SALISBURY — Bethany Sheffer and Ellery Zych from Sharon Audubon teamed up with Kyla DeRisi of the Scoville Memorial Library for a “Bioblitz” program on the library grounds Saturday, Aug. 1.
A bioblitz is an event where people go into a designated area and search for as many different species of animals and plants as can be found in a given period of time.
The finds are photographed and entered into an app called “iNaturalist” to be shared with other people doing similar work.
“Its a way to get a whole bunch of people together with experts,” Sheffer said before setting the ground rules.
“Today we’re looking for animals,” she told the group of nine children and their parents.
“So we’re looking for insects, lizards, turtles,” she said, to name a few.
The children fanned out, most of them heading for the Wachocastinoook brook which runs along the boundary of the library property.
Bella Ramcharran and her mother Toni discovered what they thought was a dead cicada. After they got it into a container, it moved a bit.
After about half an hour, it was time to regroup and see what species had been found.
Among the finds were water bugs, an earthworm, a queen ant, a white-striped black butterfly, and the still-living cicada.
The star of the show was a rusty crayfish. After consultation with the iNaturalist app, Sheffer announced that the rusty crayfish is actually considered invasive in this part of the country.
