City Nature Challenge 2024: West Michigan's Journal

Well, mostly you all did it!

I am beyond pleased with how our City Nature Challenge turned out. Pending any uploads still being processed, here are our stats:

6,620 observations
1,374 species
253 observers

That is simply amazing for our first attempt at this. You all have contributed so much valuable information to the iNaturalist database, and for that you all deserve to be commended. There are two people, however, who deserve a little extra commendation. @ltomko and @anna120 blew the rest of us away. With 1,362 and 1,224 observations, respectively, we would not have been close to our final numbers without them! Amazing work, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

But wait, there's more!

Now that the observation period has closed, it's time for us all to put on our identification hats. One of the things that the organizers look at is the percentage of observations that end up at Research Grade, which is the highest level of verification available on iNaturalist. To do that we are all going to have to go back through the submissions and help verify the ones we can. We have until May 5th to get as close to 100% Research Grade as we can. Right now we are at 44.64% Research Grade, so I think we've got a shot a getting all of them done.

Here is a helpful guide on iNaturalist identification etiquette: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/identification-etiquette-on-inaturalist-wiki/1503

Cheers, and happy IDing! If you see any particularly cool observations or rare species, please tag me (@trav_kurtz) in a comment so that I can try and get those observations noticed by the event organizers.

Hi all,

What an amazing weekend we've had! The observation period ends tonight at 11:59 PM. We are currently sitting at 4,803 (!!) observations, which is above and beyond what I could have expected, but I want to see just how many we can get. Maybe it's too ambitious, but I think we can get to 6,000.

For our area, Allegan County seems to be where we have the fewest observations. So if you're feeling adventurous, maybe choose a park or preserve down in Allegan that you haven't been to before and go get a few more observations.

Keep up the great work, and I'll see you all on the other side of the finish line.

Also, a huge shoutout to our current top 3 observers: @ltomko @anna120 and @spencerhigh. They are absolutely killing it!

Wow!

What a first day of City Nature Challenge. You all have done some really excellent work, and we still have three whole days! Here's the rundown as of 11:30 PM:

• 1,338 observations
• 566 species
• 74 individual participants

I only have one request that will make things substantially easier on the back end when we are trying to get all of our observations to Research Grade: even if you have no idea what something is, put a guess in there. It doesn't have to be a species, it could be as simple as "plant" or "bird" or "insect", just having any sort of guess will ensure that your observation doesn't get lumped under the "unknown" category

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

-Travis

Folks, get those phones charged and those fingers ready to snap some pictures. As of the time of writing this we are only 12 hours away from the beginning of our City Nature Challenge! I just wanted to provide you all with the list of events happening in our challenge area that I am aware of, as well as the other resources that we have at our disposal.

Friday:
No formal events
Travis' locations:

• Pierce Cedar Creek Institute
• Middleville State Game Area
• Hidden Pond Preserve

Saturday:
Blandford Nature Center, 1:00-2:00, https://www.blandfordnaturecenter.org/events/city-nature-challenge-bioblitz-hike-f/?occurrence=2024-04-27
Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, Self-guided, https://www.cedarcreekinstitute.org/events/
John Ball Zoo, 10:00-12:00, https://jbzoo.org/events/bioblitz/
Rogue River State Game Area, 5:00-7:00 PM, 8:00-10:00 PM, https://www.querkuscreative.com/products/p/qgmpgjpw4cueg7nt2v7zguavzgs3yo
GR Outside Gear Library, 11:00-1:00, https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/Government/Programs-and-Initiatives/GR-Outside
Franciscan Life Process Center, 1:30-3:00 PM
Travis' locations:

• John Ball Zoo
• Kent County Parks
• Rogue River State Game Area

Sunday:
Hemlock Crossing Nature Center, 10:00-1:00, https://vernal-pool-patrol-mnfi.hub.arcgis.com/pages/training-workshops
Calvin Ecosystem Preserve, 2:00-4:00, https://calvin.edu/ecosystem-preserve/this-week/
Dolan Nature Sanctuary, 2:00-4:00, https://michigannature.iescentral.com/menus/calendar.html
Travis' locations:

• Grand Ravines Park
• Hemlock Crossing Nature Center
• Hofma Preserve

Monday:
No formal events
Travis' locations:

• Saugatuck Dunes State Park
• Dune Pines Nature Preserve
• Swan Creek Loop Trails

Event Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1alWJadl59UpsQwAlZlaCPUlUZwpgXxs&usp=sharing
Event List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NDuwtOZZi-1PYG2_tVxZIdSUYchPBiJZ1XzU2sXtrHQ/edit#gid=0

One last note. If you feel inclined to engage with this event on social media, make sure to use the #CityNatureChallenge, and feel free to tag the organizers of the overall event in pictures or videos of you and your friends/family doing the challenge! They are @citnatchallenge on both X and Instagram.

Good luck this weekend, and I cannot wait to see all of the observations!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe that in one week we will be out and about making observations for our City Nature Challenge! It looks like our weather will at least be decent over the weekend. I just wanted to send one more reminder of all the important links and put them in one place.

Global Project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-north-and-south-america
This is where the leaderboard for all of the projects in North America and South America will be held, so we'll be able to see how we're stacking up in real time with other challenges.

Interesting and Fun Finds: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FAXtuxiz0HpPeXisUlVyRU27hSZbeI5N8ajozqhYPTo/edit?usp=sharing
The folks from iNaturalist who are running the whole event have created a spreadsheet where they want to keep track of fun/interesting/significant finds. I am the only one from our project who has access to this sheet. So, if you make one of these observations or come across one in the project please tag me in the comments and give a description of why it deserves to be specifically highlighted. I will do my best to keep up on these sorts of observations and get them into the spreadsheet so that your work is getting the recognition it so richly deserves!

List of Species: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j_MDTB5F2LehLIAT_KtEJLuP4PGPT0x_I2AOFA8uOrw/edit?usp=sharing
Feel free to request access to this spreadsheet. We are doing our best to track the species we see, as well as ones we haven't seen but are targeting.

I want to genuinely offer my appreciation to everyone who is in this project and who is participating in the project. This is going to be such an incredible opportunity to explore and showcase the biodiversity in west Michigan, and none of it is possible without you all!

Hi all!

We are almost exactly three weeks out from the start of west Michigan's inaugural City Nature Challenge event! As we get closer, there are still some things that need to happen:

• Keep adding species to our google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j_MDTB5F2LehLIAT_KtEJLuP4PGPT0x_I2AOFA8uOrw/edit#gid=0
• Add any events that you plan on hosting to that google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NDuwtOZZi-1PYG2_tVxZIdSUYchPBiJZ1XzU2sXtrHQ/edit?usp=sharing/li>
• Make sure you have all of your equipment in order
• Get three friends to commit to participating!

I am so excited about this, and cannot wait to see what you all are able to observe!

@anna120 @rdegeer @mmoerdyk @thecaiman1 @wonderful_world @sammoer4 @rbdllama @dwightbaker @shrontzilla @joshdyer1 @coopermike @greathorn @cdoe @matttryc @valerie112 @trtgers @acanthusmxmli @mettcollsuss @s_atkinson @sarasyswerda @juliakmil @michiganne6 @delbachert @cjkrueger @gdwyer @eehinger @tyrannus1 @ovanantw @ian_pope @wmich_birding @izokait @mizamykins @mightyherpules

Hello again!

In addition to a species checklist, one of the resources that folks thought would be useful is a list of events happening that weekend that are tied to the City Nature Challenge. I am endeavoring to put together and frequently update both a list of events in Google Sheets, and a map of events separated out by day using Google Maps.

If you are interested in leading a nature walk, or some other event that you feel comfortable facilitating, feel free to add it to the Google Sheet and I will get it added to the Google Map so that people can see where things are happening. Similar to the species list, you will probably need to request access to the events list in order to edit it.

List of Events: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NDuwtOZZi-1PYG2_tVxZIdSUYchPBiJZ1XzU2sXtrHQ/edit?usp=sharing

Map of Events: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1alWJadl59UpsQwAlZlaCPUlUZwpgXxs&usp=sharing

@anna120 @rdegeer @mmoerdyk @thecaiman1 @wonderful_world @sammoer4 @rbdllama @dwightbaker @shrontzilla @joshdyer1 @coopermike @greathorn @cdoe @matttryc @valerie112 @trtgers @acanthusmxmli @mettcollsuss @s_atkinson @sarasyswerda @juliakmil @michiganne6 @delbachert @cjkrueger @gdwyer @eehinger @tyrannus1 @ovanantw @ian_pope @wmich_birding @izokait @mizamykins @mightyherpules

Hello all!

Last night at our meeting, one of the things we talked about was creating a species checklist to allow people to prioritize different locations within our City Nature Challenge. The link below will take you to a Google Sheet that you all should be able to populate with different species, as well as columns for who first observed them and the date on which they were observed. In addition to trying to collect as many total observations as possible, we want to try and observe as many different species as possible!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j_MDTB5F2LehLIAT_KtEJLuP4PGPT0x_I2AOFA8uOrw/edit#gid=0

@anna120 @rdegeer @mmoerdyk @thecaiman1 @wonderful_world @sammoer4 @rbdllama @dwightbaker @shrontzilla @joshdyer1 @coopermike @greathorn @cdoe @matttryc @valerie112 @trtgers @acanthusmxmli @mettcollsuss @s_atkinson @sarasyswerda @juliakmil @michiganne6 @delbachert @cjkrueger @gdwyer @eehinger @tyrannus1 @ovanantw @ian_pope @wmich_birding @izokait @mizamykins @mightyherpules

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to let you all know that the John Ball Zoo is bringing the City Nature Challenge to west Michigan. I (@trav_kurtz) will be the point person for the zoo on all things related to City Nature Challenge. Our challenge covers the entirety of Allegan, Barry, Kent, and Ottawa Counties and runs from April 26-29. You will be able to see the full list of cities here: https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/. While this is not purely competitive, there are dozens of other participating cities, including Lansing, so it is fun to see where we stack up compared to other challenges.

I’ve tagged you in this journal post because you’re a top observer in the geographic area covered by our City Nature Challenge over the last year or so. We’re really hoping you’ll participate in this year’s City Nature Challenge; while we know getting observations from as many people as we can is important, we also know that it’s top iNat observers like you that will really push us ahead in the number of observations made and especially the number of species found in west Michigan!

The easiest way to join in is to just make as many observations of as many species as possible in any of the four counties during April 26-29. Helping with IDs will also increase our species number, so that’s a great way to help out as well. And of course, spread the word! City Nature Challenge 2024: West Michigan iNaturalist project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-west-michigan/.

The details: the CNC runs from 12:01 AM on Friday, 4/26 to 11:59 PM on Monday, 4/29. All observations from Allegan, Barry, Kent, and Ottawa Counties count. We're announcing results on Monday, 5/6, so between 4/29 and 5/6 we will just be working on identifying all of the observations in the project. Also, the more observations we can get identified to Research Grade by then, the higher our species number will be.

We’ve also been brainstorming about places around the area that would be really great to have people go to during the City Nature Challenge – places that have high diversity and/or unique species. We are working on creating a formal list, but if you have places in mind please leave a comment with where we should direct folks.

I (@trav_kurtz) am planning to lead some trips to a few places and you’re more than welcome to join us! Once I have a Google spreadsheet, I will link it in a journal post, and there will be a sheet where you can add your name if you’d like to join us on one or more of these expeditions. Also, if you’re willing to lead a trip to one of the places listed (or any other place!) please add the place, the date, your name as the leader, and potential taxa/species of interest to the Google spreadsheet once it exists, and then others can sign up to join you!

We’ll also be adding bigger, public events to our bioblitz webpage and you’re welcome to join those events as well. If your organization will be holding an event in the April 26-29 window that people could come to and make iNaturalist observations for the City Nature Challenge, please let me know and we’ll add it to the list and it will be promoted in the project’s journal, as well as with the rest of the zoo’s media surrounding this project.

Please feel free to brainstorm other ideas, ask questions, etc. in the comments – and definitely add others to this journal post via tagging them in the comments!

@anna120 @rdegeer @mmoerdyk @thecaiman1 @wonderful_world @sammoer4 @rbdllama @dwightbaker @shrontzilla @joshdyer1 @coopermike @greathorn @cdoe @matttryc @valerie112 @trtgers @acanthusmxmli @mettcollsuss @s_atkinson @sarasyswerda @juliakmil @michiganne6 @delbachert @cjkrueger @gdwyer @eehinger @tyrannus1 @ovanantw @ian_pope @wmich_birding @izokait @mizamykins