Diario de marykrieger

April 04, 2021 11:49 AM

Grosse Isle 14PA14 is shared between RM of Rosser and the RM of Rockwood. Like our preceding square, the land is generally flat divided by the mile grid roads and adjacent drainage ditches and used for agriculture. There is a few patches of forest. The Prime Meridian trail begins from the the town of Grosse Isle following the old railbed north towards Fisher Branch. A small prairie remnant is preserved in the town just north of the old train station.

At the time of posting, 136 observations had been uploaded by 6 observers. 89 species have been identified - dominated by plants (68). The most frequently observed species here are Big Bluestem and Prairie onion- each with 4 observations. Only two species of birds have been observed to date. The Mantoba Breeding Bird Atlas confirmed that 56 species can be found breeding in this area with another 52 species possible or probable. Here's the full list.

Another City Nature Challenge completed and there is lots to be satisfied by. Observers braved the cool temperatures and blustery conditions, finding ways to make observations despite poor road conditions and overland flooding. Thank you all for your efforts!

It was great to see Brandon take part for the first time with Sherry Punak-Murphy @hipstermama at the helm and the Westman Naturalists backing her up.

Here are the official results for our two events. As time goes on, the event counts continue to update as people identify and even add observations that got missed in the initial uploads. To give us all some closure, an official tally was done as of end of day May 8.

Over the duration of the observation period in both Winnipeg and Brandon, together we saw 185 different species. Here is the list of the top five overall in descending order.

1. Branta canadensis - Canada Goose
2. Anas platyrhynchos - Mallard
3. Junco hyemalis - Dark-eyed Junco
4. Acer negundo - Manitoba Maple
5. Cornus sericea - Red Osier Dogwood

Worldwide, observers made records of 2,244 Rare/Threatened/Endangered species. Seven species were observed as part of Manitoba events, summarized in the table below, with their rarity status on the global, national and provincial level. Note that in some cases a species is provincially okay but globally in trouble (and vice versa).

A special thank you to @seraphinpoudrier for both adding the most observations and finding the most species in the Winnipeg event.

There were 40 cities in the Canadian section and Winnipeg ended up in 14th position overall. Here's a pdf of the Canadian highlights.

The global iNaturalists results can be seen in this umbrella project La Paz, Bolivia hit the sweet spot this year with more than 4,000 observers adding more than 130,000 observations of over 4,000 species. Incredible!

All 64,000 or so of us made more than a million and a half observations of more than 50,000 species worldwide in just four days. You all know how to do it now :) just keep a' going!

This challenge is timed later in the spring to provide an opportunity for areas in the more northerly latitudes to show more of their biodiversity. It is currently is a more free-from event - the only structure is that the dates of the challenge are the same across the various groups participating and there is a boundary of some sort.

Historically the event known as BiodiverCity was organized by Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute on the NatureLynx platform and was primarily focused in Alberta. They are withdrawing from organizing the event but encouraging the spirit of the event to continue in whatever way the community feels suitable. I was approached along with others across the prairies to join in on the fun this year.

I have spun up two projects - as it happens I will be in two locations during the event period - so one for each location. (If anyone else would also like a project located where they are during the count period, I would be happy to make one for you - or help you make your own)

Here's the links to the projects ...

• Winnipeg Region - same boundaries as usual - https://inaturalist.ca/projects/biodiversity-challenge-2022-winnipeg-region
• Whiteshell Provincial Park - https://inaturalist.ca/projects/biodiversity-challenge-2022-whiteshell-provincial-park

Happy observing!
Mary Krieger

This challenge is timed later in the spring to provide an opportunity for areas in the more northerly latitudes to show more of their biodiversity. It is currently is a more free-from event - the only structure is that the dates of the challenge are the same across the various groups participating and there is a boundary of some sort.

Historically the event known as BiodiverCity was organized by Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute on the NatureLynx platform and was primarily focused in Alberta. They are withdrawing from organizing the event but encouraging the spirit of the event to continue in whatever way the community feels suitable. I was approached along with others across the prairies to join in on the fun this year.

I have spun up two projects - as it happens I will be in two locations during the event period - so one for each location. (If anyone else would also like a project located where they are during the count period, I would be happy to make one for you - or help you make your own)

Here's the links to the projects ...

• Winnipeg Region - same boundaries as usual - https://inaturalist.ca/projects/biodiversity-challenge-2022-winnipeg-region
• Whiteshell Provincial Park - https://inaturalist.ca/projects/biodiversity-challenge-2022-whiteshell-provincial-park

Happy observing!
Mary Krieger