I mentioned before that a smartphone is the best tool for taking photos of insects and getting close-ups of plants, but not great for birds since they are usually too far away. But many of you birders carry cameras these days, and you can submit your bird photos for the City Nature Challenge. They can easily be uploaded to the iNaturalist website on your desktop computer.
So if you are out this weekend (anytime until Monday at midnight), take lots of bird photos to upload later. You have until May 3rd to upload them, and if they are taken in the city, in Airdrie, Chestermere, or Cochrane, they will be added to the Calgary Challenge.
If you’re lucky you might find an unusual species. Last year I found a Fox Sparrow at Carburn Park.
Fox Sparrow, Carburn Park, Calgary, April 28, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
But remember, iNaturalist and the City nature Challenge is about documenting all living things, so don’t neglect common species, and get them in multiple locations too. You may also see some mammals, trees, and other things you can photograph. You can also photograph evidence of life, such as feathers, nests, spider webs, hare forms, and so on.
Check out this page to see how many species and observations have been submitted so far in Calgary. We are at over 1000 observations and 300 species reported already by 10 am Saturday morning!
Matthew Wallace, who has done such a great job of organizing the Calgary City Nature Challenge for the past two years, would like to encourage everyone with an interest in nature to participate. Matthew says that this is “a great opportunity to get people focused on nature, science, conservation, and stewardship.”
He continues:
In early March when the scope of COVID-19 became a reality, it was difficult for me to grasp that months of work might be reduced to an event cancellation notice. I took some time to consider options and how the CNC YYC could weather this storm. Since then I have updated the website, hosted webinars, and adapted public messaging to promote the event as an opportunity to experience nature close to home while respecting all COVID-19 advisories. In Canada and particularly Calgary, we are so fortunate to have nature integrated into our landscape. I feel that now more than ever, people will begin to understand nature (and access to it) is essential to our personal and community well-being.
“Nature Close To Home” means investigating those critters that live in the deepest corners of our homes, learning about the weeds that we wrestle with in our gardens, showcasing those incredible animals that use habitat in our yards, balconies, alleyways, neighborhoods in the day (and the night). Calgary’s parks are incredible and there is an abundance of flora and fauna we often take for granted but this an opportune time to investigate and learn. These are all places we can encourage people in the Calgary region to explore safely: Explore independently and avoid groups, exercise physical distancing, wash your hands, Do not share equipment (such as phones or binoculars). At the same time, let’s remember to respect our parks by staying on trails, use designated trash bins, not removing plants nor disturbing wildlife, and keeping dogs on-leash (and picking up after them), and respecting other people’s personal space to enjoy nature their own way.
I hope you can help me to spread this message. Remember, people should take photographs or make audio recordings April 24-27 and upload them to iNaturalist.ca or to the app by midnight May 3 (People in Okotoks may use ABMI’s NatureLynx app to make their observations). Any observations made in Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Okotoks, and Chestermere will automatically count towards CNC YYC. By doing this, they are contributing scientifically valuable information that is available to researchers and scientists around the world. City Nature Challenge is not just for nature buffs but it’s also for families and educators. I’ve posted all of the CNC YYC social media and website information at the bottom of this message. The website contains an entire page of COVID-19 information I encourage you to check out.
Despite having to cancel all of our events due to COVID-19 I want to personally thank you for your support and help to engage the communities within the Calgary region. I hope you’ll tap further into your networks and definitely participate yourself in the challenge next week. Let’s see how many people we can engage, how many species we can find, and how many observations we can make!
If you can take a photo with your smartphone, you can participate in the City Nature Challenge. Just download the iNaturalist app, take a photo of any living thing or sign of it, and upload the photo.
The app will help to identify what you saw using its AI, and the worldwide community of participants (many of whom are experts in their fields) will also help to narrow it down to a particular species.
If you have a camera you can also upload your photos to the iNaturalist site on your desktop. This works great for birds and mammals. For insects and small plants a smartphone is best.
This can easily be done safely in your yard. Document all the plants (domestic or wild), insects, birds or mammals you see. You can also go to any park or anywhere at all in the city to do it.
Red Fox I saw in the city last April. I’ll be looking for them this weekend for the CNC.
This is very easy to do, and it’s a lot of fun. Any observations you make in the Calgary City Nature Challenge area will automatically become part of the challenge, and added to the growing database of our biodiversity.
Don’t neglect the species in your house – fruit flies, spiders, plants! Turn over some rocks and leaf litter in your yard and find some bugs and ants!
Lichens are Everywhere, and easy to overlook!
Read about the challenge on iNaturalist here. Note that you can also participate in Okotoks, Airdrie, Chestermere, and Cochrane this year.
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.
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!
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!
CORRECTION: A previous post said that these trips were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The correct dates are Sunday April 21 for the Reader Rock Garden trip, and Monday April 22 for Britannia Slopes.
There are two opportunities in Calgary this weekend to go out in the field and learn how iNaturalist and the City Nature Challenge works before the actual competition on April 26-29. On Sunday April 21, join Gus Yaki and Calgary Challenge organizer Matt Wallace at Reader Rock Garden from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. Learn how to take photos with your smartphone or camera and record the observations on the iNaturalist app on your phone or on the website on your desktop computer.
I took this photo at Pearce Estate Park during last week’s workshop. When I uploaded the photo, the iNaturalist artificial intelligence suggested it was in the Bulrushes and Cattails family, and another iNaturalist user later identified it as Broadleaf Cattail. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.
See this page for all the information on this workshop and field trip. No registration is required for these free events; just show up and join the fun!
On Monday afternoon, April 22, from 2 to 4 pm, join Gus and Matt at Britannia Slopes for another workshop/field trip. See this page for all the information.
If you can’t make it to the workshops but want to participate in the Challenge, get the iNaturalist app on your phone or open an account on the website, and you can learn to make observations on your own. Here is the iNaturalist Canada page.
There will be many events held during the challenge that everyone is welcome to participate in. See this page for all the events.
Any observations submitted within the city limits from April 26-29 will automatically be included in Calgary’s totals. So you can participate in the organized events, make observations on your own, or both. You don’t necessarily have to be able to identify the species you record, as the iNaturalist site will make suggested ID’s, and the iNaturalist community will follow up. The period from April 30 to May 5 will be used to try to finalize the identifications of all species identified in Calgary during the challenge. Any iNaturalist user can help with this.
Smartphones are excellent for recording photos of plants but if you are taking photos of mammals and birds you can usually get a better shot with a camera. Then you have to upload the photos to the iNaturalist site on your computer. When I went to the workshop last week, I used both phone and camera and took photos of birds, mammals, plants including fungi and lichens, and even signs of animals such as this:
This is recorded on iNaturalist as Canadian Beaver. Signs and evidence of wildlife are also included in the database. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.
Using iNaturalist is a great way to document our biodiversity, and to learn about our wildlife. This is from the iNaturalist.ca website:
“We can build a living record of life in Canada that scientists and environmental managers can use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone can use to learn more about Canada’s amazing natural history.
“Every piece of information on a species, combined with the vast network of citizen scientists can give a big picture of Canada’s natural history and can be a key contribution for conservation decisions.”
Come out to Pearce Estate Park in Calgary this Saturday morning to learn how to participate in the City Nature Challenge.
A Ruby-crowned Kinglet at Pearce Estate last October. They could be back! At any rate the bush should still be there. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
At this event you will learn all about how to use the iNaturalist app and how to make observations so you can participate in the upcoming City Nature Challenge.
Everyone is welcome; just show up at 10 am at Pearce Estate with your phone, tablet, or camera. Sign up for an iNaturalist account on the app or online first. Be prepared to do a mini-BioBlitz of all the wild animals, insects and plants we can find!
Please read all about it on the Calgary CNC website here. There will be more such events coming up before the Challenge so if you can’t make it this week, plan to attend a future one.
A really fun and exciting event will be taking place in the city from April 26-29: The City Nature Challenge. This is a bioblitz in which participants will attempt to document all wild living things inside the city limits.
Over 160 cities are competing in three categories: Number of species recorded, number of observations made, and number of participants. It will be hard to match some of the tropical locations for species diversity, but Calgary can certainly compete in the number of participants and observations.
The Challenge uses the iNaturalist website to record and identify wildlife. As a participant, all you have to do is take a photo of a species and upload it to the website on your desktop or smartphone. The international community of iNaturalist users help to identify the species.
The Calgary effort is being organized by Matthew Wallace. See the Calgary website here and read about the competition and upcoming events. The first workshop, where you can learn how to use the phone app and use it in the field, is coming up at Pearce Estate on April 13. Here is the link to the Facebook page which lists all the workshops.
The iNaturalist app and website are very easy to use. You can begin making observations right away, and continue to use the app anywhere and any time to contribute to our knowledge of species distribution and diversity.
I will post more information about this challenge soon on Birds Calgary but please go to the website and read all about it.
Here is my latest upload to iNaturalist. This White-tailed Jackrabbit was sitting by our mailboxes so I snapped a photo with my phone, and ten seconds later it was on the iNaturalist site. Easy!
White-tailed Jackrabbit, iPhone photo, Calgary,April 8, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
