I know a lot of us are trying to decide how to spend our time this weekend. Do we get out in nature to capture observations for the City Nature Challenge (learn more about City Nature Challenge here)? Or do we engage in the time-honored tradition of wandering around Old Town Fort Collins catching random shows and discovering new local music (learn more about FoCoMX here)?
Good news: you don’t have to choose!
While meandering old town taking in shows, just keep an eye out for any bugs, critters, or wild plants that you could snap a picture of on your way to the next venue.
Some tips for urban nature observing:
- Wild nature can be found anywhere, even in the middle of a city. Look for weeds pushing up through the cracks in a sidewalk, mosses growing on brick buildings, birds perching in landscaping trees, or pollinators visiting flower pots.
- You may have heard that “Captive and cultivated” organisms (in other words, anything placed or being maintained by humans) don’t count for the City Nature Challenge, and that is true! However, they can still be useful.
- “Captive and cultivated” organisms like landscaping plants can be uploaded to iNaturalist even though they won’t count toward the City Nature Challenge. In fact, it can be useful information for scientists. It can tell them what kinds of plants are attracting pollinators to an area, what kinds of planted trees may be propagating, etc. Just make sure you mark your observation as “Captive/Cultivated” so as not to confuse the data!
- While “Captive and Cultivated” organisms don’t count toward the City Nature Challenge,
organisms that they host do! Look for birds in branches, bugs on leaves, mushrooms or moss
growing on bark — anything not intentionally placed or maintained by humans is considered
wild.
- Remember: the pictures you take for your observations don’t have to be pretty or perfect, they just have to be evidence of the presence of an organism.
- While there are some incredible photographers on iNaturalist, it’s not a photography platform. The main purpose is to document wild nature where we live!
- If you are running from one venue to another to catch the start of a set and can’t stop to do a full photoshoot for that grasshopper you spotted, that’s okay! Grab the best photo you can and keep running to make it to that show!
