We're now coming to the end of day 3 of the City Nature Challenge. Unfortunately it was a bit of a wash our here in York (and for a lot of the UK by the looks of things) but we've still managed to get some more observations taking our total number of species up to 100, which is a fantastic milestone to have reached. Don't forget the challenge continues until midnight on the 29th so there's still plenty of time to get out and start recording!
We're nearly halfway through the City Nature Challenge and we're already up to 85 different species! At the moment it looks like osarenogae is winning the Global Explorer prize with some lovely observations from Abuja, Nigeria. Can someone beat that over the next two days? And don't forget there's also a prize to get the first observation from your country.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your observations so far. We're looking forward to seeing what you find over the next two days!
Today is the first day of the City Nature Challenge and we're really excited to see great observations posted to the University of York Alumni Sustainability Network already.
We're pleased to announce that our duck competition for the National Trailblazer for the UK goes to lizbwat for her observation of Barn Swallow. Congratulations, lizbwat!
Thank you all for joining the University of York alumni Sustainability Network project. It's great to see many of you here. I hope you're getting ready for the City Nature Challenge starting this Friday!
To make this challenge even more exciting, we are giving away an adorable palm-sized duck toy to York alumni who achieve any of the following criteria:*
*The observations must be made during City Nature Challenge (26 - 29 April UK time) and be saved at the University of York Alumni Sustainability Network iNaturalist project to enter the competition.
We'll be checking iNaturalist throughout the weekend to find our winners. Good luck!
University of York Sustainability Network
This year the Alumni Sustainability Network will be organising a series of nature based activities that aim to benefit the local environment as well as giving a wellbeing boost from being outside in nature.
Our first Alumni Action Day is City Nature Challenge. It is a 4-day worldwide bioblitz-style competition where cities are in a friendly contest with each other to see who can make the most observations of nature, who can find the most species and who can engage the most people!
All you need is a smartphone and the iNaturalist app; a free app you can use anytime for your daily wildlife observation - take photos or record sounds of wildlife, including wild animals, insects, fungi and plants.
Everyone can take part in City Nature Challenge from anywhere in the world. The observations made during the City Nature Challenge will be used for research to understand biodiversity of the area. York is joining the City Nature Challenge for the first time this year and there will be a lot of group observation events during the period. (https://yorkcitynaturechal.wixsite.com/yorkcnc/events)
Take part in City Nature Challenge and share your observations with fellow alumni via “University of York Alumni Sustainability Network” project (https://uk.inaturalist.org/projects/university-of-york-alumni-sustainability-network)!
Search participating cities from https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/participating-cities
3a. If your city is participating, just join "University of York Alumni Sustainability Network project”.
3b. If your city is not participating, join 1) "Global Project" and 2) University of York Alumni Sustainability Network project"
We hope you’ll enjoy it. We look forward to seeing your observations!
University of York Alumni Sustainability Network Project: https://uk.inaturalist.org/projects/university-of-york-alumni-sustainability-network
iNaturalist Global Project: https://uk.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-global-project
Global City Natyre Challenge Webpage: https://citynaturechallenge.org/
