18/05/2026
CAWR staff have again taken an active role in the City Nature Challenge. This four-day event sees people coming together to share observations of nature from their local areas using the free iNaturalist platform.
On Friday 24th, Helen, Lindy, and Alex Lowther Harris organised a nature walk and BioBlitz for Coventry University staff from the Ryton Gardens site to Wolston Fields, spotting, amongst other things, a common whitethroat and some green-winged orchids. They even saw a roe deer, but weren't quick enough to snag a photo!
Katharina and Alex ran a BioBlitz in Royal Leamington Spa alongside Warwickshire District Council. People spotted a variety of plant bugs, spiders and plants, including a pale pink sorrel, along the River Leam.
Alex LH led a canal walk in Coventry city centre - the highlight find was a myosotis discolor - a member of the forget-me-not family. Younger observers also enjoyed launching nature boats into the canal!
This year Lindy signed up to be a city organiser, so Leicestershire and Rutland could join in the challenge. A BioBlitz in a suburban area of Leicestershire, saw children filling in their biodiversity bingo cards with ladybirds, butterflies and flowering plants.
All events helped generate valuable records of species occurrences and got people out into nature in the lovely sunshine.
This year, the recording period ran from 24th – 27th April, while observations could be uploaded and identified until the 10th May. In Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull 238 observers made 8193 observations of 1300 different species: https://bit.ly/4dtqCFs
The City Nature Challenge in Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull also contributes to ongoing EU-funded research at CAWR; the DAISY project uses it as a case study to better understand biodiversity and equity, while records of invasive and non-native species will help inform trials of innovative early detection technologies under the OneSTOP project.
