Many places to the east of us are already gathering observations...Check out the global project to see the global activity https://inaturalist.ca/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023
I wish you all the most lovely discoveries during the next few days!
Thanks to our early morning crew - @seraphinpoudrier and @rrcalica we are off to a great start - 20 observations of 19 species.
Checking the Canada wide collections project this means we are tied for third place with the greater Ottawa area and Windsor Ontario at 7:30 am! Here's the link to the Canada wide collections project so you can see for yourself - if you look quick.
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/city-nature-challenge-canada-2023-defi-nature-urbaine
See you out there!
Our little group had a great day at Oak Hammock yesterday - lots of first of the year ducks as well as a Marbled Godwit and a Killdeer to top it off. Not everything we saw is uploaded yet - welcome my dears to the joys of back log. As our little group uses mainly cameras rather than phones - there is a little extra fiddling about before everything makes it up to iNaturalist - and while the event is still on, sleep and gathering more observations tend to get prioritized over uploading.
Today we will be mucking around in Birds Hill Park here and there. I will be waiting for any of you who would like to drop by and meet face to face at 2pm in the small parking lot at the east end of South Drive. Its on the north side of the road just before South Drive turns north towards its end at Festival Drive.
Friday overall for the challenge was a great start - nearly 400.000 observations of 27000+ species gathered worldwide by nearly 25,000 observers. Canada's share of this is atm nearly 15,000 observations of 2,100+ species by 1,300+ observers.
Here in Manitoba both the Winnipeg and Brandon project have found lots of interesting things - and yes that include those heralds of Manitoba spring - the red-winged blackbird and the Manitoba crocus.
Here's a link to the Brandon project if you would like to see how they are getting on...
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/brandon-city-nature-challenge-2023
Have a lovely Saturday!
When we got back to the house yesterday we found the backyard pond annual wood frog get-together in full swing. A lot of calling and some splashing shenanigans but relatively calm compared to last years knock down drag out brawl.
Our group saw some Mourning Cloaks - one of the local butterflies that overwinters as an adult. Keep an eye out in sunny sheltered spots for the other two as well - Compton Tortoiseshell and Milbert's Tortoiseshell.
Happy discoveries
