Getting Ready for the City Nature Challenge!

I love observing nature. With the City Nature Challenge fast approaching, how am I getting ready to participate in this year’s global, community-based nature event?

1) Registering as an iNaturalist user and seeing what’s happening regionally

Now that I have a user account, I have joined the project called: City Nature Challenge 2018: Washington, DC metro area. This means that all the observations I make within the challenge boundaries will count towards the DC area’s total observation and species count.

2) Getting outdoors

I am going outdoors as much as possible. Every day I alter my dog walking routes so I can find the most biodiverse areas to return to for the challenge. I’m scoping out the different trees, wildflowers and birds.

3) Practicing Taking photos

Photos are an important part of making observations on iNaturalist. If you can’t tell what the thing is you are observing, then it can’t be properly identified. One photo hack I recently learned was to bring a clipboard with a piece of white paper and use it as a background so you can see the bug or flower more clearly. While it’s important to take close-ups, I also take some shots from further away to show the context and surrounding environment.

4) Studying my local species

I love discovering new species on my daily walks. I use several apps like iNaturalist, eBird, Virginia Wildflowers and Merlin to help me identify things I find. At home I have a bunch of field guides to learn more details about my observations. I’ve also been following groups like “birds” and “fungi” on iNaturalist, so I can see the latest observations.

5) Listening to nature

Now that I’m learning about birds, I’m studying birdsong. This means I have to listen very carefully for the various calls while I’m on my walks and out and about in the city. The Merlin app, by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is an easy way for me to listen to sample calls to see if I’ve discovered a match.

6) Spreading the word

This is my 2nd City Nature Challenge and there is no denying that I’m very excited about it. I’ve been reaching out to anyone I know who loves nature, like my classmates from the Virginia Master Naturalist program, friends with kids, friends who are teachers and fellow photographers. By posting nature pics on my social media accounts, I’m hoping to get others to participate and be as excited as I am to be a citizen scientist.

I hope to make it on the leaderboard of the City Nature Challenge, which runs from April 27th through the 30th! Follow my progress on iNaturalist here! Don’t forget that you can also follow your friends and fellow nature lovers on iNaturalist to see what they discover.

Posted on April 19, 2018 02:39 AM by ana_kaahanui