While fishing

By 1900, Trumpeter Swans were extirpated from their nesting and wintering areas in Central and Eastern North America. Their historic migrations to southerly wintering sites were totally destroyed. In recent decades wild nesting populations of Trumpeters have been successfully restored in several northerly states and Ontario. Most swans now winter near their northern breeding areas, but an unknown number are pioneering southward where they are beginning to establish use of more southerly wintering sites.

Little is known regarding the numbers and groupings of southward migrants, the location and characteristics of the sites they are pioneering, the duration of use, or problems they may be encountering. By providing information through Trumpeter Watch, observers can help document the changing distribution of wintering Trumpeter Swans and help identify potential new southerly wintering sites.

Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.

The BTO's Nest Record Scheme (NRS) gathers vital information on the breeding success of Britain's birds by asking volunteers to find and follow the progress of individual birds' nests.

The data collected are used to produce trends in breeding performance, which help us to identify species that may be declining because of problems at the nesting stage. These trends are published on the BTO website and are updated every year. NRS data also allow us to measure the impacts of pressures such as climate change on bird productivity.

Anyone can be a nest recorder. Some people watch a single nest box in their back garden while others spend hundreds of hours finding and monitoring nests in the wider countryside.

Count birds within a 15-foot area, anywhere in the Western states, for one hour on Thanksgiving Day; you decide the hour and the location.
Last year 431 counters in the eleven Western States and Alaska made 440 counts. They tallied 161 species of birds (plus a lot of mammals and other things, too). The top five species counted in these states were House Sparrow (1), Dark-eyed Junco (2), House Finch (3), Black-capped Chickadee (4) and European Starling (5). As predicted, the Pine Siskin dropped out of the top five last season, but should be more numerous this year. Participants should send in a report even if no birds were seen during the hour.

Harsh winter conditions significantly affect young turkeys. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeks wildlife lovers in every county to help them observe and count young male and female turkeys (also known as Jakes and Jennies), from January 2012 through March 2012.

N.H. Fish and Game's winter wild turkey flock survey invites you to help record sightings of wild turkey flocks in New Hampshire from January to mid-March each year. This effort helps biologists assess the impact of winter weather on our turkey population!

Creek Watch is an iPhone application created by IBM Research that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. We aggregate the data and share it with water control boards to help them track pollution and manage water resources. You can use the map on the left to explore the data that people have contributed, or see recent contributions as a table.

The Creek Watch App uses four pieces of data:

The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more pieces).
A picture of the waterway.

This data helps watershed groups, agencies and scientists track pollution, manage water resources, and plan environmental programs.

Creek Watch is a project developed at IBM Research - Almaden in consultation with the California State Water Resources Control Board's Clean Water Team.

The iPhone application is now available free on the iTunes store, so you can get started contributing data!

MySwan is a citizen science project for people who love swans. Just record your black swan sighting on the interactive map, and you can make a valuable contribution to research on the behavior and movement of swans.

After you submit your sighting, you'll get an instant report about the swan, with interesting information about its history and recent movements.

BeeSpotter needs volunteers to go outside with a camera and capture quality pictures of bees.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are trying to better understand bee demographics in the state of Illinois, and they can't do it without your help. Your data will become part of a nationwide effort to gather baseline information on the population status of these insects.

BeeSpotter is a partnership between citizen scientists and the professional science community. The project is designed to educate the public about pollinators by engaging them in a data collection effort of importance to the nation.

This proposed nutrient survey of the Mississippi River watershed seeks to glean a better understanding of the distribution of inorganic nutrient sources into the Mississippi River.

By conducting this study, we seek to identify 'hot spots' within which to target follow-up research and engineering efforts aimed at decreasing the load of nutrients introduced into this river - and in so doing, successfully mitigate their consequent effect upon the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.

FrogWatch USA is the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums)’s flagship citizen science program that allows individuals and families to learn about the wetlands in their communities and help conserve amphibians by reporting the calls of local frogs and toads. For over ten years, volunteers have been trained to enter their FrogWatch USA information and ongoing analyses of these data have been used to help develop practical strategies for the conservation of these important species.

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) is seeking individuals to submit their sightings of butterflies and moths. BAMONA is a user-friendly web site and database that shares butterfly and moth species information with the public via dynamic maps, checklists, and species pages. Data are updated regularly and come from a variety of sources, including citizen scientists. Individuals can get involved by documenting butterflies and moths in their neighborhoods and submitting photographs for review. Collaborating lepidopterists serve as coordinators and oversee quality control. Submitted data are verified, added to the database, and then made available through the web site.

The Great Lakes Worm Watch needs citizen scientists to conduct earthworm surveys in forests and other habitats in Minnesota.

Earthworms are not native to the Great Lakes Region; they were all wiped out after the last glaciation. The current population, brought here by early Europeans, is slowly changing the face of our native forests, but very little is known about the distributions of earthworm and earthworm species across the region. While valuable, this type of information is labor-intensive, and it is difficult for researchers to get funding to do this kind of work. Citizen scientists can help.

There are several ways to get involved:

1. Document earthworm occurrences: This involves collecting and sending earthworm specimens with location information to Great Lakes Worm Watch. These specimens will be archived at the University of Minnesota, and the species and location information will be added to the project database.

2. Collect habitat data: Great Lakes Worm Watch would like data from all habitat types, especially natural ecosystems like forests, woodlands, and prairies. In addition, data from habitats dominated by human activity are also of value, such as farm fields, pastures, and parks. Depending on your level of interest and expertise, you can choose to conduct a general or detailed habitat survey. You can use the instructions and data sheets developed by the project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

3. Conduct soil surveys: In addition to earthworm and habitat data, Great Lakes Worm Watch is also interested in getting data about the soil conditions at sites in which you sampled for earthworms. You can use the instructions and data sheet developed by project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

Get started! Anyone can make a BIG difference when it comes to containing the spread of exotic earthworms!

The Bird Conservation Network Census needs citizen scientists to record bird distribution and abundance information for birds in the Chicago region.

Bird monitors can participate at different levels:

- If you have a special interest in a particular site, you can become a regular monitor at that site and keep a year-round watch on the birds that nest, winter, or migrate through that site.

- You may help track changes in nesting populations by conducting point count surveys during the breeding season.

- You may visit a site during the nesting season and record numbers and species of birds just as you would on a Christmas Count.

- If you do not have the time to become a regular site monitor, you can still contribute your sightings.

The Bird Conservation Network has created a set of standardized methods for studying the birds of the Chicago Wilderness region. These methods can serve a variety of research purposes while also allowing birders to participate at different levels of intensity. Participants commit to making five or more visits to the site each year with at least two of those visits coming during breeding season (June). Also, participants should be able to recognize Illinois birds by sight and sound. By general rule, a birder should have about at least three years of experience with field identification of birds in the Illinois area.

The goals of this study are to generate a general picture of bird distribution in the region, to collect data to assist land managers and conservation planners in decision making, and to create a database compatible with other types of habitat data being gathered in the region which can be used by researchers investigating specific ecosystem questions. If you are an avid birder at a Chicago Park District nature area, you are encouraged to become a bird monitor.

Volunteer birdwatchers with the Puget Sound Seabird Survey gather valuable data on wintering seabird populations in the Puget Sound. The project is organized by the Seattle Audubon Society.

During monthly winter surveys from October to April, volunteers identify and count birds from the Puget Sound shoreline using a protocol designed by leading seabird researchers. Volunteers count all species of coastal seabirds including geese, ducks, swans, loons, grebes, cormorants, gulls, terns, and alcids. These data will be used to create a snapshot of seabird density on more than three square miles of nearshore saltwater habitat.

Puget Sound Seabird Survey is the only land-based, multi-month survey in the central or south Puget Sound.

Volunteers are needed to help the South Yuba River Citizens League, based in Nevada City, California, collect monthly water quality data at 45 different sites in the Yuba Watershed.

We are the leading regional advocates for creating resilient human and natural communities throughout the greater Yuba River basin by restoring creeks and rivers, regenerating wild salmon populations, and inspiring and organizing people—from the Yuba’s source to the sea—to join in our movement for a more wild and scenic Yuba River.

We train participants to use pH and conductivity meters and to conduct dissolved oxygen titrations in the field in order to collect information on the health of their rivers and streams. We also offer volunteers the opportunity to be involved in other monitoring activities, including health assessments of meadows, sampling of benthic macroinvertebrate and algae, surveys of river vegetation, and temperature logging.

The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project enlists citizen scientists to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat.

Developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, the project aims to better understand how and why monarch populations vary in time and space, with a focus on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season in North America.

As a volunteer, you can participate in two ways: You can commit to regularly monitoring a specific patch of milkweed or you can submit anecdotal observations. If you commit to regular monitoring, you'll conduct weekly monarch and milkweed surveys, measuring per plant densities of monarch eggs and larvae. You'll also be able to participate in more detailed optional activities, such as measuring parasitism rates and milkweed quality. Your contributions will aid in conserving monarchs and their threatened migratory phenomenon, and will advance our understanding of butterfly ecology in general.

In addition to contributing to an understanding of monarch biology, you'll gain hands-on experience in scientific research. Through this experience, we hope that your appreciation and understanding of monarchs, monarch habitat, and the scientific process are enhanced.

The Hudson River Estuary Program and Scenic Hudson are working with citizen scientists to monitor herring and American eel in Ulster County's Black Creek Preserve.

Herring volunteers will observe the creek to see if, where, and when spawning runs occur. Those interested in eels will use nets and trap devices to catch juvenile glass eels, which are counted, weighed, and released unharmed.

Data may help biologists discover why populations of these important fish are declining.

eBird is a free, real-time, online program that enlists birdwatchers to record the presence or absence of different bird species.

Participants record when, where, and how they went birding, then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. eBird shares the observations of birders with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists.

eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Importantly, it helps to increase our understanding of birds and our appreciation for the uniqueness of our planet's biodiversity.

For more information on the Gulf Coast Oil Spill eBird Tracker initiative, visit: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ebird-gulf-coast-oil-spill-bird-tracker

Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL) is a citizen science project in which volunteers make and report cloud observations from sites of their choosing, such as a field trip, vacation, or even a backyard. The project aims to collect data on cloud type, height, cover, and related conditions from all over the world. Observations are sent to NASA for comparison to similar information obtained from satellite.

Many people take for granted how powerful clouds are in our atmosphere. It is clouds, in part, that affect the overall temperature and energy balance of the Earth. The more that scientists know about clouds, the more they will know about our Earth as a system. The S'COOL observations help validate satellite data and give a more complete picture of clouds in the atmosphere and their interactions with other parts of the integrated global Earth system. Citizens benefit from their participation in a real-world science experiment and from their access to a variety of background material. Educational materials for teachers are also available.

Related Material:
http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/Rover/

World Water Monitoring Day is an international program that encourages citizen volunteers to monitor their local water bodies. An easy-to-use test kit enables everyone from children to adults to sample local water bodies for basic water quality parameters: temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity), and dissolved oxygen.

Though World Water Monitoring Day is officially celebrated on September 18, the monitoring window is extended to cover the period from March 22 (World Water Day) until December 31. Participants are encouraged to make their observations at anytime within that extended window.

The results of current and past studies are shared with participating communities around the globe through the organization's online Data & Reports page: http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/About/Annual_Reports.html

Known as the first and oldest Citizen Science project, at over 110 years, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is also one of the largest, with 60,000+ person-days of efforts and more than 50 million birds counted each year. The CBC has contributed greatly to the science of bird conservation with hundreds of publications, including many in important scientific journals. From December 14 through January 5 each year, tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition through the generations.

Count volunteers follow specified routes within a designated 15-mile diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. It’s not just a species tally—all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day. If observers live within a CBC circle, they may arrange in advance to count the birds at their feeders and submit those data to their compiler. All individual CBCs are conducted in the period from December 14 to January 5 (inclusive dates) each season, and each count is conducted in one calendar day (24-hour period).

FishBase is an information system with key data on the biology of all fishes. The information will be used to create up-to-date distribution maps to assist in monitoring trends in biodiversity.

Divers, anglers, aquarists, and researchers can create their personal or institutional databases of where and when they have seen, caught, or acquired a particular fish. Biodiversity managers can create national fish biodiversity databases to keep track of local regulations and uses. Anthropologists can create a database on local knowledge about fish.

Similar to an encyclopedia, FishBase offers different things for different people. Fishery managers, teachers and students, taxonomists, conservationists, policymakers, research scientists, funding agencies, zoologists and physiologists, ecologists, geneticists, and the fishing industry, anglers, and scholars will find more than 100,000 common names of fishes together with the language/culture in which they are used and comments on their etymology.

Butterflies I've Seen allows you to keep track of all of your butterfly sightings.

Once your sightings are logged in the database, you can retrieve them by location, by date, or by species. You can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen, a "Life List," or you can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen at a particular location. At the same time, the sightings you enter provide important information that the North American Butterfly Association, the major butterfly conservation organization in North America, will use to help answer scientists' questions about butterfly distributions, abundance, and conservation.

Enjoy the site and the fact that your efforts are increasing our knowledge and helping butterfly conservation!