Edmonton BiodiverCity Challenge 2020's Journal

Thanks everyone, for participating in last month's bioblitz.
Observations were also submitted on NatureLynx, an app run by the AB Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), and some written records were gathered and submitted by the Edmonton Nature Club (ENC). Overall there were 2608 observations; 1058 here on iNat, 920 on NatureLynx, and 630 written by ENC members. Jordan Bell (of ABMI) and I compiled and compared these observations, and we figure there were at least 665 different species observed. We can't give an exact species count, because some observations were only done to genus or family level, and may be the same as other observations made to species level. For example, we don't know for sure if observations of "Viola" and "Violaceae" are different from the 5 violet species that were also observed, so I didn't count "Viola" or "Violaceae".
Here on iNat, our official count as of midnight June 28 (the formal deadline to submit records) was 1058 observations of 464 species, by 60 observers. Since then, a few more observations were submitted (including 2 new species), and identifications continue to be revised and improved, so we're sitting at 1080 observations and 471 species as our unofficial total, which will continue to change as more IDs are made. I figure that's not too shabby for our first-ever BiodiverCity event in Edmonton.
We're definitely going to do it again next year, and perhaps challenge other Alberta municipalities to do this too. I will leave this 2020 project up permanently, for comparison to future years. I've also created a new project that will compile observations across all time, not just for the 4-day bioblitz. It's called "Edmonton Biodiversity"; feel free to join that project too, to see what else lives here. As of today, the project summary tells me that over 7000 observations of 1415 species have been submitted to iNat, by 841 observers. Keep observing nature; hopefully you'll join us again next year!

Hi everyone;
Just a reminder that the bioblitz is still open for submission of observations made between 11 - 14 June in Edmonton. After that, we'll compile the results and combine them with the observations on NatureLynx. My intent is to keep the project up here on iNat, so that if we do it another year, we can look back and compare to what we found in 2020.
I believe the observations here will continue to get updated with new identifications, and new taxonomy.

Wow, 386 species, as of shortly after midnight tonight! Well done, Edmonton! That massive rainstorm kept me from setting up a moth sheet tonight, unfortunately. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did the past few days, wandering around with my camera. I'm pretty sure we'll get well over 400 species as observations and IDs continue to come in ove rthe next few days. If you're adding observations from the bioblitz, make sure the date is correct; only records from 11 -14 June get recorded in this project.

One more day to observe species in our city. The official bioblitz runs until midnight tonight, so don't forget to check your porch light for one last moth at 11:59. Your actual sightings must be before midnight June 14, but the BiodiverCity organizers are allowing another week to get them uploaded to iNaturalist, before we do the final tallies. The sooner you get them uploaded, the more likely someone else on iNaturalist can contribute to identifications. I'm continually blown away by the expertise of the worldwide iNat members, and their generosity in taking the time to share their knowledge.

Great, we cracked 200 species by the end of day 2. Have a great bioblitzing weekend!

Good job Edmonton! Not too shabby for day 1.

Hi all;
A few people have been asking about whether they should post to both iNaturalist and NatureLynx, and a few of you have already been posting to both. Please don't duplicate your observations - post your observations to one of them only. That will make it much easier when we combine the results later.

It's great weather for bioblitzing out there!
Greg

Hi all;
I've been given approval by the ABMI "BiodiverCity" organisers to use that name as the title of this project, and we've been recognised as part of the same overall event. So choose your app and prepare to submit your records.
Note we'll allow records to be submitted until June 21 or so, in case it takes a few days to do species IDs and upload your photos. I know that will be the case for me with some of the insects I hope to find. But all photos/observations need to have been made in the 4-day bioblitz window of June 11-14.

Hi Edmonton;
This informal challenge is to see how many nature observations and different species can be found in the city of Edmonton, during the 4-day period from June 11 - 14, 2020.
This is an iNaturalist -based informal alternative to the official "Edmonton BiodiverCity Challenge", which uses a different observation recording app. I'm not trying to compete, I just wanted to be able to use iNaturalist instead, and I know there are others like me who are more comfortable with iNat.
Welcome aboard! It starts after midnight next Wednesday night (00:01 AM June 11), and goes until midnight Sunday night (24:00 June 14). Let's see what other creatures we share our city with!