Bird the Wilderness Park with us!

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

The Friends of the Wilderness Park are planning to offer more educational events for those who would like to know more about the natural history of the CHWP.

Our first offering is a collaboration with the Pomona Valley Bird Alliance to bird this diversity hotspot (990 species of organisms on the Friends’ iNaturalist CHWP Biota project, 133 species on eBird). We will take a holistic approach, observing the birds as well as the natural history they are  associated with on this 2-3 hour walk.

This is a great opportunity to learn about using eBird and iNaturalist to share your observations of birds and other wildlife. If you’re interested, please download the apps to your phone before you come to the Park, as cell phone reception in the Park is spotty at best.

Meet at the entrance gate to the park at 7:00 AM.  Parking is free for 6 hours for Claremont residents in the south parking lot at Mills and Mount Baldy Road and $5.00 for nonresidents at the north and south lots.  Bring water, sunscreen, sturdy shoes and binoculars.  Limited to 15 participants. To participate, register here.

Questions? Contact Scott Marnoy to RSVP at gopherus2@gmail.com

Location: Claremont Hills Wilderness Park main entrance
Mills Avenue and Mt. Baldy Road, Claremont, CA 91711 

    Difficulty:  Strenuous-2-3 miles on gravel roads with elevation gain.

    BioBlitz in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park – Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28!

    Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

    Please join the Friends of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28 for a Wilderness Park BioBlitz in conjunction with the City Nature Challenge!

    What is a BioBlitz?

    Vicki Salazar and Diego Tamayo at the 2022 City Nature Challenge BioBlitz explaining the BioBlitz to Park visitors. ©Nancy Hamlett.

    A BioBlitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species as possible within a designated location and time period.  It’s a great opportunity to meet other naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public to meet in person in the great outdoors and learn about the plants and animals that live in the Wilderness Park.

    How will the BioBlitz work?

    Observers will look for plants and animals in the Park, take a photo (or multiple photos) of an organism, and upload the photos to iNaturalist. You can take photos with either your smartphone or a camera.

    What is iNaturalist?

    iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. iNaturalist is a collaboration between National Geographic and the California Academy of Sciences.  Anyone can participate in iNaturalist!

    If you’ll be taking photos with your smartphone, do the following before arriving on at the Park please:

    1. Go to iNaturalist.org and create a free account. You should see “SIGN UP” featured prominently on the homepage.   Otherwise, there’s a “Sign Up” link in the top right corner. Once you’ve signed up, you can enter observations from either your phone or computer.
    2. Go to the Apple Store or the Google Play store and download the iNaturalist app. You can then upload your photos to iNaturalist right from your phone. This video shows you how:
    How to Make an Observation with the iNaturalist Mobile App from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

    If you’ll be taking photos with a camera, you will upload them later through the web interface. This video shows you how:

    How to Use iNaturalist’s Photo Uploader from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

    Are guides or tutorials available for iNaturalist?

    How do I add my observations to the BioBlitz record?

    You don’t need to do anything to add your observations to the BioBlitz record.  All observations made in the Park on the BioBlitz day will be automatically collected and added to the City Nature Challenge and Biota of the Wilderness Park projects.

    We hope you’ll join us for the BioBlitz!