The five day Nature Conservancy Canada Bioblitz ended last night and we came in eighth out of 1788 participants (8/1788). That’s two spots down the league table from last year but at 249 species we increased our total by 32 … eighth place out of all of Canada.

Must say we are pleased, just a “little” smug, and it was a lot of fun. Time to start planning for next year.

The chap who won with 200 species more than us runs a major nature conservancy in Ontario full of lakes and forests and rivers so he was always going to stand a better chance.

As the BioBlitz is run using the iNaturalist website and app you need a photograph of each species in order to submit them – well, you can omit the photo but it means there is no confirmation possible of what you claim to have seen so we stick to the rules. What this means is that there are fewer birds in our tally than we actually saw as not all could be photographed – including the two Chimney Swifts that circled the air over the garden last night as we we sat on the deck with cold drinks. On the other hand we saw lots of wild plants. Insects were not as plentiful as last year – probably because with all the pressures on insects these days there were fewer to be seen in the first place.

Anyway – feeling content with the result. All the more so as these were species to be seen within 10 or 15 minutes walk of home, many right within our own garden, this demonstrating once again that there is wildlife in the suburbs and you don’t have to go out to the wilderness to see lots. Not, at least, unless you are the guy who won this challenge.

Here are a few pictures from the event …