A shout-out to everyone who contributed this year. Some phenomenal observations and image captures that helped Surrey contribute to making Metro Vancouver the national lead at over 14,000 observation, beating Montreal by just over 20!

Metro Vancouver also ranked 33rd in North and South America as part of the international results.

I hope you'll continue to contribute throughout the year. the observations you make are integral to helping the City of Surrey in monitoring local biodiversity. As growth pressures increase and further pressure is put on the City's natural assets, community science efforts are a critical facet in well-informed land use planning.

Simply put, your data counts.

Looking forward to seeing the regulars and new iNaturalist enthusiasts join in again in 2025!

Sincerely,

Pamela Zevit RPBio
Biodiversity Conservation Planner
City of Surrey

It's been a frenetic week. We're getting down to the wire, just edging over 900 observations which is pretty awesome considering we have ~20 less observers than last year and a lot crappier weather this time around. And the ID's are still going strong which is great as having robust data is our real end goal for community science in Surrey.

For those tracking how we're doing regionally and nationally, Metro Vancouver is now leading across Canada, edging out Montreal by a mere 54 observations. Talk about east against west!

But there are still many hours to go, so we won't really know if the 'wet' coast came out on top nationally (for the first time ever) until cutoff tomorrow at 8:59 am.

So enjoy what's left of your Sunday night and stay tuned for the big reveal tomorrow from California.

Hope everyone has been having fun this weekend! We were off to a slow start with the not so nice weather Friday-Saturday, but today and tomorrow are much more welcoming, so we're looking forward to further observations getting added for the coming week. We'll have a bunch of visual and audio uploads from Latimer Park, Keery Park and several local parks in west Cloverdale to add for the City of Surrey's account in the next few days so stay tuned.

Some interesting finds and gorgeous gems this year, proving once again the City Nature Challenge never disappoints!

Woot, hats off to all those keeners out there already contributing , we're already at 46 observations and 33 species!
Here are some reminders as you begin collecting and adding observations:
• If you were out in the wee hours last night gathering owl calls or coyote yips, any observations collected at 12:01 am April 26 OUR TIME are valid as are observations collected by 11:59 pm April 29. Cool fact the CNC starts (and ends) FIRST in New Zealand and start (and ends) LAST in Hawaii.
• Any observations made within the City of Surrey boundary between April 26 and April 29 will automatically be added to our Surrey project and the broader Metro Vancouver Regional project– don't have to join the Surrey or Metro project to have your observations show up, and you don't need to add their observations to these projects to have them show up… you just need to make them and upload them to iNaturalist. *But joining individual projects is a nice way of showing direct support for your city :)
• All observations must be MADE between April 26 & April 29, but they can be uploaded later (but must be uploaded by May 6 at 9am OUR TIME to count)
• Identifications can happen throughout the full City Nature Challenge window, up until everyone's project results are pulled (they can keep happening afterwards of course, they just won’t count for the CNC!)
• PLEASE help us with data curation by:
o Marking non-wild organisms as captive/cultivated when making the observations, and
o If you see observations from our city that are clearly of captive or cultivated organisms, mark them as not wild in the Data Quality Assessment section of the observation – for others helping with identifications please do the same! *the Surrey CNC project is already set up to exclude humans, domestic dogs, domestic cats and most livestock. Please avoid adding house plants or captured images from your computer or TV.
• CNC central will pull every city’s or region's results on 6 May at 9AM our time – so whatever numbers (observations, species, identifiers, observers) are showing in our local project will be our final results. *Reminder for this year Surrey's data will be merged into the Metro Vancouver Regional project and added to national and international umbrella projects. If you want to track how we've done locally, check the Surrey CNC 2024 project, which we're running for local tracking and reporting purposes.

Hoping everyone has their special places picked out for blitzing this weekend! I wish the gorgeous sunny days of this past week were going to hang around but it looks like we're in for cool and damp this CNC. That hasn't stopped all you intrepid observers out there before. And this is the sort of spring weather we're supposed to be having, which is good for all the plants, wildlife and fungi out there. All of which will be waiting to reveal itself to you!

p.s. just a reminder of some local Surrey events:
BioBlitz at Latimer Park | April 27, 10am-2pm
Have fun with us as we discover bugs, flowers and animals and learn to use iNaturalist to record what you find. Bring your mobile phone to record with, and dress for the weather. Drop-in. Ages 6+.
Location: Latimer Park (19258 28 Avenue)
Hosted by Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society, Little Campbell Watershed Society, Langley Environmental Partners Society and NatureKids BC.
LEARN MORE > https://inaturalist.ca/projects/latimer-park-bioblitz

BioBlitz at Serpentine Fen | April 29, 5:30-7pm
Celebrate the return of the birds with a City Nature Challenge BioBlitz and scenic walk on the Serpentine Fen Nature Trail in Surrey. Learn how to use eBird or iNaturalist, and how to identify a variety of marsh species! Dress for the weather. All ages.
Location: Serpentine Fen Parking Lot (44th Avenue and King George Boulevard)
Hosted by Birds Canada.
Pre-register by email > krisc@birdscanada.org

And for Metro events check out the CNC Metro project this year's Surrey observations will contribute to:
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-metro-vancouver-regional-district-mvrd.

Looking forward to tracking everyone's progress this weekend!

Hard to believe were only two weeks away from our 5th CNC. Have you figured out which greenspace you plan to visit April 26-29? Or are you going to focus on your own backyard, or neighbourhood. Looking to join a local organized CNC event? Check out our CNC page www.surrey.ca/citynaturechallenge for where and when.

Wherever you pick for your biodiversity blitzing make your data count! Remember the 3-Ps: No people, pets or potted plants when collecting observations. Focus on wild plants, animals and fungi, native or not :).

Stay tuned for further updates!

Surrey's Crescent Beach has served as a banding location for the past few years on this federal project. Environment and Climate change Canada would like to highlight that they continued to colour-band adult and juvenile Glaucous-winged Gulls throughout their field sites, and any sightings by the public can be reported using this online form: https://forms.office.com/r/i9PG9zHCfs (feel free to share).

C/o Anneka Vanderpas
Marine Outreach Coordinator, Wildlife Research Division, Science and Technology Branch
Environment and Climate Change Canada, Government of Canada
anneka.vanderpas@ec.gc.ca|

We are just about a month away from our 5th annual City nature Challenge.
Are you getting ready to get your community science groove into overdrive!

Our CNC webpage is up along with dedicated CNC special event listings:
https://www.surrey.ca/citynaturechallenge

BioBlitz at Latimer Park | April 27, 10am-2pm
Have fun with us as we discover bugs, flowers and animals and learn to use iNaturalist to record what you find. Bring your mobile phone to record with, and dress for the weather. Drop-in. Ages 6+.
Location: Latimer Park (19258 28 Avenue)
Hosted by Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society, Little Campbell Watershed Society, Langley Environmental Partners Society and NatureKids BC.
LEARN MORE > https://inaturalist.ca/projects/latimer-park-bioblitz

BioBlitz at Serpentine Fen | April 29, 5:30-7pm
Celebrate the return of the birds with a City Nature Challenge BioBlitz and scenic walk on the Serpentine Fen Nature Trail in Surrey. Learn how to use eBird or iNaturalist, and how to identify a variety of marsh species! Dress for the weather. All ages.
Location: Serpentine Fen Parking Lot (44th Avenue and King George Boulevard)
Hosted by Birds Canada.
Pre-register by email > krisc@birdscanada.org

"They are the quintessential long-distance migratory songbirds. Incredible journeys, tough-as-nails appearance, and beautifully regal even without the elaborate ornate coloring of their wood-warbler neighbours. And as much as I would love to wax poetic about how this well-postured denizen of Canada’s boreal forest represents Canada – it is in fact a bird that is shared across the hemisphere, with the majority of their time spent on migration and in their Central and South American post-breeding grounds. "
https://www.birdscanada.org/introducing-birds-canadas-2024-avian-ambassador-the-olive-sided-flycatcher

We have 6 occurrences for this species in our area, from Fraser Heights down to South Campbell Heights!
https://inaturalist.ca/taxa/16110-Contopus-cooperi

The Bald Eagle and Osprey nest registry is a province wide partnership managed by the Wildlife Tree Stewardship (WiTS) program with a goal to support the protection of nest trees covered under Section 34 of the British Columbia Wildlife Act. The WiTS Atlas collects Bald Eagle and Osprey nest records provided by government, industry, conservation/naturalist groups, and the public.

The Community Mapping Network (CMN) has a new publicly available mobile app for collecting and recording nest observations in the field. The WiTS mobile app can be used both online (with an interactive base map) and offline by recording your location coordinates. When on-line, the app will help you find existing nests so that you can update nest activity, the status of the nest tree and other important information. (WiTS Survey123 Instructions).

https://www.cmnbc.ca/atlasgallery/wildlife-tree-stewardship/