City Nature Challenge 2024: Ōtautahi/Christchurchs Dagbok

Do you want to be a part of the adventure?! Join us for a four-day roving Bioblitz!

This roving Bioblitz is more than just an event; it's an invitation to connect with nature, contribute to citizen science, and be part of a community celebrating biodiversity. Whether you're a nature enthusiast, a family looking for a fun day out, or someone curious about the natural world, there's something for everyone in this engaging, educational, and exciting expedition.
Don't forget your walking shoes, smartphone, and enthusiasm for nature! Let's explore, record, and revel in the wonders of our environment together. See you there! Each day brings a new adventure from 26th April to 29th April:

Day 1: Riverlution - Dive into biodiversity!
Embark on an extraordinary journey with us as we kickstart our four-day roving Bioblitz, aligning with the City Nature Challenge. Our adventure begins at Ōtakaro Orchard at 9 am, where you can join us anytime during the day.
Meet Jenny at Tauhahi Pa at 10am to see what in-river species we can discover.

Immerse yourself in nature as we trace the Ōtakaro Avon River, unveiling the hidden gems of invertebrate biodiversity with our expert entomologist Dr Mike Dickison. Enjoy a cozy lunch at Richmond Community Gardens, complemented by intriguing research opportunities courtesy of the Christchurch City Libraries outreach van.
A courtesy van will be available to run you back to the start!

Day 2: Landings and Lakes - A biodiversity expedition!
Day two presents a dual-venue exploration extravaganza at Dallington Landing and Waikakariki Horseshoe Lake, where our team of rangers and experts eagerly awaits your arrival.
Morning (9 am-12 pm): Dallington Landing
Afternoon (1 pm-5 pm): Waikakariki Horseshoe Lake
Equipped with the iNaturalist app, unravel the ecological wonders of these locations, guided by our seasoned rangers and the collective wisdom of our experts.

Day 3: Eco-Sanctuary exploration - uncover the hidden gems!
Join us on day three at 7 Brooker Avenue to delve into the prospective realms of the Waitākiri Eco-Sanctuary and the captivating Ōtakaro Avon River corridor.
Activities include: Exploring the Avon Ōtakaro Forest Park planting site; Discovering the life in Cosair Stream with Denise Ford; Enjoying guided walks with Colin Meurk build weta hotels and explore sound gardens with Bridget from Green Lab and test drive the nature play-spaces.
This is a perfect day out for families! Dive into research with the CCC libraries outreach van and celebrate our regenerating landscapes.

Day 4: Estuary edges - celebrate coastal biodiversity!
Conclude your Bioblitz journey by exploring the estuarine beauty of Bexley, South New Brighton, and Southshore. Discover an array of water birds and the vibrant life forms thriving in these unique ecosystems.
Morning (9 am-12 pm): Bexley Wetland. Andrew Crossland will provide his expertise in bird identification.
Afternoon (1 pm-5 pm): South New Brighton Domain car park

Join us to celebrate the biodiversity of our coastal edges, equipped with expert guidance and the indispensable iNaturalist app.
Be part of this immersive experience. Let's celebrate biodiversity together! For more information, please visit: https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/programme/107

It might say city in the title, but we are going way beyond the city limits for this year’s City Nature Challenge! Get ready to immerse yourself in nature, not just in Christchurch, but across the expansive greater Christchurch area, including the Waimakariri and Selwyn Districts! The boundaries of the City Nature Challenge reach into the heart of Banks Peninsula, and creep into the edges of Waimakariri and Selwyn districts. Check out this map for events and their locations:
Link to Sean’s map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/city-nature-challenge-2024-events-for-otautahi-chr_970947#10/-43.5844/172.7051

Here’s how you can get involved in your area:
Christchurch District: Engage in a range of events within Christchurch city, from parks to reserves, where urban biodiversity comes to life. You can find all the events here https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/programme/107. Please do not forget to save them in your calendar.

Waimakariri District: Check out these family-friendly events in the lead-up and during the city nature challenge. Join us at Silverstream Reserve or Northbrook Wetlands in Rangiora for invertebrate discoveries and mini BioBlitz events. Your findings will help highlight the rich biodiversity of the Waimakariri area.
Invertebrate Survey and Discovery : https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/invertebrate-survey-and-discovery
Te Riu-o-Te-Aika-Kawa-Brooklands Lagoon guided walk : https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/te-riu-o-te-aika-kawa-brooklands-lagoon-guided-walk
Mini BioBlitz at NCF Park : https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/mini-bioblitz-at-ncf-park
Spotlight on Nighttime Critters : https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/spotlight-on-nighttime-critters
Mini Bioblitz of Northbrook Wetlands : https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/mini-bioblitz-of-northbrook-wetlands

Selwyn District: The Biodiversity Team at Selwyn District Council are excited to be part of this year's iNaturalist City Nature Challenge. The Selwyn District is a large, diverse and ecologically significant with ecosystems covering the mountains to the sea. The City Nature Challenge is a great way for people to show case the varied flora and fauna of the district that is covered by the Greater Christchurch area which includes the southern Port Hills, Te Waihora / Lake Ellesmere and the low plains.

Along with Enviroschool the Council are running an event at Te Ara Ᾱtea in Rolleston on the 27th of April from 2 to 4. This discovery session will give help on installing and using the iNaturalist App. Participants will then be able to go out and use their new skills to take part in the Global City Nature Challenge.

We encourage people to go out and record the varied biodiversity of the district you never know what gems you may find. For more information: https://www.ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/event/city-nature-challenge-tuhura-discovery-session @denise-nz

Use the iNaturalist app to document the flora and fauna around you, contributing to a global database that aids in biodiversity research. This is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to science, learn about the biodiversity that surrounds you, and connect with fellow nature lovers across the Greater Christchurch area.
Whether you're in Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, Lincoln, Rangiora or any neighbouring area, your participation is crucial. Let’s come together to explore, document, and protect our region's natural beauty! We look forward to your contributions and to showcasing the biodiversity of our wider community!

Dive into the heart of nature with us on April 28, 2024, from 2 pm-4 pm, at the Mahoe Reserve for an engaging Mini Blitz!

This event is your chance to contribute to the global City Nature Challenge Otautahi, where we'll document local flora and fauna using the iNaturalist NZ app. It's a fantastic opportunity for enthusiasts and families alike to connect with nature, learn about biodiversity, and play a part in citizen science.

No booking is needed—just your curiosity and love for the environment. Whether you're a budding naturalist or a seasoned explorer, your observations will help shape our understanding of local biodiversity.

Let's gather at Mahoe Native Reserve to observe, learn, and share the beauty of nature together. See you there to make every observation count!

For more details, check out Lincoln Envirotown's event page here:https://lincolnenvirotown.org.nz/event/mahoe-blitz-24/
@lincolnenvirotown

In a few weeks the global City Nature Challenge begins and we hope to see you there! We are also excited to share that there is going to be a film made about this challenge.

Here the Wild Things Are is a fun wildlife short documentary set in the city streets you know so well! The film tracks New Zealand’s progress throughout the challenge, follows contestants in Wellington and Christchurch in their quest to discover nature hiding in plain sight and examines whether simply paying attention to our surroundings and taking a photograph can contribute to saving the planet.

The team, consisting of award-winning producers, have been partially funded through the critically acclaimed, short documentary platform, Loading Docs. But they need to raise an additional $8,000 to capture the full scope of the competition in two different cities across the country. They’re going ahead with filming while their crowdfunding campaign is still live, so they’re taking a bit of a financial risk and hoping it pays off! If you can financially contribute to this campaign, any amount will make a significant difference, but sharing it with your friends and whānau will be a huge help too.

For more information, head to the Boosted page: https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/here-the-wild-things-are/

Kelly and Maddison

The Christchurch City Libraries are hosting many events around the city to build up community interest in the lead up to the City Nature Challenge.

We also have one event being held in Clarkville this Sunday by the Waimakariri District Council.

Christchurch City Libraries events
Two exhibitions are on display until the end of the month: Natural New Zealand Photographic Exhibition is on at the Upper Riccarton Library and City Nature Challenge - What will you find? can be found at Tūranga.

Dr Morgane Merien is hosting her Observing the Natural World events at various libraries, presenting stick insects and other specimens.

iNaturalist 101 workshops are being delivered in two languages - English and Mandarin - to introduce new iNaturalist users to the app. This workshop is being delivered at Te Hapua Halswell Library by Rob Cruickshank and Gini Geng

Invertebrate Survey and Discovery
This event is happening on Sunday morning at Silverstream Reserve, 161 South Eyre Road, Clarkville.
Discover some basic tools you can choose to survey invertebrates in your local greenspace, conservation project or garden.

See all of the events in the lead up to the City Nature Challenge on this map

This year's City Nature Challenge is shaping up to be one of our biggest. We have a whopping 19 events running over 4 days!

These events run from Friday 26th until Monday 29th April in different habitats, from the beaches and estuary near the coast, to rivers, wetlands, and up into the hills overlooking our city. We even have 3 different night time events to spot some of our nocturnal species.
All events are free to attend, just make sure you bring a device that has a camera along with you (or an actual camera), and dress for the weather.

If the City Nature Challenge is new to you, please read what it's all about over here.

Most of the events are registered on the What's On website, or check out the interactive map below to find events near you.

See all of the events running during the City Nature Challenge on this map

Jon Sullivan recently spoke at an event held at Turanga about a few things he would like us to look out for during the CIty Nature Challenge. These are his words (in summary):

"These are some of the things that are showing up recently around Ōtautahi that hadn't been seen before. They are showing up because iNaturalist is working and people are finding them.

The world is warming - if you haven't heard - which means stuff comes across Australia, gets established in the North Island and is moving southward. We're constantly getting this trickle of new things showing up in Christchurch. Here are some I’d like you to look out for:

Hairy-legs groundsel
It first came in and was found by Auckland botanist Ellen Esler in his garden or close to his garden. It’s an Australian species.

There were only five observations of this from Christchurch until April 6. It was only known from around the containers on Port Hills Road in Ferrymead, but then it showed up, at McLean's Island so suddenly it's jumped so that's interesting. It looks quite distinctive; three finely divided leaves and it's got the hairy stem which separates it from a similar thing which is why it's called hairy-legs groundsel.

The cool thing is that this was first discovered in The South Island on iNaturalist and its spread has been showing on iNaturalist.

American ragwort aphid
The next one, which I'd like you to look out for, is the American ragwort aphid. It’s from America and eats ragworts and groundsels and fire weeds (Senecios). It’s the first aphid we have had in the country that just goes for this kind of plant. Most New Zealand native plants have never had aphid herbivory before but we have some critically endangered threatened Senecios out there in the hills. And now we have an aphid, which is specializing on Senecios. It was detected in the last city nature challenge last year in Christchurch, and Auckland simultaneously. MPI looked at it and said, ‘can we stop that?’ And then they said, ‘no, it's an aphid and it's just showed up in two different centre, we have to give up, but it's still spreading’.
I'm still the only person that seen these aphids in the South Island in Christchurch, but I'm sure you are walking past them.

Harlequin ladybirds
We've seen the explosion of Harlequin ladybirds thanks to the City Nature Challenge. It's the biggest ladybird we have by long shot so it's distinctive. And it eats any soft bodied small things it can get, including the larva of our native ladybirds. In United Kingdom when it got there, there was a big decline in their native ladybirds.

Passionvine hoppers
These are all over parts of the city now. And they are not just generous feeders on plants, but they spread diseases - move viruses around from one plant to the other. They're not necessarily a good thing to have around. There's been a real spike in the numbers in Christchurch as more people have seen them.

Steel blue ladybirds
These are an Australian ladybird common in the North Island. This is another one that has just come up in the last few years in the city nature challenge. They're really beautiful things and really jewel-like ladybirds with a very distinctive colour. I tend to find it associated with those passion vine hoppers. I imagine its feeding on their nymphs. So, keep a lookout for these as there's relatively few observations of these in Christchurch, and mostly in the Cashmere hills, but that might be just because that’s where I live. So it would be nice to know where else they are, and what they're doing.

Little hump spider
These new species come in from Australia, they land here and they spread out and it's really interesting to learn about how quickly these spread and what habitats they go into. This was first found in 2012 , but they've spread. I think they were first seen in Hoon Hay but they’ve got all the way North to Pegasus and South to Leeston, Prebbleton and Lincoln - a slow motion explosion of tiny little spiders creeping across the landscape. They make a very messy web and they're sort of semi-social, so you have lots and lots of little spiders, sharing the same web complex. They also don't use venom to kill their prey; they wrap them in massive amounts of silk and suffocate them.

South African praying mantis
These have been seen in Christchurch. Climate modeling from the University of Auckland suggests they will do well here. And if you look in the North Island, you don't find many native mantis at all now, because the male's try to mate with the females and these females are bigger than males and the eat them. They have a very narrow thorax like an hourglass shape, unlike the shield shape of our native one, and they don't have the big blue spot on the front leg that our native one has, so look out for those."

Only three days to go until this year's City Nature Challenge - its going to be epic!

For those keen to follow in the footsteps of our leading iNaturalists, Jon Sullivan and Colin Meurk are both heading for the hills this weekend.

Mt Herbert Citizen Science Survey - Sat 27 April
Join Colin Meurk for this full day out on the flanks of Mt Herbert and Mt Bradley. The purpose of this particular trip is to cover the full elevational range and associated diversity of Ōtautahi-Christchurch. Organised by the Rod Donald Trust and Te Ahu Pātiki Trust - registrations essential.

Takahe to town hikoi - Sun 28 April
Take the number 1 Cashmere/Rangiora bus to the Sign of the Takahe. Join Jon as he walks down to the city centre, making observations along the way.

You don't need to be an expert to use iNaturalist NZ as there's teams of experts reviewing each observation and verifying or refining your finds!

After the four days of collecting observations during the City Nature Challenge, we have a week to upload and verify our finds. To help you with this process, we have four 'Ask an Expert' sessions planned at The Nature Lab.

Microscopes will be set up to support looking at some of the tiny things collected and other tools will be available to help you get a good photo.

The Nature Lab is on Climate Action Campus, 180 Avonside Drive, in S Block. The Lab will be open from 3pm-6pm each day for four days.

Tuesday 30 April – Seamus Moran (UC) and Peter Holder (UC)

Wednesday 1 May – George Cox (UC) and Robb Eastman-Densem (UC)

Thursday 2 May – Julia Palmer (UC) and Sarah Mankelow (CCC)

Friday 3 May – Rob Cruickshank (UC) and Morgane Merien (Canterbury Museum)

On Sunday 28th April, from 1pm-4pm we'll be holding a short bioblitz around McCormacks Bay where we'll try to find as many different species in the area that we can.

Turn up at 1pm to hear a short history and other information about the bay from the Estuary Trust's Tanya Jenkins.
Jocelyn Papprill is running this City Nature Challenge event with help from Julia Palmer, Sean Clifford and Philip Grove.

The bay has a diverse array of life, including a species of Ground Wētā, birds, invertebrates, plants and fungi. You can see what's been observed before on the bay's own project page. Help us expand our knowledge of biodiversity in the bay on Sunday.

No booking is required, but if you want to let us know that you're planning on attending, you can fill out this online form.

We're meeting at the southern end of McCormacks Bay Reserve, across from Basil Place. We hope to see you there!