Backporch Almanac HD
Migration, pests and nature ID
Free · In‑App Purchases
iPad
Frost dates, pollen and meteor showers for your county, with a reminder the day before. Free for a week, then $4.99 a month.
Backporch follows the animals and pests moving through your own county, and puts a name to anything you find outside from a picture. It tells you what's coming before it happens, while there's still time to do something about it.
Tap the bell beside anything and you'll get a reminder the day before, usually at 4 in the afternoon.
MIGRATION
Follow 152 species on the move, from the ruby-throated hummingbird to the monarch butterfly and the humpback whale. Each route is drawn month by month, spring and fall, with recent sightings marked on the map, so you can see when they'll pass your county.
PESTS
Boxelder bugs and lady beetles on the south wall, stink bugs, camel crickets, house mice and more, laid out like a calendar so you can see a busy week coming, each with plain steps you can take yourself.
IDENTIFY
Take a picture or choose one you already have, and Backporch names the plant, insect or animal, tells you what it is and whether it does any harm, and files it in your specimen cabinet, a drawer for each month.
BUILT FOR IPAD
Held sideways the app is an open binder: the index on the left leaf, the thing itself on the right, and a page that turns when you swipe it. Tap a photograph and it turns over to show the field marks, the size, where it comes from and whether it does any harm.
Write down what you actually saw. Type it, say it out loud, or write and draw straight on the page with Apple Pencil. A note you make about a species turns up on that species' page, and every note lives in one archive you can search.
ALSO ON THE PAGE
The weather now and today's high and low, pollen for the week ahead, frost dates for your county, full moons, meteor showers and the nights the aurora may show.
NOTHING TO SIGN UP FOR
No account and no password. Your places stay on this iPad and reach the forecast as a county, never as an address. Photos you share have their location data stripped first and are checked before anyone else sees them, and anything other people share can be reported or blocked.
YOUR FREE WEEK AND YOUR PLAN
Backporch is free to download and starts with a free week. After that it needs a subscription: $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when the free week ends, and the plan renews automatically until you cancel. Cancel at least 24 hours before the free week or the current period ends and you won't be charged again. You can change or cancel your plan in your Apple Account settings, or from Settings, Your plan inside Backporch.
One plan covers your iPad and your iPhone when both are signed in to the same Apple Account.
Without a plan you can still read Today, Pests and Migration, and the archive stays open with everything you've saved. Alerts, Identify and new notes need a plan.
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://caratinternational.net/backporch/privacy
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The developer, Carat International LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Location
- User Content
- Identifiers
- Other Data
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Carat International LLC
- Size
- 156.1 MB
- Category
- Lifestyle
- Compatibility
Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later.
- iPad
Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later.
- iPad
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- Infrequent
Medical Treatment information
Contains
User-Generated Content
Health or Wellness Topics
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Monthly $4.99
- Yearly $39.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Carat International LLC