Hello everyone!
I just wanted to post a quick tutorial on how to link two observations together. This feature is quite useful for the Calgary Pollinators Project (and iNaturalist in general) because it can help us to not only identify the pollinator, but also the plant that the pollinator is visiting. I'd like to encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with how to add an associated observation.

How to Use the "Associated Observations" Field

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Thank you to everyone for being so enthusiastic to help us identify the insects in our project! We really appreciate all your time and continued effort. I am grateful for the amount of interest I received from this initial call for IDs. We are hoping to have another great summer of getting to know our Calgary Pollinators, so, if you're interested, we would love your help again in the fall to do another round of IDs. Here is a quick two-week numbers update on the number of research grade observations and our top identifiers! The number of research grade observations increased by 764, from 2,924 to 3,688. We gained 15 new project members, and 6 new project curators! Amazing work, thank you for helping us all learn about the pollinators in Calgary!

Huge thank you to the top identifiers within our project!

Insect experts and enthusiasts, we need your help! Our Calgary Pollinators Project has over 6000 observations and we need your help to confirm the identity of the insects. While there is still snow on the ground and not too many insects flying about, we would appreciate your help to ID the insect observations in our project. If you know anyone else who may be interested in helping with our project, feel free to tag them in the comments. We greatly appreciate your help and thank you for your time! - Justine

@gpohl @mothmaniac @jimjohnson @robertgbrown @kyhlaustin @zealouswizard @pfau_tarleton @ianswift @malisaspring @matthias22 @rlongair @susanna_h @jglasier @trevorsless @beespeaker @beeboy @beesofcanada @johnascher @neylon @bdagley @rustybee @tockgoestick @tjneame @edanko @zdanko @trinaroberts @matthewvosper @giantcicada @sbbrown

Hello Everyone! Welcome to Calgary Pollinators iNaturalist page and thank you to everyone who has posted an observation of a Calgary Pollinator. Our project officially began in June 2021, and currently includes over 6000 observations made from 2008 to 2022 - that's amazing! As we get ready for the next season of pollinators, I want to introduce myself, my research interests, and tell you all about the future of the Calgary Pollinators Project. My name is Justine, I have recently started my Master's Degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Calgary. My project is about how urbanization impacts the relationships between native plants and pollinators in Calgary. I am also interested in collecting data on pollinators supported by native plants and if native plants support a more biodiverse group of pollinators than introduced plant species. I will be using the data from the Calgary Pollinators Project for my research.

Our goal is to hit 10,000 observations by the end of summer 2023, and hopefully all of you can help make that happen!

Thanks for reading!

-Justine

Distribution of species observed from 2008-2022

Number of different species observed from 2008-2022

This project aims to document the insect pollinators present in Calgary and their associated plants. Please contribute your photographs of an insects interacting with the flower surface or flower parts of plants. Associated plants can be in wild or cultivated settings.

To be included, observations must:

• Be of an insect
• Clearly show the plant the insect was interacting with
• Include the observation field "Interaction->Visited flower of"
• (Optional) Include the observation field "Associated observation"

Thank you for helping us better understand Calgary's Insect Pollinators!