The City Nature Challenge is only 5 days away, and the competition is heating up - literally! With the recent warm rainy nights and warm days this week, the frogs and salamanders have returned to vernal ponds, migratory birds are returning, insects are more active, and green is returning to the New England landscape.

Thanks to @berkshirenaturalist for starting a conversation about meetups and events. You can find a list of organized events here - some of which require registration (free) and most others have no registration.

We will continue updating that site and sharing meetups around the area both on the above website and on this journal. Feel free to add your comments or questions below if you are planning a meetup in your area.

It's easy to make observations for the City Nature Challenge! If you are new to iNaturalist, check out the site's excellent resources about how to taking good photos with your smart phone, uploading observations, and making identifications on the Getting Started page.

With your help, we can discover more about our local biodiversity, contribute observations to research, and win this thing!!

Wow, we have surpassed 200 members in our project, nearly triple any other participating cities!!

Thanks to everyone for joining and for spreading the word to families and friends, and a special shout-out to the teachers and students at Medford High School for taking time to enjoy the outdoors and make observations over spring break!

The City Nature Challenge starts at tonight at midnight, and the weather for the next 5 days looks spectacular. Do you plan to go to certain areas or focus on any groups of organisms (birds, plants, plankton, bacteria?) We'd love to hear what you're up thinking!

Keep track of the leaderboards across the country here . With your help, we can take a snapshot of the biodiversity of the Greater Boston Area and win this thing!

Ready.... set.....

Hey Greater Boston Team!

Thanks to the 121 people who have made observations so far this weekend! We've racked up over 1000 observations of 312 species so far. Right now we are in the middle of the pack with observations and species, and there is still plenty of time left to catch up with the California and Texas cities! Click here to see the leaderboards.

Challenge for the day: Enjoy the incredible weather and try to catch some shots of invertebrates, reptiles, or other animals that might be taking advantage of the warmth!

We hope you all have enjoyed getting outside and making observations over the past 5 days! With only a few more hours left to observe wildlife, there are still several days for us to continue competing in the City Nature Challenge. The national organizers will announce winners on Saturday morning April 22, Earth Day! We can win for the number of observations, species, participants, and other categories (endangered or rare species, iNaturalist "firsts," and more)!

Here are the things you can do to stay involved this week:

1. You can continue to upload your observations from April 14-18 even after the event is over.
2. Go through your observations to see what identifications others have suggested.
3. Help make identifications by searching through observations from the project. Every species counts!

Thanks for making Greater Boston's biodiversity count, and we hope you discovered something new about your community!

City Nature Challenge participants! Thanks so much for your energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge this year – it was incredible to see so many people excited to document their local nature.

Please help us make the City Nature Challenge even better next year!

If you took part in the City Nature Challenge – whether you made 1 observation or 1000 – we’re hoping you’ll fill out this short (only 5 questions!) survey to let us know about your experience. All input is important and appreciated!

Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNC2017

Thanks in advance!
Alison Young & Lila Higgins, City Nature Challenge coordinators
(California Academy of Sciences & Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)