Just a few hours now - and New Zealand has already begun!

The magic of time zones means that the City Nature Challenge has already begun in New Zealand just as we are sitting down to breakfast this morning. An early bird (or night-owl) in Christchurch has posted this observation of a Badumna spider. This little guy belongs to a group of spiders who are generally just found in Australasia. Several species are commonly found around buildings. I especially like how the observer has captured the spider laying down a zigzag pattern in the web. More info about spiders in New Zealand.

The City Nature Challenge:Winnipeg Region starts in just a few more hours. As the day goes on, more and more cities will begin adding observations as midnight passes in their time zone. The global organizers and I hope that you are feeling (at least somewhat) prepared and excited for the event! It is a wonderful reason to get outside for a few days and enjoy the nature around you.

Please also be safe and respect the COVID guidelines in our area as others will also do where ever they are in the world. The effects of the pandemic are widely different right now in different countries – and so our global community will have vastly different CNC experiences this year depending on their local situation. It has been an interesting process to be involved in the behind the scenes work in the midst of this uncertainty.

Some observers will be new to iNat and as you all know it can be a little confusing at first. Anyone can help with general IDs or troubleshooting common issues people may have encountered (e.g. multiple species added to a single observation). Here's a link with pre-written responses that can be used in many of these situations. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/responses

The sponsoring organizers are interested in what is happening on the ground to share. Once our event starts, you can ping @marykrieger if you notice something from our event that fits. Things like...

  • New finds! Species that haven’t been recorded in particular areas before.
  • Important finds of rare/endangered/threatened species
  • Observations that have a great story that go along with them
  • Really cool photos
  • Fun finds!

You can also fav observations others that you find enjoyable in any of the participating projects. All the organizers check out the observations in their projects that are getting a lot of attention. Sponsoring organizers also appreciate some social media love with hashtags #CityNatureChallenge #iNaturalistCanada

It is estimated that 400+ cities are participating ( 25 in Canada) in 43(?) countries. It is hoped that over 1 million observations will be added by over 50,000 people taking part recording over 32,000 species. INaturalist may be a little slower than usual with all the activity so you may want to post your observations in batches between observation sessions rather than post as you go. From previous experience, the activity level is pretty steady throughout so patience is key.

Last year in the first weekend in May in the Winnipeg region, 36 observers added 214 observations of 118 species. 115 of those observations were birds representing 51 species. Only 8 observations were of insects and only 65 were of plants so we have plenty of room to grow. Check that your batteries are charged and your disk space is available - and take some time to watch the event roll out following the dawn around the globe.

Happy discoveries for all!

Publicado el abril 29, 2021 01:19 TARDE por marykrieger marykrieger

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