The Vermont Atlas of Life wants you to log any and all biodiversity sightings into the database. But sometimes biologists, land managers, students and citizen naturalists have important areas of interest that need our focus. Perhaps it is a conservation concern species that lacks data, the spread of an invasive species that needs to be tracked, understanding the phenology (timing of natural history events) of flowers, or the breeding locations of a colonial bird. There are many possible examples. Click on "missions" on the banner above to find a list that will continue to grow and change as needs arise.

From drop of the ball on January 1 to the twinkle of stars on December 31, hundreds of naturalists are scouring fields and fens, mountains and meadows, lakes and lawns to discover as many species in as many Vermont places as possible in 2013. Thanks to one of our project partners, Northern Woodlands, the top Vermont naturalists in 2013 will earn a subscription to their informative magazine. The naturalists that discover and report the most species, record the most observations, or help others identify the most species on the project will be crowned at the end of 2013. Only one prize per person, so three naturalists will be honored. The observations have to be from 2013, so get out there and explore, discover, and share with the Vermont Atlas of Life!

Many of you are on the hunt for the prizes for naturalist of the year announced in our last post. Now, by popular demand, we're starting a monthly photo-observation contest here at the Vermont Atlas of Life. We'll choose four photos from observations each month and post them here. Photo observations will be chosen on artistic, scientific and overall "wow" impact. It might be a beautiful shot, an amazing sighting captured, a neat behavior, or whatever catches the editor's eye. We'll ask for a volunteer editor each month to select the four finalists. Next month's editor is Kyle Jones. Let us know if you'd like to be the editor for March. To vote, you simply write a comment for the one you like most. The photograph with the most votes wins.

Vote for January! Voting closes in one week.

1. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187338
2. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/186497
3. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/174431
4. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189239

Jane Ogilvie captured a wonderful photo-observation of a Common Merganser floating past her as she stood under the new bridge across Lake Champlain. Check out her observation and click on the photo to select a larger version at http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189239. The sunlight glows on the bird with beautiful water droplets on its head and back. Congratulations Jane and thanks for sharing it with us!

Get your February photo-observations in to the atlas. Kyle Jones will be our volunteer judge to select four fantastic photo-observations from the month for all of us to vote soon.