National Geographic Society

Ten-year-old Joshua White participated in the BioBlitz with his grandmother, Joyce Jayson. It was Joshua's first visit to Rock Creek Park and his first experience working "in the field."

"I wanted to come out here because I didn't have anything to do at home except watch TV," Joshua said. "Then I got here and heard the speaker talking about animals like the snapping turtle and the king snake, and I wanted to try and find some animals."

Joshua and his grandmother headed out into the park, and the fourth-grader quickly made his first discovery: a tiger swallowtail butterfly.

"I found this leaf that looked like it was up in the air," Joshua said. "I got closer and it was a butterfly. I swooped the net up behind it and caught it!"

As excited as Joshua was, his grandmother was even more pleased by the day's outcome. "We read about the BioBlitz in the newspaper, and I knew that Joshua would like it," Jayson said. "He likes everything that's outside. He's at home out here."

Photograph of Joshua's discovery journal by Mark Christmas/NGS

POSTED BY NANCY GUPTON/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 11:00 AM

Photographer David Liittschwager shows a photographed beetle to the National Park Service's Ken Ferebee, mammals expert Marc Allard, and Sue Salmons and Dan Sealy of the National Park Service. For his unique macro-photography style, Liittschwager photographs live specimens in Petri dishes.

Photograph by Mark Christmas/NGS

POSTED BY NANCY GUPTON/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 11:34 AM

From a profile of the BioBlitz that ran in today's Washington Post: "There were caterpillars hiding under leaves, earthworms wriggling under rocks, scientists climbing in the treetops and spiders scrambling in the grass."

Read the complete article.

Photograph by Lois Raimondo/The Washington Post

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Species Count: 414

POSTED BY NANCY GUPTON/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 9:32 AM

One team of overnight owlers found luck last night with two species, the eastern screech owl and the barred owl. The owl team donned night-vision goggles and headed out into the park. Once in a likely spot, guide David Johnson of the Global Owl Project played owl calls loudly over a boombox, luring curious male owls out to confront the fake intruder.

The ploy worked to draw out four eastern screech owls and nine barred owls.

Photograph of an eastern screech owl by Mark Christmas

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Species Count: 388

POSTED BY NANCY GUPTON/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 7:22 AM

Over the last ten years, scientists and volunteers have catalogued thousands of species in BioBlitzes across the globe.

What's it like to be in the middle of a Blitz? As a Smithsonian magazine writer put it: "A BioBlitz is an event in which dozens of scientists fan out across some unlikely habitat, hell-bent on recording every species they can find, dead or alive, in a 24-hour period. ... They [are] prepared to dance like butterflies, sing like chickadees or do almost anything else this scavenger hunt required."

Read about a few past BioBlitzes:

Chattanooga, Tennessee (2007)

Potomac Gorge, Maryland (2006)

Boulder, Colorado (2004)

Central Park, New York (2003)

Hartford, Connecticut (1999)

POSTED BY NANCY GUPTON/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 4:14 AM