Biologist Maddie Beange, who has deep family ties to Savary Island, is once again challenging everyone to sign up and submit observations, on iNaturalist.ca, of 28 different species of flora or fauna on the land, sky and beach, intertidal or subtidal, of the island. The event is in partnership with Savary Island Land Trust (SILT).
"We are 10-days into the event and we already have 52 observations of 34 species," said Beange, in a message to the Peak. "Intertidal species seem to be dominating so far, but there are a couple cool observations of a barred owl."
Last year Garry Fletcher and his grandson Xander Vanderstone won the challenge.
"The SILT iNaturalist events were started as a fun way for the community to connect and discover new species and appreciate the ones we are familiar with," said Beange. "Any observations that are uploaded from Savary will automatically be included in the event."
Here are a few examples of what's been identified recently: a myrtle warbler, plenty of red rock crab, a northern kelp crab, a Lewis' moon snail, many sand dollars, a California sun star and sea cauliflower.
"I am not currently at Savary; unfortunately I'll just be getting one week up there this summer," said Beange. "I first started volunteering for SILT in 2018. I had just moved back from Costa Rica, where I had lived for seven years and managed a sea turtle conservation program, and was looking for a new way to contribute to environmental conservation."
She said Savary is part of the coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone.
"It includes coastal sand dune ecosystems, which are especially rare in Canada, as well as maritime meadows, mature forest and old forest ecosystems," added Beange. "I get the most excited about the intertidal and subtidal algae and critters; the more well known taxa are the sea stars, sea anemones, sand dollars and crabs, but there are some fun worms and sea slugs."
She said some examples of threatened species are the silky beach pea (Lathyrus littoralis) and beach bindweed (Calystegia soldanella).
"Maddie's grandfather was one of the first pioneer stewards of Savary," said executive director of SILT Liz Webster. "He was one of the first people to get behind the idea to save the heart of Savary."
To sign up for the SILT iNaturalist challenge, go to inaturalist.org/projects/silt-28-challenge. The challenge runs until August 31.
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