Day 2 was a rainy day here in southern Delaware, so I managed to snap a picture of some birds feeding on seed we put out in our backyard. As it is still winter for another month one would expect there not to be much blooming, but we’ve had a very mild winter and some plants are blooming earlier than usual, such as the daffodil I snapped a picture of. Studying the timing of the blooming of plants falls under phenology which is (from the dictionary) “The study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, esp. in relation to climate and plant and animal life”. As you can see from the definition, phenology is important to study in order to understand our changing climate. To that end, scientists have enlisted the help of every day citizens, which is what we term “citizen science” to help collect data on when trees and flowers bloom or when they first hear certain bird calls.
Project Budburst is one of these citizen science projects and you can click the link for the website to find out more information and how you may be able to help in your own back yard http://neoninc.org/budburst/. Additionally you can check out the National Phenology Network http://www.usanpn.org/ for even more information.
phototerrascientia 