City Nature Challenge 2018: Washington, DC metro area's Journal

The most powerful thing about iNaturalist is the community. If you're reading this, that's you! The City Nature Challenge is going to be a time when many, many new people join this virtual community. Not everyone will stick around, and that's perfectly fine, but I want to encourage everyone to think about what you can do to be a welcoming face in this virtual space. And I want you to start practicing.

Remember, iNaturalist isn't magic, it's people! Even the suggestions that come from the computer vision tool would not be possible without millions of identifications made by real people. People like you! We need everyone to do their part to nurture local participation on iNaturalist.

Do you know which users are most active in your favorite park? Do you know who makes the most bird observations in your county? Who is most likely to identify local mushrooms? This is the time to learn!

But how? Go to the observations search and type in your county. All of the counties should be there (cities and parks are less reliably included). Then use the filters to include or exclude organisms of interest. If you want to be able to quickly review many observations, click the little "Identify" button from within the filters box to take you to another view of the same results. There's a short video that explains more about how to use it.

What have you bookmarked? Leave a comment and let us know! I'm personally watching the Identifcation interface for all of the newly added observations from the District of Columbia. At least once a day I go through and add IDs, make encouraging comments, and welcome new users (you can now easily see how many observations a user has).

Can we have at least one person watching each of the 24 counties in the metropolitan area in the lead up to the event?

What else is happening for the City Nature Challenge? We have more than FIFTY events planned in the DC metropolitan area and more than 100 people in our Google Group for coordination. We're having calls every Thursday from 2-3 PM if you want to join.

I love observing nature. With the City Nature Challenge fast approaching, how am I getting ready to participate in this year’s global, community-based nature event?

1) Registering as an iNaturalist user and seeing what’s happening regionally

Now that I have a user account, I have joined the project called: City Nature Challenge 2018: Washington, DC metro area. This means that all the observations I make within the challenge boundaries will count towards the DC area’s total observation and species count.

2) Getting outdoors

I am going outdoors as much as possible. Every day I alter my dog walking routes so I can find the most biodiverse areas to return to for the challenge. I’m scoping out the different trees, wildflowers and birds.

3) Practicing Taking photos

Photos are an important part of making observations on iNaturalist. If you can’t tell what the thing is you are observing, then it can’t be properly identified. One photo hack I recently learned was to bring a clipboard with a piece of white paper and use it as a background so you can see the bug or flower more clearly. While it’s important to take close-ups, I also take some shots from further away to show the context and surrounding environment.

4) Studying my local species

I love discovering new species on my daily walks. I use several apps like iNaturalist, eBird, Virginia Wildflowers and Merlin to help me identify things I find. At home I have a bunch of field guides to learn more details about my observations. I’ve also been following groups like “birds” and “fungi” on iNaturalist, so I can see the latest observations.

5) Listening to nature

Now that I’m learning about birds, I’m studying birdsong. This means I have to listen very carefully for the various calls while I’m on my walks and out and about in the city. The Merlin app, by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is an easy way for me to listen to sample calls to see if I’ve discovered a match.

6) Spreading the word

This is my 2nd City Nature Challenge and there is no denying that I’m very excited about it. I’ve been reaching out to anyone I know who loves nature, like my classmates from the Virginia Master Naturalist program, friends with kids, friends who are teachers and fellow photographers. By posting nature pics on my social media accounts, I’m hoping to get others to participate and be as excited as I am to be a citizen scientist.

I hope to make it on the leaderboard of the City Nature Challenge, which runs from April 27th through the 30th! Follow my progress on iNaturalist here! Don’t forget that you can also follow your friends and fellow nature lovers on iNaturalist to see what they discover.

In just a few hours, when the clock strikes 12:01 AM, the 2018 City Nature Challenge will officially begin! It’s exciting to know that we’ll be joining fellow nature-lovers who already started the Challenge hours ago on the other side of the planet!

We’ve been waiting with excited anticipation for this event to highlight the biodiversity of our region. While we encourage you to participate on any of the 40+ activities planned in the DC metro area, you can simply step into your own backyard and share whatever you discover.

Over the next 4 days, we hope that you’ll explore your neighborhoods and parks and submit your observations of wild plants, bugs, birds and all critters large and small. Remember that any evidence of wildlife also counts, such as nests, bones, scat, footprints and even expired animals.

If you are not able to make any observations, you can also help with identifications. Is there a certain group of plants, bugs or animals that you know well? Then simply login and review the DC area observations and validate as many as you can. See our local events page for info about our species identification events, where we’ll gather and identify species together.

We’ll be making observations from 12:01 AM on Friday, April 27th through 11:59 PM on Monday, April 30th. Then we’ll have through May 3rd to make as many identifications as possible. Remember that our findings are contributing to science, so the clearer the photos, the easier they’ll be to identify. Results will be announced on May 4th.

Don’t forget to share your experience on social media using the hashtag #CityNatureChallenge. We want to see where you’re exploring, who you’re with and what cool stuff you are finding.

Follow our region’s observations here and follow the global challenge leaderboard here.

Happy iNatting!

Washington DC area iNaturalists are chomping at the bit as the first day of the City Nature Challenge 2018 opens to a steady rain. Anticipating the bad weather conditions, @carrieseltzer was first out of the gate at the stroke of midnight with a flashlight-illuminated ichneumonid. Not to be outdone, @krosenthal scored the second observation with a shot of raccoon footprints on a trash can (which have surely washed off by now), reminding us that observations can also include tracks, nests, scat, shells, bones, etc., not just living organisms. A fine shield lichen represented Family Parmeliaceae in @ana_kaahanui’s stunning shot submitted at 00:06, representing the best in midnight botanizing. @dbarber got mileage out of some nocturnal nuisance species with observations of an Indian meal moth, a garden-munching Eastern cottontail, and audio evidence of a very loud mockingbird before retiring for the evening.

Meanwhile, in arch-rival city Baltimore, National Aquarium staff member @mduffy submitted a stunning triple photo of a celery leaftier moth, demonstrating that an overturned jar is a great way to photograph the underside of any tiny animal that would prefer escaping to becoming an iNaturalist observation. Early the next morning, Mduffy’s Aquarium colleague @laurabankey captured observations of a sleepy earthworm, soon to be followed by many plant observations in the weak morning light. Clearly the Baltimore team will be a force to be reckoned with and will keep the DC team on their toes as they try to keep up!

Back in the DC area, @jacobogre has pulled into the lead as of this writing with multiple observations from Charles County MD. @jmgconsult is not far behind with native and exotic plant observations from the Hyattsville area, and @arbiess has Front Royal, VA covered with bird feeder observations representing both mammals and birds. @jyeingst and @christopherhugh have also submitted multiple valuable observations.

As weather conditions remain bleak through the morning, anticipate a string of DC-area sightings heavy with rain-soaked outdoors organisms liberally sprinkled with cellar and garage creepy crawlies (ahem, invertebrates).

Great job iNaturalists, keep those observations coming!

Undeterred by grey skies and chilly damp conditions (it’s nothing compared to what we experienced in March) DC area iNaturalists continued to rack up outdoors observations all day.

At 4/28/2018, 00:00, 24 hours into the Challenge, @lisam is in the lead for observations with 149 gathered in one 8-hour day. @jmgconsult, who was leading for much of the day, now has 130 observations from several locations in Maryland. The most species for today were recorded by @arbiess with 90, with @lisam running a close second at 83.

Of the top ten most observed species, three are exotic (garlic mustard, common dandelion, and red deadnettle.) New iNat users should be advised that some observations of the native red-seeded dandelion may have snuck in, and should check the “similar species” tab on the common dandelion page for help in the tricky matter of distinguishing the two. Other most-observed species as of tonight are mayapple, eastern redbud, flowering dogwood, common blue violet, poison ivy, American holly and American robin. @karyn-nrd racked up the day’s highest concentration of unusual taxa, with one comb jelly, one amphipod and one blue crab, all straight from the Chesapeake Bay. Juniper-apple rust also seems to be everywhere and may have given some first-time observers a bit of a scare. The bald eagle count for today is 5.

It’s been a great day, team! Rest up, everyone, and let’s do it again tomorrow!

At the time of writing the species count was at 1022. Hooray for crossing the 1000 species milestone! We can do even better.

Here are some links that will take you to a tool that will let you compare which species have been recorded in the month of April in the past but haven't been observed yet in the City Nature Challenge. This should help some of you target your explorations—and identifications!

Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Butterflies & Moths
Dragonflies & Damselflies
Ants, Bees, Wasps, & Sawflies
Flies
Beetles
Arachnids
Crustaceans
Mollusks

Basidiomycota

Conifers
Ferns
Monocots
Poaceae

I noticed some obviously captive oddities, but hopefully this will be useful. Have fun exploring on Sunday!

Thanks to @kestrel to putting these links together for San Francisco—I just adapted from that.

Two days in, at 00:01 on Sunday April 28, we’re up to 7472 observations, 1060 species, 452 observers and 202 identifiers for the Washington DC metro area. For the moment, mayapple has overtaken garlic mustard as the most observed species. (Is anyone reading this rooting for garlic mustard?) Bluebells have knocked poison ivy out of the top ten. In the Edible category, we have 28 observations of the horribly invasive but tasty wineberry, 12 black raspberry, 7 black walnut, 6 blackberry and 2 serviceberry. Fragrant finds include 12 northern spicebush, 10 sassafras, 8 European lily of the valley, 8 lilac, 4 wild bergamot and 4 showy orchis. The bald eagle count is up to 12 today.

Let’s pause for a moment and see how other cities are doing. The San Francisco Bay area is way out in front with 18502 observations, 1928 species, and 875 observers. DC is currently 9th for observations, 8th for species and 6th for observers--not shabby among the 60+ areas in the running. You can study the stats for all the cities at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2018 --it’s quite fascinating.

Next, let’s consider our identifiers. After all, without identifications, iNaturalist would just be so many pretty pictures. Big thanks to @tsn who, by following many of us and providing quick and accurate ID’s (and tactful corrections where necessary) in areas far and wide, is sure to reach a big milestone of 100,000 ID’s before the weekend is up.

Thanks also to the iNaturalist staff who keep iNat ticking and always improving. I’ve been amazed at how well the system is working, both on the desktop and the app, under the heavy load it’s bearing this weekend. The presentation of the stats for this weekend’s event is remarkable as well. And biggest thanks of all to @kueda who started all the iNat fun in the first place!

Three days into the City Nature Challenge, at 00:01 on Monday, April 30, DC metro is in 4th place for number of observations, 8th for species, and 5th for observers. Expect those ranks to go down somewhat as cities west of our time zone finish their uploads from today, but wow! What a day! These great ranks reflect our 14,616 observations, 1452 species, and 675 observers. Common blue violet has edged out garlic mustard for the moment with 157 observations over 150, but the species in the top 10 remain similar to yesterday and the day before. The bald eagle count is up to 19.

Today was cool, mostly sunny but quite breezy, which made it difficult to focus the camera on plants as they swayed in the wind. A huge shout-out goes to the Virginia Master Naturalists, who hosted dozens of events over the last three days, with more to come tomorrow, and who got lots of new iNaturalists into the field! Special thanks go to @matt-ratcliffe for keeping us straight about skinks and other herps and to the always inspiring @carrieseltzer for yesterday’s great tip on how to find “what’s missing” in iNat—it sent me out today in search of several specific things and other people as well, I’m sure, since the missing species lists got a lot smaller today.

There’s one more day to make observations. Many of us are going back to work tomorrow, but consider taking a quick break at lunch to check out an area near your workplace that you might not have iNaturalized before. It’s amazing what shows up when you look closely at a familiar area--today I found a tiny plant that I had never seen before right in my neighborhood park, in a spot I have walked over hundreds of times. I’m looking forward to someone here helping me to identify it! And if you get the urge after dark tomorrow night to do just one or two more observations, try what some of us did at 12:01 on Friday morning—find a creepy crawly in your garage or basement, or go outside and take a sound recording of a night bird! Anything taken before midnight tomorrow counts.

More on identification—there are four species identification parties, the first tomorrow night at the Museum of Natural History, with others at Merrimac Farm, Blandy Experimental Farm, and in Arlington. See https://citynaturechallengedc.wordpress.com/events/ for details and join one if you can!