The clock's struck 12, but Team BioBlitz is still crunching data in the Indiana Dunes Inventory Tent, and the tally continues to climb.
Shortly after noon, the total stood at 788 unique species for the official closing ceremonies. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Costa Dillon passed the BioBlitz flag to a representative from Biscayne National Park, Florida, site of the 2010 annual National Geographic-National Park Service BioBlitz.
Within a few minutes, the addition of several morning inventories brought the figure to 890.
And now, a few hours later, we've crested a thousand and are pushing 1,100. All the species were found and recorded during the 24 official hours of the BioBlitz, noon Friday to noon Saturday. But scientists will continue to make definitive I.D.'s for weeks to come. I'll report the final number here when we have one!
Photographs by Suzi Zetkus and Ford Cochran