Tag: smartphone

Stars over Killarney 2023 recap: a marriage of culture, beauty, and science

Stars over Killarney is an annual festival celebrated at Killarney Provincial Park. The event’s 2023 theme — Colours in the Cosmos — was inspired by the parallels between the beauty and the colour in provincial parks and the beauty and colour of the skies above.

And beautiful colour was found everywhere at this year’s event!

The program took a very hands-on approach, so what was being presented could easily be seen and captured by paintbrush or smartphone.

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May’s digital download

We’re not the only one “a-moose-d” by this lovely spring weather!

The rainy days of April have given way to May — it’s time to get out to your favourite park and start exploring!

(Don’t forget to treat wildlife with respect. Give them plenty of space and enjoy from a distance.)

Throughout 2023, we’re sharing a free downloadable graphic for you to use as wallpaper for your favourite devices. We’ve specially sized these images for your computers, tablets, smartphones, and Facebook covers.

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3 ways to level up your birding

Today’s post comes from marketing specialist and birding enthusiast Tanya Berkers. 

When Ontario Parks signed on as a supporter of the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, I eagerly volunteered on one of the organizing committees.

I love birding, and the Atlas is an important volunteer-dependent project that supports conservation and environmental policy across the entire province.

I wanted to contribute to the Atlas both behind the scenes and as an active data collector.

There is just one problem: I am not a strong birder, and have lots of gaps in my knowledge!

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An iNaturalist milestone: 500,000 observations!

In today’s post, Algonquin Provincial Park‘s Assistant Superintendent David LeGros helps us celebrate a big milestone for community scientists around the province!

For over five years now, Ontario Parks has been encouraging park visitors to submit their observations of nature — everything from plants, animals, and fungi — to our community science project in iNaturalist.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we surpassed 500,000 observations of 10,325 species by 11,688 observers — a fantastic feat!

Our visitors really like submitting observations.

I tip my Tilley hat to you all.

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The best apps for smartphone photography

Today’s post comes from Marketing and Communications summer student Mitch Jackson. 

Smartphone cameras keep getting better and better. No longer do park enthusiasts have to drag clunky DSLR cameras through the wilderness. Taking your smartphone with you will free up room for snacks, sunscreen, a lunch, a water bottle…did we mention more room for snacks?

We’ve seen that smartphones can already act as a field guide and support citizen science. Along with that, many phones also have incredible photo capabilities. Gone are the days of blurry, low-res phone photos. High-quality nature photography can happen right on your mobile device, without the burden of a camera strap.

Add some sparkle to your snapshots with the help of these apps:

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