The City Nature Challenge is a BioBlitz style competition between cities around the world to see who can make the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people.

This year Rochester is joining in on the fun, led by our friends over at Seneca Park Zoo. Between Friday, April 26 beginning at 12am through Monday, April 29th at 11:59pm visit as many green spaces around Rochester as you want (including your own backyard) and collect photos of any and all species you encounter. Observations must be submitted using iNaturalist, an easy-to-use smartphone application that makes it easy to post, share, and identify photos. Not sure what you’re taking a photo of? That’s OK! iNaturalist experts will identify your photos for you— just take your best guess. Learn how to use iNaturalist here.

We hope you and your family and friends will visit a Genesee Land Trust nature preserve or other green space this weekend and add your observations, contributing to this great citizen science project.

City Nature Challenge is organized on a global scale by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. Find more information about the challenge at http://citynaturechallenge.org/