City Nature Challenge – End of Day 1!

A huge congratulations and well done if you’ve taken part in City Nature Challenge today!

A quick reminder that City Nature Challenge runs for three more days, across the whole bank holiday weekend – so if you’ve not downloaded iNaturalist and had a go at recording your local nature there’s still plenty of time to put your records on the wildlife map! It’s simple and easy to take part, just take a photo of any wildlife you see; trees, mushrooms, flowers, beetles, spiders, hedgehogs, or blackbirds – it all counts. And the best part is, you’ll be helping to protect wildlife! As one young participant told us today, “so, it’s like if we don’t know what’s out there, we don’t know how to save it?”

A quick look at the international map

City Nature Challenge takes place all across the world, with over 450+ city regions taking part in 2022. We're thrilled that the UK iNaturalist project map (which you can find here) has started to come to life with records from all corners of the country. At time of writing, it’s amazing to see three UK cities in the top 20 cities across the world for number of observations, species recorded and participants (an extra well done to participants in Birmingham & Black Country, Brighton and the Eastern Downs, Bristol and Bath, and Liverpool)!

So, what’s been found so far?

The top 3 most common species recorded across the UK were unsurprisingly plants (it helps when they don’t move) top hits include Lesser Celandine, Red Campion and Herb Robert.

Here in Bristol and Bath, (where this blog is written) that’s even more pronounced, with the top 5 species being plants you could (probably) find in any park across the cities!

There are 3 amazing spots of Green Woodpeckers, Fiery Searcher Beetles, European Gazelle Beetles and Bee Orchids across the region and, at time of writing, are current totals are:

What's happening across the rest of the weekend?

If you're looking for ways to get involved in Bristol and Bath then your in luck! As there four different events taking place across the Bristol and Bath City Region, including BioBlitz events at Frampton Cotterell, Portishead, Bath City Farm and, walks and workshops in Castle Park!

Or, if you would like to take part from the comfort of your own home/park - simply download iNaturalist and get recording!

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What's the best thing you found today or best photo you took during City Nature Challenge? Let us know on social media by using the hashtag #CityNatureChallengeBristol

City Nature Challenge runs for a further 3 days - if you would like to take part simply download the iNaturalist app to your smartphone or tablet device (or use the desktop version) and record the nature you see during the bank holiday weekend!