Thanks everyone for joining the Alum Rock winter BioBlitz (even though it was so cold!). We got pretty good coverage of the eastern part of the park, with some groups exploring the creek area, documenting many insect larvae and the woodland fauna and flora, and another group exploring the Rim Trail, getting a bit more sun, and also some awesome slime molds, a scorpion, and even a Sharp-tailed Snake!
We documented lots of great winter critters - the most observed species was the CA slender Salamander, and we also saw a few young arboreal salamanders, slugs, slime molds, and mushrooms, and many plants, such as mosses, liverworts, and ferns. We also documented a few species of bacteria, some living in the sulfur-rich springs, and some were found between the mosses (nostoc). Some of you might have noticed the green-algae like thing on the ground near the creek. I thought it was some kind of algae, and someone identified it as Vaucheria sp., belonging to the Chromista Kingdom, along with Kelp and Diatoms!
We also documented 70 (!) species of arthropods, including the aquatic insects, leaf-miners, and a few gall-inducers.
For info about our future events, please follow us on https://www.bioblitz.club/

На 18.01.2020 1510 - НАБЛЮДЕНИЙ, 166 - ВИДОВ, 242 - ЭКСПЕРТА, 14 - НАБЛЮДАТЕЛЕЙ.

ТОП-6 Видов

Большая Синица 75
Серая Ворона 60
Кряква 56
Дрозд-Рябинник 51
Снегирь 44
Зяблик 44

When exploring the iNaturalist Canada site you probably noticed that one can toggle between Français|English on the top menu bar. Are you aware that you can select other languages from a lengthy list on the bottom of the web page? Are you aware that you can set your preferred language under your account settings?

As of January 2020, iNaturalist has been translated into the following languages:
Shqip (Albanian)
العربية (Arabic)
euskara (Basque)
Breton (Breton)
български (Bulgarian)
Català (Catalan)
简体中文 (Chinese Simplified)
繁體中文 (Chinese Traditional)
český (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Esperanto (Esperanto)
Eesti (Estonian)
Suomi (Finnish)
français (French)
Français (Canada) (French, Canada)
Galician (Galician)
Deutsch (German)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
עברית (Hebrew)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Italiano (Italian)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
Lietuvių (Lithuanian)
Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgish)
македонски (Macedonian)
Norsk Bokmål (Norwegian Bokmal)
Occitan (Occitan)
Polski (Polish)
Portuguese (Portuguese)
Português (Brasil) (Portuguese, Brazilian)
Русский (Russian)
Slovenský (Slovak)
Español (Spanish)
Español (Argentina) (Spanish, Argentina)
Español (México) (Spanish, Mexico)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)

Help us highlight diversity in the Maritimes. Choose your language and start exploring!

NOTE iNat is not currently accessible in Miꞌkmaq nor Gaelic. If you are able to help translate into either of these languages, please contact us at cnc2019hrm@gmail.com

I don't do new year resolutions, but I'll make one exception. Well, two. I'm going to do lots of annotation (and not just phenology) from here on out. And take breaks from doing it to use the new piece of exercise equipment next to my computer so that I'll have more energy to observe stuff outside.

I discovered that you can filter observations that don't have annotations, so I'm doing phenology of TX/OK anemones now (note all the settings): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?reviewed=true&quality_grade=needs_id,research&page=2&order_by=random&taxon_id=883652&place_id=18,12&without_term_id=12

And here's an interesting article about plant phenology.

And here's an amazing document covering all aspects of plant phenology.

Прошли 3000 наблюдений в проекте
3 016 НАБЛЮДЕНИЙ 217 ВИДОВ 319 ЭКСПЕРТОВ 30 НАБЛЮДАТЕЛЕЙ
ТОП-10 наблюдателей:

Ранг	Пользователь	Наблюдения	Вид
1	@birdchuvashia	981	173
2	@olegglushenkov	859	160
3	@valeriya_xoma	583	170
4	@velibortravoved	350	72
5	@naturalist8307	50	40
6	@polina_15	43	12
7	@margarita-antonova-888	26	14
8	@naturalist21667	24	12
9	@margaruta	21	15
10	@stasy23	17	10

ТОП-10 по видам:

Ранг	Пользователь	Наблюдения	Вид
1	@birdchuvashia	981	173
2	@valeriya_xoma	583	170
3	@olegglushenkov	859	160
4	@velibortravoved	350	72
5	@naturalist8307	50	40
6	@margaruta	21	15
7	@margarita-antonova-888	26	14
8	@naturalist21667	24	12
9	@polina_15	43	12
10	@stasy23	17	10

For those not familiar with it, the City Nature Challenge is a bioblitz-style event in late April/early May where urban areas across the world "compete" to see who can make the most observations and identifications within that time period. This is the fifth one - the first was between San Francisco and LA. Last year almost 160 cities participated, and this year we're on track for over 250!

I'm helping to organize Ann Arbor/Washtenaw's participation along with NAP, and was hoping to draw on your expertise to help with some of the set up. You folks have street cred as far as nature in and around Washtenaw goes :-)

So, if you have a moment, I'd love your input. The link is a list of all of the preserves I have been able to find within Washtenaw - there are over 180! The criteria for inclusion are that the preserve has to be in Washtenaw, have some "wild" land and be open to the public.

Would you review the list and let me know any missing or incorrect info you can supply, and of any parks/preserves that are missing?

This is the link to the folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1byTuRgpll73ItO6xxJzuO7fkggTBqCPz?usp=sharing

and this is the link to the file with the lists of preserves https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IRvv3a769cPf0Rtr8paBWwnkCpE42b8n

And just for giggles, I've plotted them on a Google map https://drive.google.com/open?id=1byTuRgpll73ItO6xxJzuO7fkggTBqCPz

There are other things I'd like to pass by you if you are interested, but one thing at a time :-) And if you'd rather not be included in future notes just let me know :-)

Thanks!!!

Kit (KitKestrel)

@elliotgreiner @ken-potter @jokurtz @jaspersail @nathan20 @rawolinski @bugologist_beth @melissa515 @jonathantparker @lincoln @mokennon @mcaple

As our waterways have become significantly cleaner in recent years, in large part due to successful conservation efforts, humpback whales have started to feed with regularity in places like San Francisco Bay and Boston Harbor. It's a triumphant comeback story for the whales, whose North Pacific population has grown from about 2,000 in the 1970s to more than 20,000 today.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/478751-how-we-can-keep-the-worlds-largest-migrants-safe?amp

Want to hike and look for birds? Grab your binoculars and head out to this weekend’s Morro Bay Bird Festival.

The annual three-day festival features 140 events, including field trips, workshops, presentations and special activities for bird enthusiasts.

https://amp.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article239399478.html

Today I changed the banner photo to show the beautiful winter scene at Minnekhada. We're now up to 453 observations of 223 species.

Happy TGIF TNBRC,

For some species in Arizona, spring is on the way! I recently checked the status of plant development in Arizona by querying the National Phenology Network, a citizen science-based data repository that provides information on the timing of plant life events (e.g., leaf out, flowering, and seed set). Buffelgrass, an invasive grass, is predicted to emerge throughout central Arizona over the next two weeks. Several invasive plants, including the notorious annual grass, cheatgrass, emerge early in the growing season to take up soil nutrients, water, space, and other resources prior to the emergence of native plant species. Understanding the distribution and spatial dynamics of such species can help researchers and land managers develop strategies to control invasive plant populations and protect our native communities. While iNaturalisting over the next couple of weeks (in central and southern AZ at least!), take note of which species are emerging and consider making an observation to add to our overall knowledge of AZ plant dynamics!

--Sara

Nates-Parra, G., A. Parra-H, Á. Rodríguez, P. Baquero & D. Vélez. 2006. Abejas silvestres (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) en ecosistemas urbanos: Estudio en la ciudad de Bogotá y sus alrededores. Revista Colombiana de Entomología 32: 77–84.

Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S0120-04882006000100013&script=sci_abstract&tlng=pt

The results are in from 2019! In total, 769 observers made 7,852 observations across 1,406 species across the Gorge. In comparison to 2018, observers grew by 94% (up from 396), observations grew by 91% (up from 4,119), and total species increased by 51% (up from 929). In addition: * 454 species were documented for the first time in 2019, with a total species identified in the Gorge of 2,394 as of end of year-- 1.25 new species per day! * 587 observers had their first observation in 2019 in the Gorge, indicating that over 75% of observers were new in the Gorge in 2019. (587/769). Thank you for your contribution to citizen science!

@umpquamatt @geographerdave @leppinm @russnamitz @ldibiccari

You have been tagged because you are the top observers for Oregon Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids) sightings. The purpose of this post to grab a few volunteers to help me in this project.

The Purpose of the Project

To collect data from all suitable habitats in Oregon to comprise a complete and thorough identification field guide to Oregon Orthoptera. As of January 17, 2020, there are 136 species of grasshopper and crickets recorded in Oregon but this number can and probably will increase with the help of devoted volunteers.

What data am I collecting?

When you collect data on an Orthoptera species, here's the information I would like those volunteering will collect.

1. Date
2. Species (I'll identify it if you can't)
3. Body Length and Wing Length measured in millimeters.
4. Sex
5. Age
6. Habitat
7. Accurate location
8. Any addition notes if any not mentioned above.

These eight aspects cover any data needed to help me develop the outline to creating the Orthoptera field guide.

How can you prepare?

There are several ways for you prepare for the 2020 Orthoptera season. So here's what you can do.

- I've created a current list of Orthoptera species in Oregon in the following link. It also includes a list of genera that are influx so the genus itself counts as "one" species until new information comes forth.
https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/2318515-Orthoptera-of-Oregon

- Start plotting out places prior to grasshopper season that you should go to. If you want to find a particular species, you can look up the species on iNat and see what times of the year they are spotted.

- Get your gear ready early. When I go out and catch grasshoppers, I always make sure I have my ruler, phone (for photos) and my bamboo butterfly net on me.

- If you decide to join the group and help me collect data, I'm trying to think of efficient methods of collecting your data. You can add your data to the notes of your iNat observation. However that information might be lost so I created a Google Form that you can fill out if you prefer that, I'll just need to send it to you. If you just want to e-mail me in general, I'll do it.

- Try to learn beforehand the main groups of Orthoptera and how to best photograph them for identification. For example, Oedipodinae (Band-winged Grasshoppers) best need a wing shot for identification along with a lateral shot while Melanoplinae (Spur-throated Grasshoppers) needs a shot of male genitals for accurate identification.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you have just as much interest as I am to document Orthoptera in Oregon. If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I'll get back with you as soon as possible.

In 2019 sixteen species of bird, listed below, were observed nesting at Grasby Memorial Park, a remarkably high number for such a small area. There were other species that appeared with young and may well have also nested there unobserved. In spring Fan-tailed Cuckoos were frequently seen and heard and were presumably parasitising other species nests however no cuckoo fledglings were observed.

Purple-crowned Lorikeet,
Rainbow Lorikeet,
Adelaide Rosella,
Galah
Common Bronzewing
Sacred Kingfisher
Wood Duck
Dusky Woodswallow
Grey Fantail
Superb Fairywren
Striated Pardalote
Spotted Pardalote
Red-browed Finch
New Holland Honeyeater
Red Wattlebird
White-naped Honeyeater

The trails that need attention in this BioBlitz are listed below. I am using the numbering system that the County Parks has developed (and signed spectacularly well) - see this map here:

https://parks.smcgov.org/sites/parks.smcgov.org/files/McDonald-Nov2017-map.pdf

1. Ridge Fire Road (from about 1/3 of a mile up from the gate off of Pescadero Road at trail#6 to trail #26; easy parking at large pullout just west of the gate on the south side of the road)
2. Towne Fire Road (from about trail marker 20 to trail marker 33)
3. All of the East Brook Trail (from trail marker 28 to a tad south of trail marker 32)
4. West Brook Trail (from trail marker 27 for about .75 of a mile south)
5. Heritage Grove Trail south from 21 to 30/31
6. For those averse to uphill walking, the bulk of the Heritage Grove Trail from trail marker 14 to 25 is uncovered, especially in the middle sections. One could start at either the main parking lot or the Heritage Grove Parking on Alpine Road (limited, dirt lot that is often muddy)

Fortunately even though the screen was dead it is possible to connect to the phone with adb and pull the iNaturalist app data from /data/data/org.inaturalist.android

In particular the inaturalist.db database contained in the databases directory is what is useful. This is an sqlite3 database and the following two tables are what I needed: observations, observation_photos. If there had been sounds then observation_sounds would also have been useful.

The date field is in Unix timestamp with milliseconds format which needed to be converted to local date/time format, and the _id from the observations table needs to be matched with _observation_id from the observation_photos table. The tables are connected using a join.

The relevant fields necessary to create an observation are:
observations.observed_on
observations.latitude
observations.longitude
observations.species_guess
observations.description
observation_photos.original_photo_filename

Finally, I also only wanted the observations that were made from 12/26/2019 onward. These records are filtered using a WHERE clause.

Here is the actual command:

SELECT observations._id, 
observations.observed_on, 
datetime(ROUND(observations.observed_on / 1000), 'unixepoch') AS isodate, 
observations.latitude, 
observations.longitude, 
observations.species_guess, 
observations.description, 
observation_photos.original_photo_filename 
FROM observations 
JOIN observation_photos ON observations._id=observation_photos._observation_id 
WHERE isodate > '2019-12-25 23:59:59';

Here is the output:

264|1577387141872|2019-12-26 19:05:41|37.9038325792225|-122.571555711329|asteraceae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_120451.jpg
265|1577388307000|2019-12-26 19:25:07|37.8969966246212|-122.569546736777|Angiospermae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_122507.jpg
266|1577388787000|2019-12-26 19:33:07|37.896361120291|-122.566486671567|asteraceae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_123307.jpg
267|1577388922000|2019-12-26 19:35:22|37.8961060703826|-122.566429004073|asteraceae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_123522.jpg
268|1577389296000|2019-12-26 19:41:36|37.8960055317941|-122.563664652407|Angiospermae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_124136.jpg
269|1577390172000|2019-12-26 19:56:12|37.8937439064166|-122.564252726734|angiosperms||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_125613.jpg
270|1577390730000|2019-12-26 20:05:30|37.8923648840782|-122.567022442818|Angiospermae|Tastes good|/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_130531.jpg
271|1577392176000|2019-12-26 20:29:36|37.8967288774207|-122.575220279396|Angiospermae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_132936.jpg
272|1577392301000|2019-12-26 20:31:41|37.8974127949668|-122.574964463711|gilled mushrooms||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20191226_133142.jpg
273|1577996487000|2020-01-02 20:21:27|37.8002776774237|-122.479512691498|grasses||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20200102_132127.jpg
274|1577996858000|2020-01-02 20:27:38|37.8011270032275|-122.479240782559|asteraceae||/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20200102_132738.jpg
275|1577997057000|2020-01-02 20:30:57|37.8014438421677|-122.479247152805|Hedgenettles|Hairy leaves and stems leaves have lemon-y scent|/storage/7672-BA7A/DCIM/Camera/20200102_133057.jpg

Based on this I recovered all the information necessary to create these 12 un-uploaded observations using the pictures which I also saved from the phone.

I confess I have been completely ignoring this project in favor of leafminers, but I wanted to point out this great post on goldenrod galls by @ddennism:
https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/28052-goldenrod-galls

--Charley

Hi everyone,

thank you for joining and participating in the 2019 City Nature Challenge! We have our new project page up for 2020 and we're hoping you can join the project page. This year's challenge will include Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties, so we have a lot more ground to cover!

Be on the lookout for events and trainings we will be organizing leading up to the actual challenge, which runs from Friday, April 24th to Monday, April 27th 2020! We also have a website in the works and would love to hear from you if you have any ideas to help recruit new participants for this year's challenge. Please help spread the word!

Here is a link to the new project page, where we will be posting news updates to keep you informed about events and trainings:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-south-florida

If you haven't heard about last year's results, here they are:
24th by observation count (12,171 observations total)
19th by species count (1,710)
16th by participant count (552).

That is out of over 150 participating cities, so it's really not too bad! We can improve though so let's band together to observe biodiversity and learn more about the nature in our back yard :-)

-SoFlo CNC Leadership Committee

You did a great job in 2019!! Thank you for all our citizen scientists who took the butterfly photos, helped ID the species and took the time to share with BIMBY Butterflies in BC.
Together, we have over 3000 observations, 595 observers, 249 identifiers and 121 species of butterflies across the province.
Because of your work, the Butterflyway Project in BC is able to gauge the species of butterflies that showed up in 2019 and have now formed a basis of what to expect in 2020.
The Butterflyway Project in Vancouver, Richmond and the District of North Vancouver will start recruitment for new Butterflyway Rangers on February 10, 2020.
There will be a registration/application link on David Suzuki Foundation website and social media starting Feb. 10 and will stay up for at least two weeks.
If you live outside of the three Lower Mainland cities and want to help, you can participate in the iNaturalist BIMBY Butterflies in BC for 2020.
Stay tuned!!

Дорогие друзья!

15 января 2020 г. был обновлен массив данных iNaturalist, которые поступают в GBIF. В прошлый раз мы вышли на четвертое место в мире по числу наблюдений сосудистых растений, опередив Мексику (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-russia/journal/29971-). Настала пора поставить новые тактические цели.

*** ЦЕЛЬ 1: Третье место среди стран по наблюдениям сосудистых растений ***

1 United States of America 2 636 534
2 Canada 372 338
3 New Zealand 211 417
4 Russian Federation 180 821
5 Mexico 178 715
6 South Africa 175 430
7 United Kingdom 89 692
8 Australia 64 687
9 Germany 62 505
10 Taiwan 62 314

Неделю назад отрыв от Новой Зеландии был 31 967 наблюдений. Сейчас он сократился до 30 596. Текущий прогноз: обгоним в мае.

УЧАСТВУЮТ: наблюдения сосудистых растений с территории России исследовательского уровня с лицензиями CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC.

*** ЦЕЛЬ 2: Шестое место среди стран по всем наблюдениям ***

1 United States of America 7 056 362
2 Canada 985 159
3 Mexico 695 011
4 Australia 424 077
5 New Zealand 387 040
6 South Africa 317 473
7 Russian Federation 288 199
8 United Kingdom 222 816
9 Germany 188 456
10 Italy 179 784

Неделю назад отрыв от ЮАР был 33 243 наблюдения. Сейчас он сократился до 29 274. Текущий прогноз: обгоним в марте, а затем, возможно, просядем в апреле из-за City Nature Challenge (Кейптаун - чемпион 2019 г.). Окончательно обгоним в мае.

УЧАСТВУЮТ: наблюдения всех организмов с территории России исследовательского уровня с лицензиями CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC.

*** ЦЕЛЬ 3: Второе место среди баз данных по точкам с территории России ***

1 Moscow University Herbarium (MW) 623 086
2 RU-BIRDS.RU, Birds observations database from Russia and neighboring regions 304 286
3 iNaturalist Research-grade Observations 288 199
4 Geographically tagged INSDC sequences 195 599
5 EOD - eBird Observation Dataset 171 034
6 A grid-based database on vascular plant distribution in Vladimir Oblast, Russia 123 054
7 Chronicle of Nature - Phenology of Plants of Zhiguli Nature Reserve 86 524
8 EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds 80 923
9 A global database for the distributions of crop wild relatives 69 255
10 Arctic Ocean Diversity 62 946

Неделю назад отрыв от "Дневников наблюдений за птицами" от Зоомузея МГУ был 19 850 наблюдений. Сейчас он сократился до 16 086. Текущий прогноз: обгоним в конце февраля.

УЧАСТВУЮТ: наблюдения всех организмов с территории России исследовательского уровня с лицензиями CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC.

Раз в неделю будем публиковать обновления и следить сразу за тремя дуэлями! А пока же отметим, что за неделю доля наблюдений, которые блокируются несвободными лицензиями, в проекте "Флора России" снова немножко сократилась. Если неделю назад она была 20,0%, то сейчас она составляет 19,86% (т.е. 46 459 наблюдений из 233 982). Спасибо всем, кто в личных кабинетах выбрал свободные лицензии и дал возможность своим наблюдениям жить не только в iNaturalist, но и на gbif.org . Проверьте настройки - вдруг и у вас все еще стоят жесткие лицензии?

Автор фото - Светлана Катана (https://www.inaturalist.org/people/svetlana_katana)

An event for all lepidopterists with an interest in the West Asian Lepidoptera fauna

The First International Congress of Near East Lepidoptera will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on 15-18 June 2020.

Congress fee 50$ | Gala dinner 20$ | Field trip and excursion 30$

The deadline for submitting the abstracts is 20 February 2020.
You can send the abstract by e-mail to nzarikian@gmail.com. The registration form will be sent by e-mail after receiving the abstract. https://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/62900573/abstracttemplate

More info and updates on the Congress' Facebook page . . .
https://www.facebook.com/The-First-International-Congress-of-Near-East-Lepidoptera-110305253736824

An event for all lepidopterists with an interest in the West Asian Lepidoptera fauna

The First International Congress of Near East Lepidoptera will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on 15-18 June 2020.

Congress fee 50$ | Gala dinner 20$ | Field trip and excursion 30$

The deadline for submitting the abstracts is 20 February 2020.
You can send the abstract by e-mail to nzarikian@gmail.com. The registration form will be sent by e-mail after receiving the abstract. https://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/62900573/abstracttemplate

More info and updates on the Congress' Facebook page . . .
https://www.facebook.com/The-First-International-Congress-of-Near-East-Lepidoptera-110305253736824

На 31 декабря 2019 года в проекте "Птицы Курганской области":
141 наблюдение
68 видов
9 наблюдателей

Чаще всего наблюдают ТОП-3:
Ходулочник 9
Варакушка 6
Большой Пёстрый Дятел 5

Лидер по количеству наблюдений и видов thelongrunsmoke - 54 и 39 соответственно.

2 место - denzanova 49 наблюдений и 35 видов.

3 место - uz45 27 наблюдений и 21 вид.

Будем надеяться, что в 2020 году к нам присоединятся новые наблюдатели.

You did fantastically well during the City Nature Challenge 2019. Ensuring the Liverpool City Region made second place in Europe & Asia, an outstanding achievement for our first year!

By popular demand we have entered for the 2020 competition which will be running from the 24th to the 27th of April (inclusive). More information can be found here: http://citynaturechallenge.org/

We are again looking for people and groups to help support the event in the LCR, be it leading a small walk, nature recording session or running a bio-blitz to help encourage people to take part. If you can help please let us know so we can advertise your event however big or small! (ben.deed@merseysidebiobank.org.uk).

Obviously even if you don't feel able to run something for other people please do get outside by yourself or with your friends and family and photograph the plants and animals that you discover.

You can also click "join" in the top right of this page to receive any news and updates we send out via iNaturalist.

You did fantastically well during the City Nature Challenge 2019. Ensuring the Liverpool City Region made second place in Europe & Asia, an outstanding achievement for our first year!

By popular demand we have entered for the 2020 competition which will be running from the 24th to the 27th of April (inclusive). More information can be found here: http://citynaturechallenge.org/

We are again looking for people and groups to help support the event in the LCR, be it leading a small walk, nature recording session or running a bio-blitz to help encourage people to take part. If you can help please let us know so we can advertise your event however big or small! (ben.deed@merseysidebiobank.org.uk).

Obviously even if you don't feel able to run something for other people please do get outside by yourself or with your friends and family and photograph the plants and animals that you discover.

Don't forget to follow the new 2020 project over at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-liverpool-city-region

Over 250 cities around the globe are taking part in the 2020 City nature Challenge.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020

Observations of River Otters in the Columbia Valley have been increasing. The one pictured here was seen swimming in open water of the Columbia River

Otters rely upon the presence of clean, unpolluted water for their food, primarily fish. The ones in the Columbia Valley feed mainly on Northern Pikeminnows (Squawfish) and in the fall eat spawning Kokanee Salmon. South of Toby Creek you can often see the shell remains from where otters have eaten freshwater mollusks.

Because otters are high in the food chain, they are particularly susceptible to the accumulation of organic compounds and heavy metals. This makes them good indicators of contaminant levels in the aquatic environments. So it is a good sign that River Otter numbers are increasing in the upper Columbia Valley.

Hello colleagues,

April 2020 is the 5th anniversary of the City Nature Challenge and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day! Following our successful inaugural participation in the City Nature Challenge 2019, Nairobi City emerged second in Africa and . Over 350 species were identified from a collective parturition of 31 observers. More highlights: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2019-nairobi-city?tab=observers.

Globally, over 32,500 species were identified to live and thrive in cities

Join us as we celebrate the nature in and around urban areas by documenting all the species we can find!

We hope to do better this time. Let's mobilize more participants and increase the need to conserve our biodiversity. Demos and field events to help popularize the challenge an showcase it's ease will be coordinated in future, based on locations and logistics.

Asanteni.
Waswala Olewe - Coordinator CNC Nairobi.

Hello all,

To enable easier tracking of observations unique to COMO Metropolitan Bangkok, I have reduced the boundaries from what previously was the entirety of Bangkok to only the hotel grounds.

Keep discovering COMO Metropolitan Bangkok's beautiful flora and fauna and have fun!

Best,
Admin