Over a 24-hour period between 5 p.m. on Friday, June 17, and 5 p.m on
Saturday, June 18, Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
and the Friends of Great Swamp (FGS) led more than 150 scientists, volunteers and participants
in a concerted effort to find and identify as many different plant and animal species as they could within
the confines of northern New Jersey’s 7,768-acre Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. As data
continues to roll in from the event, BioBlitz 2011—the third of its kind to be held in the Great Swamp
watershed since 2007—seems poised to exceed all the scientific and educational benchmarks established
by past BioBlitz gatherings.
Event Highlights:
Hooded Merganser male, credit Ari Kaufman
- More than 100 members of the public (non-scientists) participated in the event.
- More than 60 scientists volunteered their time to study the wide variety of plants and wildlife found in the Great Swamp.
- Some unusual wildlife species were seen or heard, including the following:
- Federally-endangered Blue-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma laterale)
- Hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) — water fowl that are usually only present during winter months
- More than 25 species of crane fly — the long legged weak-flying insects that look like giant mosquitoes and throng the porch lights
- A couple of much-talked-about, but as yet unidentified, woodland orchids, amongst 200 species of wildflowers seen
- More than 15 species of freshwater fish netted in Passaic River tributaries
Blue spotted salamander, credit Blaine Rothauser
Go to our Results page to see what plants and animals were spotted this year.
BioBlitz 2007 (Loantaka Brook Park) • BioBlitz 2009 (Great Swamp NWR)