City Nature Challenge 2021: Pittsburgh Region's Journal

May 4, 2021

CNC 2021: Identification Week!

Thanks to everyone for all your amazing observations shared on iNaturalist for the 2021 City Nature Challenge! Whether you shared one photo or hundreds, your contributions are so valuable to this project. We now have about a week to take those observations from "casual" to "research grade" by verifying IDs. Your help is greatly needed - even if it's just moving a photo from "unkown" to the correct big bin like plants or mammals. You can go to this link to see what still needs to be identified - and we're so grateful for your help!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2021-pittsburgh-region

You've also still got a few days to upload any last photos taken over the project dates (Friday - Monday, April 30 - May 3). Official results are released May 10, so probably a good idea to get photos uploaded soon so there's time to ID things.

Have a great Identification week!

Posted on May 4, 2021 12:12 PM by mandi-lyon mandi-lyon | 2 comments | Leave a comment

May 3, 2021

City Nature Challenge 2021 Observation Phase ends at midnight!

Happy (rainy) Monday morning - the last day of our 2021 City Nature Challenge. All photographs taken by midnight tonight count for the challenge - even if you don't get a chance to upload them to iNaturalist today. After midnight we enter the Identification phase, where everyone's help verifying id's (or suggesting alternates) is needed and appreciated. The ID period runs til about May 9th. It's great for the project if as many as possible of our region's photos can be classified as "Research Grade," with two or more people supporting each observation's identification.

So get out and get your last photos snapped today, come back in and dry off, and get those photos into iNaturalist! I know I have all my photos from the weekend still waiting to upload...

Hope you have a fun last day observing for the City Nature Challenge!

Posted on May 3, 2021 11:54 AM by mandi-lyon mandi-lyon | 2 comments | Leave a comment

May 2, 2021

A Sunday challenge

Hope you're looking forward to a warm but exciting Sunday of exploring for the City Nature Challenge! As of 8am this morning, we're about 500 unique species behind our total from last year. So here's my Sunday challenge to you: what unique animals or plants can you add to our list today? Don't forget that you can upload sound files - maybe you heard a frog or bird that you can't identify. And images of things that animals leave behind (tracks & traces - scat, footprints, bones) count as well. Finally, don't forget our oft-overlooked little tiny things if you have magnifying power. A stream macroinvert ID session, the little things that live in soil - these are pretty underrepresented in iNaturalist in general and could use your skillful observation & photography to help document.

Have a great Sunday!

Posted on May 2, 2021 12:13 PM by mandi-lyon mandi-lyon | 12 comments | Leave a comment

May 1, 2021

Happy City Nature Challenge Saturday!

Hope you're out enjoying this beautiful Saturday & taking lots of photographs for the City Nature Challenge!

Here's a special request for the weekend: as you're out observing or back at home helping to identify, if you see anything unique, rare, unusual, or really exciting - please share! You can use the hashtags #CityNatureChallenge and #carnegiemnh on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to share your own photos and connect with others locally and globally participating this year.

The organizers at California Academy of Science & Natural History Museum of Los Angeles are also hoping to keep a record of the extraordinary finds locally and globally. Please help us highlight these finds! You can put links in the comments on this post, or send me an email through iNaturalist or at lyonm@carnegiemnh.org.

Happy exploring!!

Posted on May 1, 2021 05:34 PM by mandi-lyon mandi-lyon | 0 comments | Leave a comment

April 30, 2021

City Nature Challenge 2021 off to a great start!

Hi Everyone & welcome to the 2021 City Nature Challenge for the broader Pittsburgh region. So excited to see the observations have been rolling in fast & furious today. How exciting to know that across over 400 cities worldwide you all are collaborating to document as much biodiversity as possible in places where people live. A couple of reminders: watch your surroundings, stay safe, and check for ticks; mark any plants or animals that have been raised by humans as "captive/cultivated" before you hit that share button; and don't forget to look for tiny things or in unusual locations. If you've got a microscope handy, you might be inspired by this post from Tim Pearce, our mollusk researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History: https://carnegiemnh.org/water-bears-why-my-yard-is-like-the-moon/

Here's this year's CNC FAQ. If you have any additional questions, type them here or feel free to reach out to lyonm@carnegiemnh.org.
https://citynaturechallenge.org/cnc-faqs-page/

Looking for a great "why participate" post to share with friends, family, or audiences? Maria Wheeler-Dubas at Phipps Conservatory just posted this amazing blog post:
https://www.phipps.conservatory.org/blog/detail/biopgh-blog-inaturalist-and-the-city-nature-challenge

Keep up the great work, and spread the word to friends and family!

Posted on April 30, 2021 06:40 PM by mandi-lyon mandi-lyon | 2 comments | Leave a comment

Archives