BackyardBio's Boletim

Hi everyone!

I'm Jesse Hildebrand from Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants and I'm really excited to announce the BackyardBio project today!

What began as a smattering of loose ideas turned into a really fun and engaging social media campaign as part of our Global Biodiversity Festival back in May (https://www.globalbiofest.com/ - #backyardbio) has turned into a much larger idea.

A huge part of that is thanks to four incredible teachers - Ms Hartman, Ms Michael, Ms Gordon and Ms. Erickson who brought together their students in observing and charting all the incredible wildlife in Ontario, Illinois, British Columbia and Connecticut respectively as part of our pilot project in June. You can check out the Youtube video where we showcased all their finds here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTp89AQWTc8&t=7s

As a result, all September longer we're inviting YOU to take part in a global bio blitz, bringing together all our partner organizations, their networks and most importantly classrooms around the world we've partnered with on our live broadcasts to get out in nature and explore! We're hoping for tens of thousands of submissions worldwide, all in support of learn more about the natural world and how people can better connect with it!

I can't wait to see what you'll share with us as the school year kicks off - and till then good luck and have fun!

-Jesse

The last week of relentless emailing has been a ton of fun - between some really fantastic new members and some big groups that are keen to spread the word BackyardBio is getting its legs nicely!

At heart, the project is easy - get out in nature, explore, photograph and share what you find. That's it! We're of course hoping to have a big INaturalist, Seek and Twitter presence to really collate all that our global community finds and to just peruse some wicked awesome photos - but more than anything we're just hoping you'll take the chance to get out in nature and explore!

Having used INaturalist myself for the last few weeks, it's been really exciting getting to learn about local fungi, trees, weird plants and insects that I never knew the name of before now. Most excitingly - having fallen in love with Jason Ward and his Birds of North America series, I've been using the platform to find out about local birds. I can now identify a yellow warbler and house finch easily + I have learned a few bird calls that were previously just charming background noise.

Walks around the neighbourhood are much more enriching and delightful now!