The UF/IFAS Extension St. Lucie County, in conjunction with St. Lucie County Audubon and the St. Lucie County Library System, are encouraging visitors to the downtown Fort Pierce Waterfront to participate in the “Downtown Fort Pierce Waterfront Birding Bioblitz.” This bioblitz will be conducted continuously throughout 2024. Visitors and residents in the downtown area can take photos of the amazing bird diversity in the Indian River Lagoon, breakwater islands and shoreline and upload their sightings to the birding bioblitz project on iNaturalist. Photos taken with phones and uploaded to this iNaturalist project will need to have location settings turned on so photos will include geomatic metadata.
2024 Fort Pierce Waterfront Bird Watching Bioblitz · iNaturalist
As part of this project, patrons of the St. Lucie County library system can visit the Kilmer Branch Library and check out a birding backpack to aid in their observations.
So why iNaturalist? It is a powerful geomatics application that empowers users to make observations that can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed. Almost everyone has a cellphone. In addition, the downtown Fort Pierce waterfront has an amazing diversity of avian visitors. You can help make observations of birds in the downtown Fort Pierce area and contribute to biodiversity citizen science by participating in this bioblitz project.
Bird Watching Backpacks are available for Library patron’s use through their check out system. You can now find information about the birding kits in their card catalog HERE. Visitors and residents in the downtown area can take photos of the amazing bird diversity in the Indian River Lagoon, breakwater islands and shoreline and upload their sightings to the birding bioblitz project on iNaturalist. Development of this downtown Fort Pierce Waterfront Birding Bioblitz, along with the Bird Watching Backpacks, was conducted in collaboration with the UF/IFAS Extension St. Lucie County, St. Lucie County Library System, St. Lucie County Audubon, and Ecological Associates Inc.
Learn more about the development of these Bird Watching Backpacks on our blog. You can also reach out to UF/IFAS Extension St. Lucie County Natural Resources Extension Agent Ken Gioeli, ktgioeli@ufl.edu
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