Are you a scientist or a naturalist? We need your help! The ID phase is the third and final part of the annual City Nature Challenge, an annual friendly competition among cities across the globe to find and document plants and wildlife over a four-day period, using the iNaturalist app. The city and/or country that collects the most observations starting Friday, April 28 and running through Monday, May 1, 2023, wins, but really, we all do.
You will go through iNaturalist observations from the Baltimore area CNC and either confirm or correct observations made by City Nature Challenge participants. Field guides and other resources will be available, as will be pizza to fuel your brain. Come spend a couple of hours with fellow nature nerds helping to improve the accuracy of one of the most-used citizen science applications in the world, iNaturalist. No worries if you don’t have the app. Just need your keen ID skills. Please RSVP so we know how much pizza to buy….
NHSM is hosting three City Nature Challenge events –
- APRIL 23 – iNaturalist Tutorial. – Learn how to download and utilize naturalist.
- APRIL 30 – Join in a group observation hike at Double Rock Park – insects, trees, flowers, birds and more! How many can you find? NOTE All observations made during the Challenge count. You don’t have to be part of a group or an event. If you know how to use iNaturalist – just observe. Sometimes it’s fun to explore with people, sometime it’s fun to explore on your own.
- MAY 2 Identify – If you are an expert at identifying plants or animals, join us for an ID’ing session at the museum.
Events are FREE – but we do ask that you RSVP to help with planning and preparation.
Many other organizations are hosting City Nature Challenge programming. The National Aquarium is the lead. Find out more here: https://aqua.org/support/conservation/city-nature-challenge-baltimore
To learn more about the City Nature Challenge visit: https://citynaturechallenge.org/