Greater Victoria Bioblitz

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I failed in my efforts to include information on the bioblitz in this morning’s Invertebrate Alert.  Here I’ll try and copy some of the text:

    Coming soon is a fantastic opportunity to help inventory the local landscape and track biodiversity in a global bioblitz. From April 29 to May 2 the iNaturalist City Challenge is on and Greater Victoria is participating. For four days, the goal is to record every living thing, anywhere within the Greater Victoria area on land and in the Salish Sea (special call out to underwater photographers!), be it a moss, fish, bird, insect, you name it.  This includes from Port Renfrew up to and including the Gulf Islands (see map). What better group to get on board with this than Victoria Natural History Society members and their friends and families?

Here are a few links:
This is the Greater Victoria Project page where the map is and where you will go to check out our numbers as they grow over the weekend. If you click on and read the “About” portion there are links to information on how to start up in iNaturalist if you are new, plus other general information.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-greater-victoria
You don’t need to sign up, everything that you record during this period will be automatically added to the Victoria tally.
 
The overall City Challenge Page is here:
https://citynaturechallenge.org/
It has information about the challenge, other cities participating, past results and ways to start out and get involved. It is easy!  The iNaturalist City Challenge began in 2016 as a “friendly” rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles and has now grown to include over 400 cities around the world.  It is a great way for citizens to help collect data on the wild species living in and around our cities, which helps local governments and scientists to better protect local biodiversity.

Good luck!