Get your camera ready: Nature non-profit wants to see what's in your backyard and beyond

Whether you're a newly hatched naturalist or an eagle-eyed expert, nature lovers of all kinds are encouragedto get outside with their cameras this weekend.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is hosting its annual Big Backyard BioBlitz, a community-led initiative to find and identify as many species as possible in a set amount of time.

The land conservation organization is encouraging people take part in the BioBlitzbyphotographing local wildlife and plant life and uploadingit to the iNaturalist app and website.

Anything from plants, birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, lichen and fungi can be uploaded to the app and can givevaluable information to biologists.

By getting local nature enthusiasts out to documentthese species, the team at the conservancy canuse that information to gaina deeperunderstanding of local biodiversity that can be used todetermine future conservation efforts.

Mark Frank, a development officerwith the non-profit,said the BioBlitzis an opportunity for people of all ages to slow down and appreciate the vast number of species that are all around them.

"Every species,every observation is extremely important and is valuable for us to make conservation decisions in the future," said Frank.

Things like local pollinators, rare species, andpotentially invasivespeciesare important and can't always be documented without the help of citizen science. A BioBlitz gives scientists access to parts of the country they can't constantly survey, from backyards tolocal trails andrivers.

More than700 Nova Scotians took part in last year'sevent, uploading nearly 5,000 photos featuring black ash trees, migratory shorebirds, insects, endangered monarch butterflies and other species.

PastBioBlitzparticipants across Canada have contributed almost 150,000 photos since the event launched in 2020.