Almost time for International Rock Flipping Day!

Friday, September 4, 2009 at 11:05 PM Bookmark and Share
I just noticed on Bug Girl's blog that Wanderin' Weeta is hosting the annual International Rock Flipping Day on Sunday, September 20th.

You're going to join in too, aren't you?

Here in western New York there are plenty of flippable pieces of Devonian shale, and plenty of cool critters living underneath them: various insects, snails, slugs, Scutigera centipedes and other Myriapods, earthworms, a few salamander species, half a dozen or so species of snakes (no venomous species save the few locales away from Ithaca with rarely seen Timber Rattlesnakes and Eastern Massasuagas - no way I'll find one near Ithaca, unfortunately).

While encouraged to flip a rock or two (or three) I think I might have some fun with it... maybe flip a few rocks in a number of different habitats?  Maybe flip progressively larger rocks until I can't flip anything more?  Some urban, some rural, some wilderness?  Other suggestions, anyone?

Hope you get a chance to join the fun! :)



Paraphrasing the rules over on Wanderin' Weeta's blog - if you're joining in for the first time, here's a quick rundown of the procedure:
  • On or about September 20th, find your rock and flip it over.
  • Record what you find. "Any and all forms of documentation are welcome: still photos, video, sketches, prose, or poetry."
  • Replace the rock as you found it; it's someone's home, but...
  • as David Steen suggests - "If there are critters underneath, don't place the rock back on top of them, move the animals to the side, replace the rock and let them scurry back."
  • Post on your blog, or load your photos to the Flickr group.
  • Send me a link. My e-mail address is in my profile, or you can add a comment to any IRFD post.
  • Wanderin' Weeta will collect the links, e-mail participants the list, and post it for any and all to copy to their own blogs. (Maybe we can Tweet it, too, this year. Use the hashtag #rockflip.)

4 comments:

Posted by: Susannah Anderson | 9/05/2009 12:59 AM

Thanks for posting the link!

"I think I might have some fun with it... maybe flip a few rocks in a number of different habitats? Maybe flip progressively larger rocks until I can't flip anything more? Some urban, some rural, some wilderness?"

Sounds great! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Posted by: Unknown | 9/05/2009 10:18 AM

A reminder to all rock flippers that they should be flipped back into place. If there are critters underneath, don't place the rock back on top of them, move the animals to the side, replace the rock and let them scurry back.

Posted by: Susannah Anderson | 9/05/2009 1:18 PM

David,
That's a good clarification. On my blog, in "the rules", I mentioned putting the rock back, but not the bit about moving the critter. I'll update the post accordingly.

Posted by: Paul | 9/05/2009 3:23 PM

Thanks Dave - I'll include those updated rules here in case folks don't make the click back to the original post. :)

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