100 days to go!

Welcome to 2023! We’re excited to announce that City Nature Challenge will be running across the Bristol & Bath region again this year, under the new project name ‘City Nature Challenge 2023: West of England’. We hope that you will join us from the 28th of April to the 1st of May 2023, where we will be recording the wildlife across Bristol, Bath, Weston-Super-Mare, and everywhere in-between, covering the counties of Northeast Somerset, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset.

With just 100 days to go, we wanted to kick off with our first journal post and celebrate some of the amazing achievements from last year!

With your help during City Nature Challenge 2022 we recorded a whopping 8,005 observations of 1,270 species over 4 days. We couldn’t have done it without the help of 405 of you who took the time to go out and record your local wildlife. Thank you! An additional thank you to the 501 identifiers who helped to verify the records during the event too; getting records correctly identified to “research grade” means that the records can be shared with other datasets, such as the Local Records Centres and the NBN Atlas. These records can be used by many people, from scientists to planners, so this data is key to protecting our wildlife. Great work everyone!

We wanted to give some special shout outs to @scro11ing, @frampton_cotterell_nature, and @mikebath; you came 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for most biodiversity recorded, with @scro11ing coming 1st place with 278 different species recorded across the 4 days. Incredible efforts!

Time to thank our top identifiers (drumroll please….). Our top identifier of the region was @foxandcubs, with 1,200 identifications (wow!!), followed by @mikebath (1,014 identifications - great work with the invertebrates) and momatt72 (298 – thank you!). Your time and expertise is invaluable and we hope you’ll be identifying this year too.

We also wanted to thank our top 100 recording champions; we hope you join us again this year to record even more biodiversity in the region. We’re chuffed that we had more supporters take part than any other UK City Nature Challenge city in 2022 (not that we’re competitive!) and every single one of you who took part helped to make a difference for nature. A massive thank you to @scro11ing, @frampton_cotterell_nature, @mikebath, @bobhelson, @major_bombylius, @foxandcubs, @fungimonster, @hanslynam, @josie12, @catbaker81, @zeplyr, @scanters, @georgecuckoo, @alisoncook183, @ellieandmaddie, @friendsofdrpep, @stupayton1, @caroline225, @momatt72, @ren9922, @davidhanks, @greenwanderer, @doogstar, @tabernus, @mary287, @torie289, @carolynbrina, @flutterbug45, @isabellepulletz, @eugenielovenature, @naturenstuff, @lana_prest, @emily2668, @tingmj13, @chaffinch242, @geminplainsight, @allison714, @concannonjm, @tizerb, @fobwsecretary, @roz_stewart-hall, @juliak7, @lozemers, @mustard, @hamslicephotos, @danielleedwards, @gabymeier, @andyfrazer, @ruth468, @samantha1329, @cedaniel81, @muffintin, @mol98, @roundways, @phazelwood, @chris2327, @dnschmidt, @penruss, @lukeromaine, @samrspb, @amycboyle, @b_thorney, @jimmygrigg, @teazles, @elmanelman, @kate_sparey, @rachel4848, @andyroo42, @bibiana_krauskova, @almajar, @claire268, @jkbcs, @jamierk, @ginijamesclose, @stephencjg, @liz869, @kinzaleah, @cluelesswanderer, @lindsayvinesmyth, @ripplenessy, @squarial, @ginastahl, @francie_brown, @brockletoast, @alejandra661, @joshua_richards, @nicolabs3, @katetate25, @amberav, @ed_shaw, @lucy_newnham, @eiffelover, @ralph134, @claire919, @kshelduck, @loxliegh, @barrygorman66, @spt123, @piestuff, and @ktslash

In our next journal we will be celebrating the records of some of the most unique and interesting finds of 2022, check back in mid-February to see if your records made it to our list of favourites! Don’t forget to “join” the project page to get updates on future journal posts or follow updates on the West of England City Nature Challenge via @festofnature on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Best wishes,
Loz, Actions for Nature Officer at the Natural History Consortium.

Posted on 18 January, 2023 10:10 by festofnature