Take part in the worldwide City Nature Challenge to record your observations of living things in nature. Our hike at Howard Colman Hall Creek should catch lots of animal activity, especially birds and insects. Knowledgeable staff will help ID observed species. Severson Dells is hosting a moth, frog, and bat monitoring hike at 8:00 pm; sign up for both! Please visit https://www.seversondells.com/ to sign up for the 8:00 hike.

We are part of the Rock River Valley Team—last year 144 participants submitted over 5,500 observations to the iNaturalist app, surpassing even the city of Chicago in numbers. Citizen science helps us understand our prairie, wetland, and woodland habitats—the Rock River Valley team took photos of over 750 species of plants, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, fungus, and arthropods. There’s no need for field guides, and no need to be an expert—once you submit a photo through the app, scientists, students, researchers, and experts will tag the photo with an identification.

We’ll give a brief explanation of how to use the app (it’s easy!) before we go on our hike. Dress for potentially muddy conditions on intermediate trails.

Other: If you would like to participate in the citizen science aspect of this hike, please install the iNaturalist app on your phone and create an account.

No registration required for these walks.