Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2020: The Maritimes Umbrella Project

Archivos de Diario para febrero 2020

sábado, 08 de febrero de 2020

DOGS: Is your dog the reason you are active and get outdoors?

Owning a dog comes with a full set of responsibilities and it does affect ones lifestyle. On the positive side owning a dog is an excellent excuse to get outdoors and get exercise. Many of us venture out on the same routine walk day after day. Perhaps the City Nature Challenge is an excellent opportunity to get out and explore a new location – just remember to take along your camera and/or mobile device and take a few photos of the plants and animals that you observe!

While walking keep your eyes open. Does your dog have a favourite tree? Do you know what kind it is? Consider uploading a photo to iNaturalist – each and every observation counts!

NOTE: We aren’t recommending that you post photos of your dog (no matter how cute or handsome) – but feel free to upload multiple photos of Spot’s favourite tree. Perhaps one photo could include your pet, for scale purposes of course!

Here is the link to the list of HRM off-leash areas https://www.halifax.ca/recreation/parks-trails-gardens/parks-outdoor-spaces/leash-dog-parks. Please considering adding comments below describing the locations of your favourite off-leash areas and or favourite walking routes.

The City Nature Challenge is a competition and in order to be respectable we need participation from the entire community – for the 4-day period between April 24-27th please combine observing nature as part of your daily routine!

Publicado el sábado, 08 de febrero de 2020 a las 06:22 PM por mkkennedy mkkennedy | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

CATS: Is Fluffy wild?

We have an indoor cat who in his 12 years has only spent <20 minutes outdoors. His photo, and photos of other indoor pets should not be posted to iNaturalist. These animals are truly ‘captive’ and iNaturalist is where we are supposed to post photos of ‘wild’ plants/animals.

Our previous cats, however, were outdoor cats and although not officially ‘wild’ they certainly had an affect on the local rodent population. They were excellent predators and over the years there was an assortment of dead critters on our doorstep each morning.

One could argue that the presence of these felines is important to anyone who might wish to study the entire community – on the other hand we do not wish to encourage every cat owner to post a monthly photo of Fluffy. Perhaps one photo once a year of household cat(s) is sufficient.

Perhaps the City Nature Challenge can be treated as an annual census of felines – During our 2020 CNC lets propose/recommend the following: one photo per household with extra info added in the description box - number of cats per household, age, gender, etc. Please do not post separate photos of each cat!

Do not go around the neighbourhood taking photos of your neighbours’ cats. Instead consider knocking on their door and introduce them to iNaturalist and encourage them to participate in the CNC!

As in any set of recommendations there are always exceptions – if during the CNC you happen to catch your cat hunting then consider including a separate photo of Fluffy in predatory mode along with a photo of the prey (preferably alive). If the prey is indeed dead remember to include this attribute. Do not share photos of your cat chasing a leaf…

Of course, it is not necessary to catch the culprit responsible for a rodent kill – observations of dead animals are acceptable in iNaturalist – remember that it is not necessary to include closeups in order to identify the species! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14037303

NOTE: Many cities may have a large population of feral cats – these are truly wild and therefore it is appropriate to post their photos on iNaturalist. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21559130

Publicado el sábado, 08 de febrero de 2020 a las 06:32 PM por mkkennedy mkkennedy | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

RATS: Not in my neighbourhood!

Sometime in the past we have had a rat visit our backyard. He and the local squirrel and flocks of starlings seemed to take their turn at our bird feeder. In subsequent visits to the feeder they seem to have established a pecking order and the rat and the squirrel didn’t seem to be bothering the chickadees, sparrows, blue jays, flickers, woodpeckers, cardinals, and nuthatches. Over the years I have posted photos of all visitors except the skinny nosed, long tailed rodent to iNaturalist. I don’t want to admit that we have/had a rat in the neighbourhood.

I suggested to a neighbour that I would try obscuring the location in iNaturalist, but I wasn’t sure what lat/long the software might assign, and I jokingly said that maybe the rat would show up as being observed at her house. She was less than pleased...

So - the other day I realized that I would have to read the iNat manual – under HELP there are 2 good articles describing what happens when you set the geoprivacy flag to OBSCURE or PRIVATE. The default is OPEN. see https://inaturalist.ca/pages/help-inaturalist-canada-en#geoprivacy and https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/geoprivacy

Various iNat forums have over the years discussed the subject of posting photos of dead rats – a quick summary is as follows: upload the photo; select the attribute dead/alive; if dead and you know the cause provide details (death by cat|snap trap|poison|etc). One comment in the forum suggests the following: ‘For multiple sighting of dead animals that are all the same species, consider adding a note about how many were caught over a certain time period. You might also–particularly if you are obscuring the location–tell something about the type of environment where the rats were caught.’ (https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/would-it-be-appropriate-to-post-observations-of-dead-pests-in-traps/9790/24).

Today I did a quick check on iNaturalist to see if anyone has been posting observations of rats in iNaturalist. Only 8 have been posted to date in all of HRM! 8 observers posted 1 observation each.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=27573&taxon_id=44540

You can view an old photo of mine of a cute little critter hiding in the woodpile under the bird feeder. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11796633. Back in 2018 I wasn’t aware that one could obscure the exact location. At that time we had a compost pile in our backyard and a couple of bird feeders – it might have been suspicious if I didn’t post a single observation of a rat.

2020 is the Year of the Rat – perhaps the CNC is an appropriate time to recognize that this critter does live in our urban areas. If you aren’t comfortable with providing the exact address, then simply set the geoprivacy flag to ‘obscure’.

FYI: Apparently good shots of paws are diagnostic!

For more information on rats go to iNaturalist.ca and explore - as of today, iNat shows that there are 2 species of rats in Canada: the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/44576-Rattus-norvegicus) and the Black rat (Rattus rattus, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/44575-Rattus-rattus).

Publicado el sábado, 08 de febrero de 2020 a las 06:41 PM por mkkennedy mkkennedy | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

martes, 11 de febrero de 2020

Data and Statistics – You must know your data in order to understand the statistics!

Here are interesting iNat statistics related to observations of crabs from around Nova Scotia as of 2020-02-11. There were 470 observations; 8 species; 75 identifiers; 177 observers.

The number of observations of the various species were as follows: European green crab 223; Atlantic rock crab 137; Jonah crab 59; Atlantic blue crab 9; Lady crab 3; Atlantic lyre crab 3; Portly spider crab 1; Snow crab 1.

Perhaps keep in mind when viewing stats that the high counts of one species or observations from one specific area may be related to data quests and not necessarily reflect true species distribution.

iNaturalist is an excellent way to share observations of invasive species and we would like to encourage everyone who is out exploring our coastal areas and/or in or on the water to share their observations. But remember to also share observations of the common species not just the exotic/unusual/rare!

To view the collection of crabs observed around Nova Scotia currently posted in iNaturalist click here

Publicado el martes, 11 de febrero de 2020 a las 06:53 PM por mkkennedy mkkennedy | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

jueves, 13 de febrero de 2020

Attention all iNatters – are you aware that this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count?

Did you listen to the CBC radio this morning and hear about the Great Backyard Bird Count? Are you keen to participate but aren’t an expert birder and feel timid about sharing your observations? If yes, read on!

Let’s use the GBBC as a simple iNat training exercise.

Let’s assume that you have a birdfeeder in your back yard. Now grab a coffee, your camera, and a pad of paper. Have your watch or some other timing device handy.
Set a timer for 15 minutes.
Take photos of any visitors to your feeder. They may not all be birds!
Count the number of individuals for different types of birds. (you don’t need to know the species – you just need to know that they look different – and you may in the end be counting male birds of a species versus female birds).

Upload your photos to iNaturalist
• if you have multiple photos of one species/gender then combine as one observation on iNat.

• In the iNat description box enter text similar to the following – ‘Observed visitors to birdfeeder over a 15 minute period as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). [insert number] [insert species name] were observed over this time period’
• Enter your location info and assign a placeName. Pin this location.
• Upload your observations to iNaturalist

Check iNat later in the day and see if your observations have been identified by the community and if they are now all tagged as ResearchGrade.

Perhaps you wish to stop here or maybe you are keen and want to share with the GBBC project - For information on how to get started see https://gbbc.birdcount.org/get-started/
Follow the GBBC directions - use your pinned location and enter your iNat species checklist along with counts.

Repeat later in the same day or at a different location or different day.

(you may need a practice run to get organized – during my first attempt I was sitting too far away from the window to take photos and when I moved closer I scared them away – so get positioned first!
During my first practice run I saw 2 song sparrows, 1 junco, and a squirrel

Have fun and happy iNatting!

For more info on the GBBC click here https://www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/gbbc/

Publicado el jueves, 13 de febrero de 2020 a las 02:44 PM por mkkennedy mkkennedy | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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