The Nature Conservancy of Canada wants people to get out into their backyards, local parks, favourite trails, or somewhere further afield to help them photo and identify species in their habitats.
The 4th annual national Big Backyard BioBlitz is from August 1 to August 5.
Each year, Canadians across the country take photos and submit them to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Participants uploaded more than 59,000 images last year, and over 7,700 species have been identified.
The species identified included a brown bat, a grizzly bear, bighorn sheep, plains bison, and even a humpback whale.
If you can't get a good look, record its sound. Scientists can identify many birds by their songs.
Submissions should be uploaded to the Big Backyard BioBlitz webpage.
The blitz is a community-science effort to document as many species as possible over those five days. Every observation helps conservation groups and scientists understand local biodiversity, track at-risk species, and even tackle invasive ones.
"The Big Backyard BioBlitz is a great way to connect with the outdoors while contributing to a national community science project," said Matt Frank with the conservancy. "Everyone's observations help protect the nature we love."
It doesn't require a lot of effort. People can get involved while sitting on their deck, strolling through their neighbourhood, spending time on the water or at their favourite conservation area. If it rains, the conservancy recommends just watching out the window.
