Preparing for the City Nature Challenge

Anyone reading this who lives in, or visits, NYC, and who would like some more detailed pointers for what to do, and how to do it, during the days of the worldwide City Nature Challenge (CNC), please feel free to contact me.

There are, conveniently, two weekdays and two weekend days we can use for CNC, so there is time available when anyone can make observations, no matter how busy they are.

1. Photograph anything and everything that is alive, except for pets, zoo animals, indoor plants and people.
2. Any plant that was originally planted by people is OK to record, but please make sure to mark it "captive/cultivated" or "not wild".
3. In order to rack up good numbers, please do photograph multiple different examples of the common species, as many as you can. Every pigeon counts. Every dandelion counts. 100 pigeons and 100 dandelions makes 200 observations!
4. Street trees are fine to record, although they are "not wild". But as with most trees, so we can ID them properly, please try to take shots of the overall shape of the tree, the bark, a twig to show if the buds are opposite or alternate, and a leaf, a flower and/or fruit if those are present. But if you can't do most of that, just do the best you can. Sometimes one image is enough to ID a tree when it is a very distinctive species, like a Ginkgo.
5. You can photograph things out the window when you are in motion in a taxi or a bus or a private car -- see the four images here, all shot from a moving taxi. You can also photograph living things out of the window where you live or work. You can find plenty of things to photograph as you walk down a street, including small weeds in cracks in the sidewalk, in tree pits, and in planters. If you have the app open, it only takes a second to take a photo and then hit "Save". Don't forget the basement of your building, which may be home to some insects or spiders.
6. Perhaps most important of all -- it does not matter if you have no idea what something is. You can mark it "plant" , "bird" or "insect", or simply Save it with no ID at all! That is fine. It still counts as an observation, and the chances are that someone else will ID it for you.

Good luck to everyone, and have fun!

Susan

Posted on 17 de abril de 2019, 08:55 PM by susanhewitt