Good Morning Watershed Explorers,
I hope you have a nice Friday off. It's going to be a gorgeous day so put on some sunscreen and get out to explore!
On Sunday, the critter spotlight was on a very interesting little creature called the common eastern firefly. If you were able to read Sunday's post, you may remember that firefly populations have recently been on the decline. As a member of the Massachusetts Audubon, I was notified about a great program called Firefly Watch that the Mass Audubon organizes with Tufts University. This is a citizen science program that allows people to help scientists observe and record information on firefly populations. This is a great way to help scientists without leaving your own backyard!
If you are interested in being a firefly watcher, you can visit this website to gather more information, as well as find out how to get involved https://www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/citizen-science/firefly-watch/how-to-participate It only takes 10 minutes a week! This is a great citizen science program to be involved with because the time requirement is so small. It may be a few more weeks before flashing fireflies start to emerge at night. This project only wants information on flashing fireflies, so it's best to wait to start count until June but you can definitely hop on the website to get the information you need to prepare!
I hope that you will consider helping scientists track fireflies. Citizen science programs around the world provide scientists with critical data that they cannot possibly collect themselves. As a junior scientist, it's also a great way to get your feet wet in data collection!
Keep Exploring Watershed Explorers!
Much Love,
Mrs. Morissette
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