Battle of the Boroughs!

Let's get psyched, Manhattan!

Friday April 26th is not far away. That's the first day of the 4-day recording period for the biggest City Nature Challenge ever.
This time we are working to beat out not only dozens of other cities on Planet Earth, but also the other boroughs of New York City.

Every iNat person that lives in, works in, or visits Manhattan, can easily add very significantly to our total of observations and observers. And please do think whether you know anyone who is not yet signed up to iNat, people who you may be able to recruit as new iNaturalist observers.

You may also want to start thinking about where you will be able to make observations. You can still do this even if you are a very busy person. It can happen as you walk down the street to work, or even inside a building, since most buildings have quite a lot of wild critters that live in them, especially in basements.

Remember that any weeds whatsoever that are growing in tree pits or planters, or even in cracks in the sidewalk, are fair game for a quick snap. It only takes a second to make an observation. Don't worry if you have no idea what the organism is, just share the observation -- someone else will ID it.

Also bear in mind that the more observations, the better, so there is nothing wrong with photographing dozens or even hundreds of different examples of the same species of organism. So any pigeon you see, you can photograph. Any dandelion you see, you can photograph. Any cockroach or spider you see indoors or outdoors you can photograph. The more the merrier.

If you can get to a small green space or park, there will be plenty of weeds and hopefully some insects and birds too. If there is a lawn or grassy area, there will be lots of weed species mixed in with the grass. If there are logs you can roll over, you will be able to photograph centipedes, woodlice and maybe some tiny snails!

If you can get to a beach, you can go wild photographing everything that has washed up there.

Good luck everyone!