Identification of observations: Phase III
With 12 hours of identifications left for us it is time to move onto Phase III
There is still a little mopping up to be done from Phase 1 (Unidentified and Vaguely ID'd observations), but it is not really important at this stage.
• No IDs yet - only make an ID if you recognize it - otherwise leave it without an ID. - 398 observations
• Useless IDs (too vague) - can you make these finer? To family, genus or species?. - 353 observations
We also appear to have run out of steam on Phase 2 (Getting IDs down to species level).
This is probably because many of the observations remaining cannot be refined (e.g. some invertebrates, and among plants - for instance Bougainvillea where ID to hybrid parents is not trivial). But we can still make a serious dent in these - they amount to 34% of our observations. If you wish to tackle these, then please use this url, and add your tribe, family, or genus in the species box to access these.
• IDs needing refined to species level - 11,633 observations
THIS STILL REMAINS A HIGH PRIORITY
However, our main focus must now shift to Phase 3 (Research Grade). These are the observations that need to get to research grade. They have been identified, but these need to be checked and agreed to. With 3,968 observations, they amount to 10% of our data. Because they are so few we wont split them into groups - just add your taxon name (e.g. birds, Erica or spiders) to the species box to narrow your group.
• IDs needing confirmation for Research Grade - 3,968
We probably wont have time for Phase IV (Checking), which is checking that
-a- all the Research Grade IDs to make sure that erroneous IDs (e.g. Californian species via the AI species recognition system) are done and
-b- all the Planted observations are marked as such.
The easiest way to check is to use this link, and to add your group.
• Quick Check on species
If there are dubious species - they will hopefully be at the tail end of the list - you can see their observations by clicking on the text "observations" on the bottom of the picture card. This opens up a page showing the actual observations which you can then process by clicking on them.
If there are too many, in the filter box, click on the "Identify" option on the bottom of the filter box to open the Identify tool.
The end is near. The midnight deadline looms.
Thanks for a magnificent effort. An especial thanks to those who did so much: Please see them here and give them a round of applause as they finish off this task! https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-cape-town?tab=identifiers
Comments
Please dont forget the nominations for Observation of the City Nature Challenge.
add this project: www.inaturalist.org/projects/nominations-observation-of-the-month-s-afr
OK Just 5 hours to go!! We seem to be doing well. The current stats is:
34.1% Casual
32.7% Needs ID
33.3% Research Grade
Basically we have 308 observations stuck in the higher ranks (the dust bins) and 367 without any ID. Small fry! Ignore them.
We have 11.156 observations that "Need ID". Would it not be nice to get this to below 10,000 by the end of the challenge?
At present they are 10,943 not yet identified to species level, and 3,062 needing confirmation at the species level (a few of these are quite ropey identifications). [these dont add up to 11k, because they include some "Casual" observations, which are still in our workflow).
So for our final few hours of entertainment. Please enjoy the rush. I see Dallas-Fort Worth is putting in a final rush: it would be ironical if they overtook us in the final hours, but they will need to pull 1500 observations out of the hat. Mind you , we are hoping to do twice as much as that in identifications tonight. But that is probably a pipedream. But dreams are the basis of inspiration, so let us get back to our identifications.
Take your pick, and add your favourite families or genera ...
• IDs needing refined to species level
• Species IDs needing confirmation for Research Grade
Remember nominations for observation of the challenge please!!
Only a few minutes to go and all has gone quiet.
Our final proportions are:
34,111 observations as
34.6% Casual
30.0% Needs ID
35.4% Research Grade
We can expect a lot more to go "Casual" as the final stages of ID slowly progress after the City Nature Challenge is over.
Our figures for last year 2019 are now (remember there is a year's more work on these):
54,195 observations as
15.2% Casual
14.3% Needs ID
58.3% Research Grade
I suspect that the much higher Needs ID results for this year are the much greater preponderance of garden goggos - many of which cannot be identified to species, and our lack of gardeners participating in the identification process.
A quick comparison of the other leading Cities, shows that Cape Town and Garden Route have an overwhelmingly higher proportion of "Casual" observations. Amongst the top 10 cities, it appears that we were the only cities under total lockdown - other cities were allowed to exercise and walk in their neighbourhoods. As a consequence, our gardens are the some total of what we could record (with the exception of a few rangers on patrol, who did collect some fun observations "out there").
What the 2020 City Nature Challenge has really brought home, is just how much life there is in our gardens: and the role that they play in conserving our biodiversity.
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