Tag Archive | Bioblitz

City Nature Challenge Events

Register now for CNC events this weekend.

The City Nature Challenge is unique in that anyone can participate anywhere in the area from April 26-29. But if you want to take part with an organized group there are many events being offered.

To contribute to the CNC you have to post your observations on the iNaturalist app or website. If you would like to learn how to use iNaturalist, or if you need a refresher or have any questions about the CNC, organizer Matt Wallace is offering a tutorial tonight, Tuesday April 23, at 7 pm. This will be done over Zoom. Here is the link to the meeting.

CNC Map
The CNC area includes Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Any iNaturalist obserations made in this area from April 26-29 will contribute to this project.

Matt has organized a number of events throughout the weekend. These include all-day blitzes, birding walks, and more specialized events such as pond study and a pollinator walk. Click the link below to see all the events!

Register for CNC events on this page!

For Nature Calgary members, there are three events on Sunday April 28 which are not full. These include a Birding Blitz on St. Patrick Island near the Zoo, a Bryophyte Blitz in the Weaselhead, and a Plant Walk in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. See this page to register.

City Nature Challenge

More information from Matt Wallace:

April 26-29 take photos of wild plants and animals in your yards, neighborhoods, and favorite parks. Then upload your observations to the iNaturalist app or to iNaturalist.ca before Midnight May 5. This is the sixth year I have organized the Calgary CNC and it has grown immensely. There are over 700 cities involved worldwide and we are competing with them to see how many observations we can make, the number of species we can document, and the number of people we can get to participate. The two metrics I am most concerned with for our area are the number of observations and the participants. 

My personal goal for CNC is that we can make a combined 10,000 observations or more during the four days. I also hope that we can make 250K observations by 2025 (We are currently at 169,000 observations just in Calgary). If each of us were to make even 10 observations over the weekend, we could make the CNC target and could be the top-performing Canadian city (49 participating Canadian cities this year).

The area which you can participate in during CNC includes: Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Participate in groups, at events or even go exploring on your own. Heck, make a “big day” out of the four days if you’re up for the challenge. I have helped to organize around 15 events across the region all happening Friday-Monday which can all be found on the website below.

Types of subjects we love to see shared on iNaturalist include Birds, Plants, Butterflies, Insects, Fungi, Lichens, Mosses, Mammals (pretty much everything and anything but NO people or pets).

See my previous 2024 CNC post here.

Have a fun weekend and help this project reach its goals!

City Nature Challenge 2024

Thursday April 26 through Monday April 29

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The sixth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge is coming up soon. This four-day bioblitz is an effort to try to record as much of the Calgary and area biodiversity as possible. Cities around the world will be taking part in this effort, and competing to see who makes the most observations and records the most species. As usual, Calgary will be competing to try to increase our own participation and species numbers here.

City Nature Challenge

From CNC Organizer Matthew Wallace:

The sixth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge takes place April 26-29! Over 650 cities worldwide will compete and collaborate to showcase their urban biodiversity! Participate by taking photos of wild plants and animals in your yards, neighborhoods, and favorite parks over the four days. Then, upload your observations to the iNaturalist app or iNaturalist.ca!

There are several public events happening across the city which include pollinator walks, guided birding tours, and park bioblitzes. You can also just head out to explore on your own or with a group of friends.

Participate anywhere within the Calgary Metropolitan Region which includes Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Rocky View County, and Foothills County.

The deadline to upload your observations to iNaturalist is midnight May 5.

Cities will compete to see which can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people. Calgary aims to be the top-performing Canadian city with a goal of over 10,000 observations posted. Make as many observations as you can April 26-29 so get outside and help to put Calgary’s biodiversity on the map!

Check out all of the CNC resources on the following pages:

The City Nature Challenge webpage. Watch the events tab as more field trips are added.

CNC 2024 Facebook Page

The Project Page on the iNaturalist website.

As birders, we can participate by taking as many photos of birds as we can over the four days. Any identifiable photo is good so don’t worry too much about the quality of your pictures. We also need to document everything, so don’t hesitate to photograph House Sparrows, Black-billed Magpies, and other common species. Then you have until midnight on May 5 to upload your photos to iNaturalist.

Bald Eagle
An adult Bald Eagle I photographed near the Inglewood Golf Course on the 2023 CNC. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

While you’re out there, you can also get photos of non-bird biodiversity with your camera. Maybe you won’t know what species you have, but iNaturalist has an artificial intelligence that can help with the ID, and even if you have no idea, other iNaturalist users will help to identify everything.

These were a few of the other species I saw on the 2023 CNC. I didn’t know some of the species identifications until I entered them into iNaturalist. (Photos by Bob Lefebvre.)

Since I have my phone with me when I’m birding, I can use it to get photos of other species which are difficult to get with a big camera (photos by Bob Lefebvre):

I have found it to be a great experience to use iNaturalist to learn more about our overall biodiversity. Like most birders, I am interested in all of nature, not just birds.

Watch this short video about the 2024 Calgary City Nature Challenge:

Matthew has set a goal of having 10,000 observations made over the four days this year. In 2023 we had 9,301, so we are getting closer! We also hope to better our total of 762 species recorded last year.

So check out the project links above and plan to participate in an event, or just head out on your own!

Update on the City Nature Challenge

Help Calgary to reach its CNC goals this weekend!

Wanted: Plant, fungus, insect, and bacteria experts!

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The 5th annual City Nature Challenge took place last week, from April 28 to May 1. The period for making observations has ended, but participants have until midnight on Sunday May 7 to upload their photos. Many of us are still working on that. In addition, all the observations need to be identified and have at least two people agree on the species to be considered Research Grade. You can help with this!

But first an update on where the challenge stands. Calgary is doing very well again, and has set new city records for the number of observations, species recorded, and participants. Matthew Wallace, the organizer of the Calgary CNC, had set a goal of 10,000 observations made in the Calgary area. Although we are not there yet, we are close.

Although the CNC is not really a competition between cities due to differences in climate, habitats, and human populations, nevertheless we should note that Calgary is among the Canadian leaders in total observations made, and may well finish with the most. On Monday evening Montreal was leading with 6,516 observation, with Victoria at 6,344 and Calgary in third place with 6,137. As of late Friday (May 5) Calgary has taken the lead among Canadian cities:

City Nature Challenge

It’s interesting to look at the statistics for the Global CNC:

City Nature Challenge

Over 64,000 observers made 1.75 million observations and identified over 55,000 species worldwide in the four days. The numbers from the leading city, La Paz in Bolivia, are staggering! Over 3,000 people made 122,000 observations and identified over 5,000 species! It shows the difference that climate and geography make, but it also shows what can be achieved with a year-round concerted effort to get people involved. La Paz has a metropolitan population of about 2 million, so it is comparable to Calgary.

Below are the statistics for Calgary as of late Friday. So far, 760 species have been reported by 336 observers. Identifications have been provided by 392 people.

City Nature Challenge

Once again Matthew Wallace was extremely busy on the weekend, making over 1,100 observations and recording 214 species (so far). But many others have also made hundreds of observations and recorded over 100 species each.

City Nature Challenge

As you can see above, the Prairie Pasqueflower (the familiar spring crocus) is by far the most commonly reported species. Usually it is Mallard in first place, but the unusually hot and dry weather this year means that there were more early flowering plants reported, and more insects as well. This is where you come in.

When a photo is uploaded to iNaturalist, the artificial intelligence will try to identify it, and the observer can accept one of the suggestions or, if they know the species, can write it in or override a suggestion. Then all the other iNaturalist users in the world are able to view the observation, and agree with the identification or suggest an alternate one. Once an observation is uploaded with date, location, and a photo or sound file (and is wild or uncultivated), it is labelled “Needs ID.” Observations become “Research Grade” once 2/3 of identifiers agree on a species-level (or lower) ID. These are then eligible to be used in research projects.

There have been many observations submitted for the Calgary CNC that do not yet have a species-level ID, so are not Research Grade (this is normal; we want to get the photos of every species we can, whether we can confidently identify it or not. Identification comes later). All of the yellow ones below (about 3,000 observations) need additional identification. (Casual observations are not eligible for Research Grade. An example is a captive animal or cultivated plant.)

City Nature Challenge

Any iNaturalist user can help to identify our observations from the CNC, or from anywhere in the world at any time. To see the Calgary observations, go to the Calgary Project Page. Click on the Observations tab, then “Identify.”

iNaturalist

Here you can agree with the observer’s ID, or suggest another. See what the AI suggests. Where there are multiple photos of a species (like the Canadian Beaver, which has 3 photos) you can view them all. The filter set is the Calgary CNC region, but you can click that and set many more filters. For example, you might only be confident identifying birds, so you can set it to show only those. Birds are often quite easy to ID and there is a big birding community, so most of the bird observations quickly become Research Grade. But there are some unusual ones or less-than-perfect photos that still need ID for you keen birders. You can set a filter for “Needs ID” and only those will come up.

iNaturalist
The Filters tab on iNaturalist. I set it to show reptiles that need ID and have photos.

If you are a plant, fungus, insect, or bacteria expert, there are many more observations that need to be verified. So if you think you can help, please open an account on iNaturalist Canada and give it a try! As I said, the project is complete at midnight on Sunday, but you can continue to contribute identifications (and observations!) to iNaturalist year-round. I find it is a lot of fun and a great way to learn to identify more species of all kinds.

For those of you who are interested in taking part in bioblitzes like the City Nature Challenge, the next such local event on iNaturalist is the Metro Calgary Biodiversity Challenge from June 8-11. See the project page for more information.

City Nature Challenge Starts Friday!

Sign up for some of the many events this weekend.

The Calgary City Nature Challenge runs from Friday to Monday, April 28 to May 1. Everyone is welcome to participate anywhere in the Calgary CNC Region by taking photographs of any living thing and posting them to the iNaturalist website or smart phone app. There are many public events this year as well, some of which start as soon as Friday morning, so check the links below to find an event near you.

City Nature Challenge

From organizer Matthew Wallace:

The fifth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge (CNC) will take place April 28-May 1. If you’re unfamiliar with the CNC, it has grown immensely since it began in 2016. At the time there were only two cities competing against one another (Los Angeles and San Francisco). It is now considered to be the largest global bioblitz and one of the largest citizen science events in the world. This year there are 462 cities competing from across the globe. Forty-three cities are within Canada including Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer within Alberta.

There are three categories in which cities compete: Which city can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people. When we say “compete” it’s really just a friendly competition for bragging rights with each city individually organizing their own local bioblitz. People participate by taking photos of plants and animals and uploading them to the iNaturalist app (or iNaturalist.ca when posting from digital cameras and within Canada).

The Calgary Metropolitan region is our local area and includes the city of Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Glenbow Ranch, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Over the four days, any observations made within this area are automatically included in the Calgary iNaturalist Project. (Follow this page to see our progress over the four days.)

Calgary CNC Map
The Calgary Metropolitan Region for the CNC.

Our goal is to achieve a new Canadian record (>10,000 observations). We have been inching closer to this target number each year with almost 6800 observations shared in 2022. Keep your eye on the leaderboards to see how cities around the world are doing.

CNC Global leaderboard

CNC Canada leaderboard

From April 28-May 1, make as many observations as you can by taking photos of plants, animals, and fungi as you explore our region. You don’t have to go far to participate: Look in your yards, neighbourhoods and favorite parks. There are also a series of public events this year which had been on pause during 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic. It’s a welcome addition to have our naturalist communities be able to get outside and work together to achieve a common goal. For more information on events and resources to help you get started visit www.citynatureyyc.ca.

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For the events list, see this page. This year there are many events both inside Calgary and in outlying areas, including one in Airdrie on Friday morning, two in Glenbow Ranch on Saturday plus one on Sunday, and one in Big Hill Springs on Sunday. Take as many good photos as you can. You will have until May 7 to upload them to iNaturalist (but the sooner the better, so we have time to identify everything). If you have good knowledge of birds, plants, insects, fungi, mammals, or other living things, you can also participate by helping to identify the observervations made here or anywhere on iNaturalist.

Have fun, and help us get to 10,000 observations!!

City Nature Challenge Bioblitz!

Take part in this Citizen Science Project in the Calgary area from April 28 – May 1, 2023.

City Nature Challenge

From organizer Matthew Wallace:

The fifth annual City Nature Challenge Calgary event will take place April 28-May 1, 2023! After five years, we’ve seen the success that CNC can have for engaging Calgarians with their local environments and we hope to make this the biggest event yet! Expect more cities than ever participating from around the world.

April 28-May 1, be sure to get outside and make observations of flora and fauna by taking photos and posting them to iNaturalist (web or app). Observations must be posted by Midnight May 7 to be included. Cities around the world will compete to see which can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people! We need your help to activate your communities!

Encourage your friends, family, and neighbours to make as many observations as possible during the four-day window. We will be hosting public bioblitzes across the city with the support of local stewardship groups. If you have an interest in hosting, sponsoring, or simply participating in an event, please contact us at citynatureyyc@gmail.com and keep your eye on our website www.citynatureyyc.ca for all the information and news.


You can also follow news about the Calgary CNC on this Facebook page. Click the “Going” button and follow the group.

The website for the worldwide challenge is here.

You can follow the progress of the Calgary effort from April 28-May 1 on this iNaturalist site.

Taking part in the CNC is as easy as taking pictures of any wildlife, and uploading the photos to iNaturalist. It is easy to use the iNaturalist app on a smart phone. You can spend the four-day challenge window taking photos, and then we have until May 7 to identify everything using the iNaturalist AI and the worldwide commununity of naturalists who use the site. If you are unable to participate or if you live outside of the Calgary CNC areas, you can still particpate by identifying everything that is submitted.

Grey Partridge
A poor photo of Grey Partridge I took in east Calgary during the 2022 CNC. But every species counts!
Photo by Bob Lefebvre

The cities, towns, and other areas that comprise the Calgary region for the purposes of the CNC are Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Foothills County, Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, High River, Okotoks, Rocky View County, and the City of Calgary. Any observations made in these areas will count for the challenge.

City Nature Challenge
The Calgary CNC Region for 2023.

Last year, there were over 460 cities all over the world taking part in this friendly challenge. Over 67,000 observers reported over 50,000 species in 1.7 million iNaturalist observations. It really is a great way to document and monitor the world’s biodiversity.

Matthew has set a goal for the Calgary region of 10,000 iNaturalist observations in the four-day period. He would like to have 1,000 observers so if we can reach that goal, we should easily get to 10,000 observations. Last year we had 6,200 observations with only about 200 observers. It doesn’t take long to take even 50 or 100 photos and submit them. So please plan to take part in your yard, in a park, or anywhere in the area.

If you have any promotional ideas or would like to host a CNC event or field trip, please email Matthew at citynatureyyc@gmail.com. I plan to lead an outing or two so you could also join me then.

I’ll have more on the City Nature Challenge closer to the event.

City Nature Challenge at the Halfway Point

The event continues until midnight on Monday May 2.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The first two days of the City Nature Challenge are complete and so far we have over 400 species reported from over 2,500 observations. I’m sure many observers (like me) have taken quite a few photos that they haven’t had time to post to iNaturalist yet, so the numbers for the first two days will increase, and we still have two days to go. Participants have until 9am on May 9 to upload their photos, so please don’t think you can’t participate because you won’t have time. Try to take a few photos of each organism so it is easier for the iNaturalist AI and for other participants to identify.

Eurasian Collared-Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove I photographed in my yard on April 30. It may take a few days before I get a chance to upload this and other photos to the project, but I have until May 9 at 9 am to do so. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

You can take photos of any living thing – birds, other animals, plants, even bacteria if you are able to! Good quality photos are important, but for many birds and animals the photos only have to be good enough to identify, which is often easy even with distant or blurry photos, so don’t hesitate to capture a bird’s photo because you can’t get a perfect shot. Common species like House Sparrows and dandelions should be recorded as well as more “interesting” species.

centipede
A centipede I photographed in my yard yesterday using my phone. Based on the iNaturalist Artificial Intelligence I believe it is a Brown Centipede, but if it is another species the worldwide network of iNaturalist users will correct me. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

This is a planet-wide event with hundreds of cities taking part. There are forty-two Canadian municipalities participating this year. Of course every city has a different set of species, but we can “compete” to see how many people take part, how many observations we make, and how many species we record – even if it’s not a level playing field. In Calgary we have taken pride in leading the country in the number of observations we have made during past CNC’s.

Calgary City Nature Challenge 2022
Calgary’s stats from the iNaturalist project page.

This year, we have a little work to do to catch up to Toronto for total observations. The stats at the top of the page are for the whole country. (See the iNaturalist project page for Canada.)

City Nature Challenge Canada
The Canadian cities with the most observations as of Sunday morning, May 1, 2022.

You might also like to see how the worldwide challenge is going – some incredible numbers from La Paz, Hong Kong, and (as always) Cape Town. See the page here for a complete list of cities and their progress.

In case you have any questions about how the challenge works, here is a quick FAQ from the City Nature Challenge main website.

Please get out and help to log the biodiversity of the Calgary area!

Birders and the City Nature Challenge

As a birder, how do you contribute to the upcoming City Nature Challenge? Simply put, take a lot of photos of birds from April 30 to May 3 anywhere in Calgary, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere, Airdrie and Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. You will have until May 9 to upload the photos to iNaturalist.

House Finch
Don’t neglect common species like this House Finch! It’s fun to spend some time documenting all the living things you can find in your yard.

You can photograph any living thing to upload to iNaturalist, but I would really like the local birding community to start contributing more bird photos. Many iNaturalist users take photos only with cell phones, which are ideal for photographing plants and insects, but not great for getting identifiable picture of birds. Calgary-area birders take thousands of high-quality bird photos every day.

Your bird photos do not have to be perfect, just good enough so that other iNaturalist users can identify them. It’s also important to get photos of common species that you may not normally bother to photograph.

Most birders have cell phones as well as cameras, so if you’re out birding this weekend, spend some time to photograph trees, flowers, and insects as well.

If you are not an iNaturalist user, you will still have until May 9 to upload your photos to the site or phone app.

It would be great to get a lot of reports from Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Cochrane, and Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park as well as from the city. If you are really ambitious, try to go to some areas that are new to you. The idea is to get documentation of living things everywhere within the Calgary metropolitan area, not just in city parks or well-travelled natural areas.

Have fun!

City Nature Challenge 2021

Once again Calgary (and the nearby communities of Cochrane, Okotoks, Airdrie, and Chestermere, plus Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park) will be participating in the City Nature Challenge. From April 30 to May 3, anyone can participate in this fun, important, and fast-growing citizen-science project. People in hundreds of cities around the world will be photographing plants, birds, mammals, and anything else in nature to capture a record of worldwide urban biodiversity.

White-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrows should be around for the CNC. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

From the CNC 2021 Calgary Metropolitan Region website:

City Nature Challenge Calgary is back for the third year! Take photos of urban flora and fauna April 30-May 3 2021, then share to iNaturalist. Look for nature in your yards, neighborhoods, and local parks. Explore anywhere in Calgary, Cochrane, Okotoks, Airdrie, Chestermere, and Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. Any photos taken April 30-May 3 and shared to iNaturalist before May 9 will be included.   Join the 2021 iNaturalist Project to Stay up to date!

So starting on Friday morning, take as many photos as you can of birds, plants, insects, and any other living things. You will have until May 9 to upload your photos to iNaturalist.

City Nature Challenge 2020

  • April 24-27, 2020
  • Modified due to Covid-19
  • Expanded to Calgary metropolitan area
  • Everyone welcome to participate!

The second annual Calgary City Nature Challenge will go ahead on April 24-27, 2020. Once again, Matthew Wallace is doing a great job of organizing and promoting this valuable citizen science project.

This year, an expanded Calgary metropolitan area will include Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, and Chestermere. Calgary will be competing with over 200 other cities around the world to try to identify as many species of wildlife as possible.

Last year there were many organized group activities in the CNC, but due to Covid-19 these will not be taking place this year. However, people can easily participate by themselves by taking photos of any living thing and uploading it to the iNaturalist website or app.

Calgary City Nature Challenge

For all the updated information on how to participate, see the Calgary CNC website here.

Download the iNaturalist app or sign up on the webpage. Then start taking pictures of wildlife and uploading them. There is no need to wait until April 24 to get started, but please try to help out on that weekend!

City Nature Challenge Events

The City Nature Challenge is under way! From April 26 through to midnight on April 29 we need Calgary naturalists to take as many photos as possible of any and all wildlife (birds, mammals, fish, plants, lichen; anything!) within the city limits.

You will have until May 5 to upload all your photos to the iNaturalist website or phone app. No need to learn all the ins and outs of iNaturalist right away if you haven’t done so (the sooner the better of course, and it is very easy!), and no need to know what it is you are photographing – the site will suggest ID’s and the iNaturalist community will confirm them.

A Red Fox in Calgary two weeks ago. Now I have to find and photograph it again this weekend. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

There are many organized events planned for the challenge, including six today (Friday April 26) and many more over the following three days. See this page for all the events planned over the four days and come out and help us document the wildlife of Calgary. You can also participate on your own all day, every day!

Calgary is one of 163 cities worldwide taking part in this challenge, and is the northernmost city. We want to try to win the competition for most participants and most observations made. We are also having a friendly competition with Halifax, the only other Canadian city involved. So get outside!