City Nature Challenge 2023 Calgary
April 28-May 1, Four Days to Document Everything Wild
City Nature Challenge 2019 Public Events
Location: Pearce Estate Park
Directions: 1440 17a St SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4T9
Target Species: Wetland plants, Birds, Fish
Leader: Matt Wallace
What to Bring: Camera or smartphones; Download and sign-up for iNaturalist.ca prior to workshop; Weather appropriate clothing as this activity will take place outside.
April 21, 2019; Sunday; 1:30 to 3:30pm
Plants of Reader Rock Garden Workshop
Location: Reader Rock Garden
Directions: East of Macleod Tr & S of 25 Av SE.
Target Species: Hepaticas, Snowdrops, Crocus, Larch, Birds, Insects
Leader: Gus Yaki / Matt Wallace
What to Bring: Camera or smartphones Download and sign-up for iNaturalist.ca prior to workshop; Weather appropriate clothing as this activity will take place outside.
We are on the hunt for wild spring flowers and will give you all the hot tips to use iNaturalist in process!
Location: Britannia Slopes
Directions: From Elbow Dr, West on 47 Av SW; left at Crescent Blvd. Park on Britannia Dr SW
Target Species: Crocus, other early flowers, bird, and wildlife.
Leader: Gus Yaki/ Matt Wallace
What to Bring: Camera or smartphones; Download and sign-up for iNaturalist.ca prior to workshop; Weather appropriate clothing as this activity will take place outside
CNC YYC 2019 Join the challenge to see how Calgary's nature stacks up to cities around the world! Calgary will be under a total bioblitz …
April 26, Friday, 9:15am
City Nature Challenge Kickoff: Trees of Stanley Park
Location: Stanley Park
Directions: 42 Ave SW, 2 blocks W of Macleod
Target Species: 85 tree species including Black Walnut and Butternut, Birds, Insects, Wildlife
Leader: Gus Yaki (others to be confirmed)
Gus has one of the wildest gardens you can imagine. It feels like a fairy tale with over 300 plant species (mostly native plants) that …
April 26, Friday, 2pm
Location: Edworthy Park (upper level)
Directions: Located just E of Sarcee Trail, just N of Bow Trail SW. To access, get on Spruce Dr, then go W. At its end, road swings slightly. Do not go down Edworthy Park (Coulee) Rd; instead keep left on Edworthy St. This immediately swings to the right paralleling Sarcee Trail. Meet in 1st parking lot. Area used by dog-walkers so may be full. If so, park just beyond, or behind another participant.
Target Species: Rare plants, Insects, Birds, Wildlife
Leader: Karel Bergmann, 403-285-2380.
The Weaselhead is one of the most beautiful natural areas within Calgary! Explore the rich biodiversity that exist along the trails of the park and catalog your findings for CNC YYC. We will learn about the trees, shrubs, grasses and any spring native flowers that are brave enough to show themselves. Keep your cameras on hand so you can document any wildlife or insects along the walk. We will hike approximately 4 km.
Leader: Teresa Lynch, Naturalist, Glenmore Park/ Weaselhead Preservation Society
300+ Species of plants, Garden Insects, and Birds
Leader: Gus Yaki
This tour will be part one of a series of events hosted by Friends of Confederation Creek during the City Nature Challenge weekend. Part one aims to document the biodiversity of West Confederation Park formally known as Canmore Park. Together, all of the confederation creek events will help to establish a baseline data set of biodiversity in the coulee. Have your cameras ready to document the riparian and upland plants, birds, and wildlife that utilize this amazing urban corridor! This event is open to families and will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and explore your favorite park!
City Nature Challenge Urban Habitats: Birds of Elliston Park
Location: Elliston Park, 9am
Directions: E of Elliston Park. Meet in first parking lot on W, S of 17 Av SE & 68 St SE
Target Species: Ducks, Avocets, Stilts, Gulls
Leaders: Gus Yaki and Diane Stinson
This is part two of a series of events hosted by Friends of Confederation Creek during the City Nature Challenge weekend. Part two will explore the heart of Confederation Park and everything it has to offer. Together, all of the confederation creek events will help to establish a baseline data set of biodiversity in the coulee. Have your cameras ready to document the riparian and upland plants, birds, and wildlife that utilize this amazing urban corridor!
This will be the third section of exploring the Confederation Coulee events hosted by Friends of Confederation Creek during the City Nature Challenge weekend. Part three will investigate the East side of Confederation Park to document the flora and fauna within this urban corridor. Together, all of the confederation creek events will help to establish a baseline data set of biodiversity in the coulee. Have your cameras ready to document the riparian and upland plants, birds, and wildlife that this urban ecosystem is composed of!
This event is open to families and will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and explore your favorite park!
Target Species: 300 plant species, Garden Insects, Birds
Leader: Gus Yaki
Location: 12-Mile Coulee, Tuscany
Directions: From Stoney Tr NW, go W on Tuscany Blvd to Tuscany Way Turn S (left) and go 1.9kms. The road becomes Tuscany Ravine Road. Park in open area under power line. Here, carpool (due to limited parking.) and go another 1/4km further S. Walk down a fairly long steep hill (probably not for anyone with walking difficulty).
Target Species: Plants. Hundreds of Townsendias, Birds, Insects, Wildlife
Leader: Karel Bergmann; 403-285-2380
Target Species: 300 plant species, Garden Insects, Birds
Leader: Gus Yaki
****This Event has Been Cancelled**** Did you know that wetlands provide ecosystem services that are important to our well-being, but little is known about the …
Explore the Weaselhead and its diversity at dusk and night! Keep your eyes peeled for beavers, owls, bats and even Northern flying squirrels! Bring your headlight and take pictures of any moths and insects so that we can contribute to the City Nature Challenge Calgary species count.
Join us at confluence park to catalog the diverse flora and fauna that reside along the riparian and upland grasslands of West Nose Creek and …
***Cancelled due to poor winter conditions!*** Hop on your bike and tour the Nose Creek Pathway section of the Trans Canada Trail. We are aiming …
Carburn Park showcases a wide variety of urban riparian habitat along the Bow River. It is notorious for great birding and wildlife experiences and will …
Hosted by Friends of Confederation Creek, this event will aim to document The flora and fauna that surround the Highland valley. As part of this event confederation creek event series we will help to establish baseline data about biodiversity in the coulee. Have your cameras ready to document the riparian and upland plants, birds, and wildlife that utilize this amazing urban corridor!
This event is open to families and will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and explore your favorite park!
Note: We will be restricting our movements to the public access areas of the Highland Valley.
Explore the Weaselhead and its diverse wetlands! We will conduct pond studies and explore all of the species that call this urban refuge home. We will be hiking 5 km throughout the park to explore the various aquatic habitats and species. This will be a great family event where participants will learn about sampling and identifying aquatic invertebrates and what role they play in wetland ecosystems. You are bound to encounter other interesting wildlife including fish, mammals, birds, plants, and insects so make all the observations you can.
Have you ever heard of Electrofishing? If not, this event is for you! We will be electrofishing on Nose Creek near its confluence with the Bow River to document as many fish species as we can in the area.
Everyone is welcome to come and see how electrofishing works and get a chance to learn how to identify fish species. We hope to bring awareness to the species that occur in Nose Creek and threats from invasive species such as goldfish/ Prussian carp and whirling disease. Everyone is welcome to come help identify and measure the fish that we capture.
Hosted by Friends of Confederation Creek, this event will aim to document the flora and fauna that surround the Greenview Valley and Nose Creek. This event series we will help to establish a baseline data set of biodiversity in the coulee. Have your cameras ready to document the plants, birds, insects, and wildlife that utilize this amazing urban corridor!
This event is open to families and will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and explore your local ravine!
St. Patrick's Island in East Village is one of Calgary's oldest urban parks and acts as an important refuge for wildlife in the downtown core. It has experienced multiple land uses and floods that have impacted the island's composition and structure. The socioeconomic conditions of the former East Village (1980-2013) were surprisingly beneficial for allowing the island to renaturalize. We will be exploring the island in its current form and discuss how the island has changed since Fort Calgary was established. We will keep our eyes open for owls, ospreys, plants, and insects. If the weather is nice we can dip our heads in the Bow river!
Urban beavers are more popular than you might think in Calgary. We will tour a few spots known for their beaver activity and discuss the issues surrounding beavers in the city. Our ride will begin at St. Patrick's Island Park and head to Pearce Estate park. We will then Loop back North towards Prince's Island Park to check out the beavers around the wetland and the Peace Bridge.
Target Species: 300 plant species, Garden Insects, Birds
Leader: Gus Yaki
11:59pm Monday, April 29, 2019 is the submission deadline for observations. Make sure you get all of your observations posted to iNaturalist before midnight!
The good news is the competition isn't over yet. You can still help us to identify what was observed by creating an iNaturalist account and explore Calgary's Observations made. This will help us to get our species and participant count up so invite your friends and family to help out. The deadline for identifications is May 5!
This is the final day to make your observations and post them to iNaturalist for Calgary's entry in the City Nature Challenge competition! Explore the Weaselhead and North Glenmore park to document birds, plants, butterflies, and hopefully some snakes! Make as many observations as you possibly can because this is our last chance to get in what we can!
We are on the hunt for wild spring flowers, insects, birds, and mammals! This will be the final event of City Nature Challenge Calgary 2019 and we hope you will participate by helping to document Britannia Slopes and Sandy Beach Area.
The City Nature Challenge isn't over just yet! Identifications run until May 5 so let's work together to confirm all of our observations before the deadline!
Thursday May 2 we will meet at the Fish Creek Environmental Learning Centre to identify CNC YYC observations as a team and reflect on our contributions made April 26-29.
Our goal is to identify every observation down to a species or genus level. We will have free internet, coffee, tea, experts, and resources while we work as a team to get through as much as we can.
This is an important part of the competition where we audit the data we worked so hard to collect. If you weren't able to make any observations, this is a great chance to help get our participant and species counts way up before the May 5 deadline.
This event will be educational for all that attend! Don't worry if your not an expert on plants or birds or struggle with the computer! We will walk you through all the steps to find your inner scientist! We will have specialists on-hand to help people learn about Calgary's Biodiversity and choose some of the best observations from the week!
This event is family-friendly and free. Everyone is welcome,
*** Please bring your computer or smart-phone so we can go through the iNaturalist.ca data together and identify what we found. You will need to have an account so that you can identify other people's observations.***
We're excited to offer our first City Nature Challenge workshop of the year! Whether you're a hobbyist, naturalist, birder, educator, student, photographer, conservationist, or nature-nut, …