Apps are a great way to bring information about your environment with you on your adventures. Some of my favourite apps are ones that I can use to learn more about the ecosystem I’m a part of and the place I live. Below, I look at three different apps that I use and that I think have a place on every backyard adventure.

1. Seek by iNaturalist

Seek is an app that uses image recognition technology to identify plants and animals in any environment. If you’re outside and come across a species you are unfamiliar with, you can point your phone camera at it and use Seek to try to get an ID. Depending on the quality of your image, Seek will narrow down what it is, moving down the taxonomic hierarchy from kingdom to species. Something I really like about Seek is that you don’t need internet to use the app, which makes it great for adventures without service. You can also connect Seek to your iNaturalist account, which allows you to record your observations and contribute to a wider citizen science project. Fun fact: You can also download data from iNaturalist and run analyses of your own!

2. eBird

I’m fairly new to the world of birding. When I went on my first birding adventure, we used eBird to keep track of the birds we saw. One of the really cool things about eBird is that you can look at the species that have been observed at hot-spots, which are popular birding locations in your area. The app will tell you what species others have observed at this location previously, giving you an idea of what you might encounter. All of this data that is collected also contributes to a wider citizen science project as well. Another great app to use on backyard birding adventures is Merlin Bird ID, which is super handy for bird ID.

3. Rockd

If you’ve ever wondered about the geology beneath your feet, Rockd is the app for you! Combining geologic maps and field-geology, Rockd is a great app for learning about and observing local geology. Like Seek and eBird, Rockd has a community-feed, where people can share their geologic observations with the public and contribute to citizen science efforts.