there's pandemonium as the skies open and it begins to pour. Crews dash to move computers and power cables from the path of the small—but rapidly widening—river that courses the length of the tent. I think of the intrepid 'Blitzers in the field, and reach for my PowerBook.

John Francis, Nat Geo's Vice President for Research, Conservation and Exploration, rushes over to tell me that in these early hours of the BioBlitz, someone's already identified several varieties of tardigrade—nature's most lovable microscopic creatures, better known as water bears.

It's high noon, and after much pomp and circumstance, the first field crews are eagerly congregating around multicolored flags, meeting their science team leaders and preparing to head into the park, where no leaf will go unturned—metaphorically speaking —in the search for species.

Ducks may like the weather forecast, but for the rest of us, it's been a topic of conversation since BioBlitz setup began. The National Weather Service is calling for a mix of heavy rain and thunderstorms Friday afternoon and into the night, wrapping up early Saturday. It's enough to make biodiversity-minded 'Blitzers start building an ark!

The culmination of a regional conservation movement spanning two-thirds of a century, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was created in 1966 as the result of a compromise. Owners of the steel mills and other heavy industry along the southern Lake Michigan shoreline wanted a new "Port of Indiana" to carry their goods. The people wanted a park, and through a legislative bargain, both the port (the Burns Waterway Harbor) and the national park were born.

The long-awaited hour is nearly here. Tomorrow and Saturday, from noon to noon, thousands will storm Lake Michigan's southeastern beaches for the 2009 National Geographic-National Park Service BioBlitz. Here, along the 15 miles of wind-swept strand and the rolling sandhills, meadows, forests, and marshes that comprise the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore—within site of the Chicago skyline across the water--they'll fan out in field teams led by scientists expert in every sort of flora and fauna found in the park.

The goal, as with each BioBlitz: Tally as many species as possible of every sort—bugs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals, microbes, fungi, plants. The "D" is for dunes, and it's for (bio)diversity!