The City Nature Challenge: Greater Adelaide held our second official public engagement event on the 7th of March at the Willunga Environment Center Inc. The ‘training sessions’ went well, with an enthusiastic audience and a number of new faces.
I kicked off our talks by providing an introduction and background on the City Nature challenge and an introduction to the iNaturalist platform. We also covered a number of tips for new users:
iNaturalist Video Tutorials
Following the talks, we had an informal chat with participants where they asked questions about the platform, the challenge and some general citizen science networking. Following the event, I assisted Karen from the EcoClassroom at the local Tatachilla Lutheran College set up an iNaturalist project to assist in the environmental education program. I will keenly follow this project as I think it has great potential to become a valuable teaching aide.
Following the event, Seamus (@seamusdoherty814634304), Larissa and I (@stephenfricker) had planned on going for a nature walk nearby. Fortunately for us, a number of local attendees suggested that we go down to the Wirra Creek as some re-vegetation had been undertaken. This ended up being a fantastic spot with plenty of wasps, mayflies and other invertebrates around. Check out some of our observations from the day here. I made a number of observations myself, although there were a few that got away!
A short video Seamus Doherty made of our walk through the Wirra Creek in Willunga.
It was great to see such enthusiasm and I am looking forward to working with all of you to make the City Nature Challenge in Adelaide a great hit! Remember to save the date, and if you would like one of us to give a talk to your group please contact us below!
